Cerro Leonera

"Oh, there's a river that winds on forever, I'm gonna see where it leads.  Oh, there's a mountain that no man has mounted, I'm gonna stand on the peak."
-- Lord Huron "Ends of the Earth"

During about 16 hours of hiking, a two day trip, peaking Cerro Leonera in the Andes mountains looming over Santiago from the west, I had plenty of time to contemplate:  What is it about the Andes that calls to me, invites me out of the congested city and my daily life in Santiago, to escape for a short while into nature?

Since I arrived to Santiago, I've tried to explore the Andes as much as possible, hiking and skiing, or at the very least appreciating the majestic mountains for the back-drop they provide the city.  However, it wasn't until we hiked Cerro Leonera, when I saw a plaque referring to "andinistas" (people who climb the Andes, there's even a word for that!) that the magnitude became more of a reality to me.  I turned to my friends and said something really insightful along the lines of, "Oh my gosh, we're actually in the Andes mountains, these aren't the foothills!"

Contemplating, or something...

Cerro Leonera was a challenge for sure, in part that's what compeled us.  Several friends and I have been planning a big hiking trip all year, and we even took a "training" trip, so that we could work our way up towards one of the higher peaks in the area.  When Dad came for a visit in August, he delivered plenty of useful gear, and I was ready to put the gear and the preparation to the test.

Our group included myself, two Fulbright friends, and a friend-of-a-friend traveling through Santiago that week and looking to explore Chile's natural beauty.  From our Cerro Provincia hike earlier this year, we already had nicknames for three of us -- Astrologer Adele, Camp Counselor Kyle and Old Man Clark -- and we naturally included Craig in the group as "Cranium Craig", based on an incident he had the day before with a rock to the head while rock-climbing.  Five stitches later, Cranium Craig was not going to let anything stop him from summiting a mountain with us.

Starting our climb from La Parva ski area.

We embarked on Sunday, hiking from La Parva ski area near Santiago, to our base camp.  We found a tiny little structure with not an extra square centimeter to spare once we all piled in, but at least it blocked the wind.  Our base was between Cerro La Parva and Cerro El Pintor, named "Pintor" or "Painter" for its incredible colors.  In fact, throughout the whole hike we saw many hills of a variety of colors, and rocks of many types, all evidence of Chile's rich mineral composition.

Our refugio for the night.

Camp Counselor Kyle boiled snow into water and prepared Ramen noodles for dinner, and we tried to sleep early, since we knew we would have an early start on Monday morning.  Apparently the others didn't sleep so well, perhaps due to altitude, but at least the wind didn't carry us away as we rested our bodies and our lungs.  I should mention, we started at La Parva at 3000 meters, and slept at the base camp at 4000 meters, acclimating for the summit of 5000 meters!

Resting at the base camp refugio.

After a hearty breakfast of oatmeal-peanut butter-chocolate, we embarked around 8 am.  We had packed up our base camp, but left most of our gear behind and hiked with smaller packs, mainly filled with water, food, cameras and clothing layers.

Santiago below, beginning to feel far away.

Along the way, we could see Santiago below, at first seeming somewhat close, and I felt grateful that we were embarking on a different kind of Monday-morning commute.  In some sense it was similar, because oxygen content was low, but at least we gasped for breath because of the altitude and not because of the smog.

We look like little dots, and I felt like one at this moment, recovering from a wrong turn.

To be honest, there were moments when I thought I would quit.  Especially when we realized we had taken an errant turn down-hill, and now needed to recover elevation.  I thought I was holding the guys back, I thought it just might take me forever to reach the top, if I could reach it at all.  Twenty steps, rest, twenty-one steps, rest.  I was still moving, and now Santiago was a distant landmark below to remind me how far we had come.

My feelings at the top, very satisfied.

To make a long (12 hour) story a bit shorter, we peaked Cerro Leonera, and returned to the car at La Parva, passing by the base camp and recovering our gear.  Each of us (perhaps Craig not included) hit our "wall" at a different point in the hike, on the way up or on the way down, so between the four of us we took turns to lead and to follow, to carry more weight or carry less, to motivate and to be motivated.

Peak photo!

The goal was always to keep on hiking.  Well, actually a few months ago the original goal had been to hike Cerro Plomo, which we realized was much more logistically challenging, requiring more time, and ice-climbing gear.  The more realistic goal was La leonera, in El Plomo's shadow but for us still a feat.  Along the way, I realized that a lot of times in life, even when the challenges change, the goal is still the same: keep on… hiking, working, writing, inquiring, training, pedaling.  Keep on moving forward, sometimes up and sometimes down, enjoying the views and the friendships along the way.

A few more fun images below, and a link to all of the photos from the trip (many of the photos are by Kyle).

Penitentes are fascinating, above 4000 m.