Cerro Chirripo Single Day

Frontier flight 86 from Denver DEN Friday Jan 17, 12:55 pm to San Jose SJO Saturday Jan 18 6:06 am.

  

Costa Rica is in the Central Time Zone - UTM -6.

We were picked up at the airport by Rohel Romero, owner of Hotel Uran.  Hotel Uran is a little over 100 meters from the trailhead in San Gerardo de Rivas.  We considered taking the bus and also looked into renting a vehicle.  But after considering our options we decided to pay for private transportation.

One of the factors is having to buy a permit for the mountain.  These have to be bought in person at the park office the day before you enter.  Space in the hut is limited.  Most of the spots are sold-out months in advance.  10 spaces are saved to be sold as daily walk-in tickets.  The office is open until 4:00 pm.  However, if people from the previous day bought for an extra night, that cuts into the 10 available.  So the earlier you get there the better.  What we found out after arriving, was you pretty much have to be there when the office opens at around 6:30 am.  People literally camp out overnight.

The first of many inspirational signs!

Having the altitude along with the kilometer posts was great for keeping track of our progress.  The signs gave us something to look forward to while hiking along by headlamp.

The uphill eases a bit approaching kilometer 4.  In the dark you might not notice the signs for the Cloudbridge Reserve on the left as you approach the park entrance.  Just inside the obvious Park Entrance Gate is the sign for kilometer 4.

After reaching the park entrance and kilometer 4 I felt like we now had a significant stretch of trail behind us.  But there was still lots to go!

The uphill continues for the next couple kilometers.  With the park entrance behind, the next major landmark to look forward to the is the hut.  Between kilometer 6 and the hut there is some up and down that is responsible for some of the cumulative elevation gain. 

The hut is a few hundred meters past kilometer 7.   I tried the door and found it locked.  The hut appeared to be vacant.  A roof extended over a deck that wrapped around 2 sides.  The water source was a sink outside on the deck.  Although the water is indicated as potable, we choose to SteriPEN it anyway.  This is the halfway point to Base Crestones.  

After the hut there is a low point and then the trail gets back to heading uphill.  Not far but separated from the hut is a pack animal water trough.

It started becoming daylight after Km 9.  We were able to get some views of the route ahead.  The trail is on a hill side, rising to the left.  Below on the right is the Rio Talari valley.  There is some up and down as the trail wraps around the hill sides. 

This bird followed us along the trail for several hundred meters.

Between 11 & 12 Km there is a high point with a bench.  Then the trail starts losing some elevation with some more up and down.  

The Km 12 sign has an elevation that is wrong.  You are a couple thousand feet higher than the 8,245’ indicated.

Between Km 12 & 13 there is a low point at a switch back with a watering trough.  The trough also has a water hose.  Knowing we could refill our water at Base Crestones we didn't get any here.  The trail then gets serious about some uphill again.  

Rio Talari is to the south of the trail most of the way to Base Crestones.

The Km 14 sign doesn't have an elevation but is above 11,000’.

After Km 14 the trail then levels out a bit before you are presented with a view of Base Crestones.  It’s a short stroll downhill to Base Crestones.  

The hut is a large complex of buildings on the left side of the path.  It was 8:30 am.  Not great time, but still in good shape for making the summit.

The ranger at Base Crestones was outside when we arrived.  After checking our permits he strongly suggested we were carrying too much stuff for going to the summit.  We did have too much.  We packed the clothes we would for an edge of summer Colorado fourteener.  I wore a pair of hiking pants, no long johns, but with an extra pair of fleece pants in my pack.  My insulating fleece jacket stayed in the pack after taking it off during the first kilometer.  There was never any thought of wearing the wind stopper fleece.  Nor did I need the winter hats, neck gator or mitten shells!  Although moisture is common on this mountain, we had a clear day up high.  I wore a baseball hat the entire time.  The light marmot shell probably would have been good if it had rained.  And we packed plastic ponchos in case there was downpour!

For water we were directed to a kitchen sink inside a dinning area.  Some cooks were preparing some meals for clients.  I was directed to the sink during a pause in the action.  Again we SteriPENed the water.   We left Base Crestones around 9:00 am.

The complexion of the hike changes above Base Crestones.  The jungle trees give way to foliage that lives with less moisture.  The summit is just 1500’ above Base Crestones with moderate elevation loss along the way.  The sign at Base Crestones indicates it is 5.1 Km to the summit and 2.3 Km to Valle de los Conejos.  

Above Base Crestones there were several of these lizards, ranging in color from green to brown.

It’s important to note there are multiple destinations above Base Crestones with constructed paths.  Whereas through the jungle the obvious main trail is the only possible route with just a few marked intersections, that is less true above Base Crestones.  The path is still easy to follow but not as wide as below Base Crestones.

In the first kilometer past Base Crestones is the signed intersection for Cerro Ventisqueros.  The main path for Chirripo continues straight.  

The next place of note for route finding is a climb up a  rocky area with some cairns.  On a clear day, navigation shouldn't be an issue.  But if it were foggy you would have to take care to spot the next cairn so you would hit the path on the other side.

Valle de los Conejos has a covered rest bench and a four way intersection.  We did not see any rabbits!  A sign says the remaining distance is 2800 meters.  Chirripo is to the left which is north.  There are so many high points surrounding Valle de los Conejos it wasn't until after this turn I realized which pass we were heading for. 

 At first the uphill is gentle but then steepens a bit.  There is a false pass on the way to the real pass.  

We could see Chirripo through the pass as we approached.  This pass is the saddle between Cerro Piramide on the right (east) and Cerro Nuevo on the left (west).

When we looked across to the summit from the saddle we knew that after 10 hours of hiking we were getting close.  There’s a little bit of elevation loss as the trail skirts the west side of Piramide on its way to the Paramide - Chirripo saddle.    

Looking back from the Piramide - Nuevo Pass.

At the Paramide - Chirripo saddle there is another intersection.  Off to the right is the trail for Valle de las Morrenas.  We of course were continuing straight up Chirripo.

Lago San Juan is below to the left (west) during the final push to the summit.

The trail steepens as it switchbacks up Chirripo.  There’s about 400’ gain from the saddle.  Higher up the trail has a bit of easy scrambling.  It would be YDS class 2, maybe considered 2+ in Colorado.  A person could find some third class moves if they wanted.  There’s a few spots where the trail braids.  If you’re not used to scrambling, just make it a point to take a good look and the easiest line should present itself.  If it is wet there are a few spots where you’ll want to be careful.

We could see the summit sign above as we got close.  The summit is not real big, but there’s room for a few parties at the same time.  After our 1:00 am start we summited at 11:30 am.  That’s not great time.  I read trip reports where people did it a few hours quicker.  But if you have to do the round trip in one day, you want to err on allowing more time.  We were fortunate with the weather.  For us it stayed clear up high.

We didn’t meet a lot of people on the trail.  We were passed by a young woman in the first kilometers.  Then some porters and pack animals passed us.  Around dawn we met a pack train coming down.  Then we caught a few heading up and passed some coming down as we approached Base Crestones.  Above Base Crestones there were a few more parties on the trail coming and going.  But there weren't the numbers we expected considering the size of Base Crestones and the difficulty in getting lodging there.  There are a lot trails up high for hikers to explore, and apparently it’s common to spend multiple nights at Crestones.  So that would mean less people on the Chirripo summit trail at any given time.

We were also pleasantly surprised the vast majority of hikers were Costa Rican. Usually when we go to a foreign mountain, there are other Americans, Europeans, Canadians and maybe some Japanese.   Most of the locals on the mountain will be working in various capacities.  As we were leaving San Juan we commented to our driver how many joggers we were seeing.  He told us how many Costa Ricans are getting into physical fitness.  Climbing Chirripo is like graduating.

We left the summit around noon and got back to Base Crestones around 2:00 pm.  We reloaded our packs and took on more water.  We left Base Crestones around 2:15 for the long return hike.  

These photogenic rocks, known as Crestones are across the valley from Base Crestones.

At several places along the trail, "Tree Cookies", made from tree trunks, helped with muddy spots.  Even without mud, they seemed to help by breaking up the cadence on the long return hike.

There were multiple places where the trail split. The hopelessly muddy pack animal side was separated from hiker side by a railing.  An extra post serves to keep the pack animals on the proper side.

As the afternoon wore on we could see the clouds below us starting to rise.  The sky was still clear above and we got back to the lower hut around 4:30 pm.  We decided we didn't need to take on more water.  

Buy now we were feeling the length of our day and some flying insects were becoming real aggravating.  I was timing ourselves between kilometer signs and starting to predict our arrival time back at the hotel.  One of our concerns was getting there in time for the restaurant to still be open.  We really wanted a burger, fries and a couple beers!

We continued on through the cloud of bugs and got to the 4 Km Park at dusk.  As the light was fading the fog was rising.  But as we descended into the fog the bugs became less.  Whether it was the fog if they settle down at night anyway we didn't know.  But they weren't there pre-dawn on the way up.