Ascent of Volcán Santo Tomás on 2018-12-02| Date: | Sunday, December 2, 2018 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Peak: | Volcán Santo Tomás | | Location: | Guatemala | | Elevation: | 11499 ft / 3504 m |
Ascent Trip ReportNot a commonly trekker volcano. The route is quite long (6 hours up, though our group took many breaks, and 3.5-4 down) but much of it is a very gradual slope.
We went with a guide, but if we had gone solo we wouldn’t know that after reaching the peak we should keep going down a bit to reach an exposed area (with a small cross installed) where the view was amazing and there is plenty of room to sit and eat lunch. There were also areas where the trail is extremely hard to find and it felt like we were wading in tufts of y’all grass, so I’m really glad we went with a guide. That and there were a few forks in the trail where it wasn’t obvious which way to go.
Much of the trail follows the santo Tomas ridgeline, so you can see a great view of the chain of volcanos on either side at many miradors along the way
It’s notable that we started from a road that wasn’t Fuentes Georginas. The guide said if we had started at Fuentes it would have been a more strenuous climb to join the trail, whereas we went a longer but flatter route until the two trails met up (relatively early on)
Not that strenuous of a hike given the low slope most of the way, and 10/10 views. We even saw both Santiaguito and Fuego erupting from above the cloud line while we were at the summit.
Left Parque Central in a truck at 4am and got back there around 4pm, but we passed a large group that had camped there overnight too. The stars were gorgeous at night.
5 stars! |
| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 3699 ft / 1127 m | | Ascent Statistics | | Gain on way in: | 3699 ft / 1127 m | | Start Trailhead: | 7800 ft / 2377 m | | Descent Statistics |
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