Hey all, thanks for reading. Rolling Thoughts is a personal publication where I write about topics ranging from my career in Tech, to life in the Midwest, to personal stories and memoirs. Let me know what you think by liking and commenting below - your feedback is how I improve. And if you really enjoy reading this, help me reach new subscribers by sharing with a friend.
This piece is a bit longer than what I typically write, documenting my recent summit of Vulcan Fuego in Guatemala in a fair amount of detail. Feel free to skip through sections - the pictures tell most of the story, anyway.
Morning friends.
As you’re reading this, I’m on a 7:20am flight from Guatemala City to Dallas/Fort Worth1. I’ve spent the last week exploring a little slice of Central America. Emilie stayed back in Detroit to work, so I’ve found myself solo traveling for the first time in nearly five years.
I came to Guatemala wanting to summit a dormant volcano called Acatenango2. At ~4000m above sea level, it gives really amazing views of the surrounding mountains in the region. Specifically, it’s a vantage point for observing the nearby Vulcan Fuego (extremely active/pictured above). In 2018, I summited Cotopaxi in Ecuador, which is a full 1,900 meters taller than Acatenango. So with cockiness in my breast pocket, I rolled into the country thinking I’d dance my way up the mountain, snap a few pictures, and cruise back down effortlessly.
If that were the case, I wouldn’t have much content to write about this week. Read on.
Beginning
On Tuesday morning, I woke up3 in the traveler-heavy city Antigua and walked to a local tour agency. It was just before 8am. After a quick overview of the two-day trek, I piled into a van with our guide (a charismatic local university student named Rudy), and a couple of German schoolteachers that I’d be climbing with (Christoph and Alexa). We planned to follow the itinerary below:
Day 1
Begin trekking to base camp - 10:00am
Arrive at base camp and eat lunch - 2pm
Relax for the afternoon (just getting to base camp is super difficult and requires traversing a pretty steep incline)
Eat dinner and go to bed - 8pm
Day 2
Wake up to summit Acatenango - 4am
Arrive at the summit for sunrise, watch Vulcan Fuego blow plumes of lava into the air as the sun comes up - 6am
Return to base camp and eat breakfast - 8am
Descend mountain and load gear in van - 11am
Return to Antigua and blog about the experience - 1pm
Trekking to Base Camp
We left Antigua around 8:30 and drove for 90 minutes to a small farm town. Upon arrival, the van tossed aside passenger and cargo alike, and left us until the following day. I carried a few changes of clothes, four liters of water, a windbreaker, a walking stick, and a lot of snack food. The climbing community in Latin America leans very heavily into sugar and processed carbs, so picture off-brand Chips Ahoy and Doritos.
The hike to base camp was hard.
Terrain changes several times throughout the hike. At the beginning, we trekked through steep farmland, where local farmers sow and reap corn each season. Horses, trucks, and dirt bikes weren’t uncommon along the route. Our guide, Rudy, was chatty and spoke with near-fluency in English about his university studies, his girlfriend4, and life in Guatemala.
The farmland ended as we encountered more forested area. Hidden beneath the trees, we navigated slick wet mud, zig-zagging pathways, and the occasional staircase carved into the dirt.
And I cannot stress enough how steep this hike was at times.
With heavy packs, each step tested force output as much as it did endurance. Hiking up a steep incline is fun for a while, but only for a while. Enthusiasm fades as your feet blister and quads fatigue.
Arriving at Base Camp
After a tough few hours, we arrived at Acatenango’s base camp. Roughly 3600m above sea level, this is where the oxygen level in the air becomes noticeably different. Breathing gets a bit tougher, and slowing your heart rate requires more effort. Upon arrival, we sat down, took off our boots, and waited as our guide prepared lunch.
A bit later, as we ate burritos and sipped juice, Christoph asked Rudy a question.
Rudy, we’re close to Vulcan Fuego as well, correct? What would it cost us to trek there as well?
A few minutes later, we’d arranged to tweak our itinerary, and go straight to Vulcan Fuego that evening. Climbers typically don’t do that. They spend 1-2 nights at base camp first to better acclimate. But we, after hiking more than four hours and gaining nearly 2000m in elevation, decided to forego rest and hike to the summit of Vulcan Fuego that same evening.
After one meal and a 90 minute break.
Climbing Fuego
Getting to Fuego from Acatenango takes a bit of effort. To begin, you descend to the juncture between the two mountains. The terrain is full of small, loose volcanic rocks which slide beneath your feet. From the juncture, you scale the side of Fuego, which is a near-vertical 600m climb.
This was the most difficult part of the two-day trek. By its end, I was fully exhausted. But the climb leads to a perfectly flat ridge, just far enough from the mouth of the volcano to keep onlookers safe from its routine cannon-blasts.
From our vantage point, we waited as the sun began to set. Slowly, we realized the massive plumes of smoke weren’t smoke at all, but actual lava. It shone brighter and brighter as the sun went down.
Within a few minutes, the scene below was on full display. The change was abrupt and incredible.
Cliffhanger
Try as I might, I can’t seem to squeeze the rest of this story into a single piece. But the story doesn’t end here. More to come in time.
I woke up at 2:30 this morning so I could catch a 3am shuttle to the airport. The drive is only 45 minutes, but I was strongly cautioned to plan on government protests and other random traffic blockers to delay things.
“Nango” is a Mayan phrase meaning “the place of”, and “Acate” is Spanish for “bamboo”. The mountain is very appropriately covered in bamboo.
Nursing a slight hangover
“Tienes una novia, Rudy?” I asked at one point. “Si! Si!” he said with a grin. “Solo una?!” responded Christoph, which made the group laugh.