In our latest edition of Browndog Travels, Alexis Bradbury has written about his recent Mt Teide climb in Tenerife:
On a recent family holiday to Tenerife, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to hike up Mt Teide, the famous volcano that you can see from the ‘plane and which overshadows the whole island from its central standpoint.
At 3,718 metres tall (or 12,188 ft if you’re old school like me), Teide is the third tallest volcanic structure on Earth if you measure it from its ocean base, the highest point in Spain, and the highest point of any Atlantic island. It is classed as an active stratovolcano, with its most recent eruption occurring in late 1909.
Many people will have had a day trip to Teide National Park, and maybe even taken the cable car up to near the summit of the volcano, but my friend Bob and I wanted to have the whole experience of climbing it from bottom to top.
The preparation began with booking the relevant permits. Because it is a national park, and a fairly physical undertaking, the authorities limit the number of permits available to hike the mountain, and also have some fairly strict criteria on what you need to take with you so that you are prepared for whatever the altitude and weather conditions throw at you.
There are 200 permits issued per day to climb to the summit, so we were quick to apply on the day they were released for the week we were there.
Our plan was to leave our car near the bottom of the cable car, walk up to the start of the main path that climbs the mountain (the PNT 07 path), then follow that to the upper cable car station just below the summit, then climb the PNT 10 route to the actual summit, and then descend by cable car to our vehicle.
Setting off from our villa at sea level in la Caleta, we had around an hour’s drive up into the national park, and after climbing up lovely quiet roads through the forest we then entered the moonscape that typifies Teide itself.
After parking up we hiked up the road for a couple of kilometres before reaching the official start point of the trail. Around an hour into the hike, we arrived at the manned ranger station that marks the start of the steeper section of the climb, where our permits were checked. Asking him how busy it was today, the ranger told us that we were only the second pair to come through, as he had turned back the walkers we had passed coming the other way due to them not having the correct equipment.
The terrain is very rocky, the height gain is significant for a one-day hike, and the weather on any mountain is unpredictable, so the rangers quite rightly insist on hikers being well equipped with the correct footwear, plenty of water, spare clothing, plus emergency supplies. He took one look at our well stocked packs and hiking gear and said that he could see we had everything with us, so off we went on the main climb.
The air was noticeably thinner now, and that coupled with the steep gradients meant that progress was steady, and we needed some regular pauses for water and to get our breath back. For Bob, it was his first time climbing at altitude, so he also had to get used to that feeling of constant breathlessness and tired limbs that goes with less oxygen.
The scenery certainly helped take our minds off our struggles, and it is quite unlike anywhere else I have climbed before. It really does feel like you could be on the surface of Mars, with vast stretches of rocky terrain rolling out as far as the eye could see.
The steep section to the upper cable car station took us around three hours, and towards the top of this climb Bob was starting to wonder aloud if he could manage the summit section, such was the effect of the altitude. Our training weekend in the Lake District a couple of weeks before the trip couldn’t replicate that exhausted feeling that climbing at altitude brings with it.
However, after a bit of a rest and some better understanding of the scale of the remaining summit path, we set off for the top of the mountain. It has to be said that some of the walkers around us who had taken the cable car to this point looked a bit fresher than we did, but we persevered, and after around half an hour, we finally reached the summit, five hours after we’d set off from the car.
Warned by the rangers not to spend more than fifteen minutes at the top due to the sulphurous gas emitted from the vents around the summit, we took in the views and congratulated ourselves on a tough hike.
Now all that remained was descending to the cable car station, and seeing our many hours’ slog reduced to a 20-minute descent back to our car.
We realised we had almost exactly an hour to get back for the England v DR Congo match, and so it was with great fortune that two tired but happy climbers walked through the front door of our villa just in time to grab a well-earned cold beer and watch the match.
If you enjoy strenuous hikes and are okay with altitude, I’d heartily recommend Mt Teide as a fun-packed, challenging hike with some amazing views to reward your efforts.
