Hiking up the third largest volcano in the world, unprepared and clueless

After finding cheap flights online, I decided to spend my winter break immediately after Christmas at the Canary Island of Tenerife, my first time visiting. Unbeknownst to me, it is a very popular time to visit and it was almost impossible to find a rental car, a cheap one at least. I really wanted to explore the island but the buses can be very unpredictable and lots of specific locations on the island you just can't get to using public transport. I eventually found a scooter for rent, but wasn't able to pick one up until the following day. On the day I went to get it, annoyingly it was only at midday when it became available. My main goal was to go and hike up Pico del Teide, the highest peak in Spain and a dormant volcano. The summit is 3,715m above sea level and is a towering giant among anything nearby. There are two main routes up and also a cable car to within 200m of the summit. Here's the issue, you need a permit to go up the final 200m to summit, something which takes a little bit of time to sort out and I haven't sorted it. I know some people go without one anyway, but there are officials up there to check for permits and it would suck to get all the way up there and then not be able to hit the peak. So I devise a plan. I will hike up for sunset and then head torch it straight down since the cable car won't be running anymore. Also the temperature is just below freezing at the summit and I have no winter gear with me, only a hoody. It is important to not get up there too early and have to wait in the cold, so I try to estimate how long the ascent could take me by comparing with some of my typical ascents up Snowdon. I have never done a pure climb of this size before. The southern route from Cañada Blanca is 10km long with 1,600m of ascent. My guess is that the absolute fastest I could do the hike is 2 hours 40, but ideally I should go with 3 hours or so.

Pico del Teide from the start of the trail

After messing around with some things and getting fuel the day had been passing by and I finally park up my scooter at 15.30. Issue number 1 - It is exactly 2 hours 40 until sunset. I quickly grab some photos of the cool rock formations and take off. With me I have my phone with a GPS map showing the trail, 2L of water with electrolyte tabs, food, spare shirts and a hoody. The start of the trail has a lot of people around, but after getting away from the start there is nobody.

Extreme difficulty trail - 4 hours suggested toeach the lower crater still 60 r0m below the summit

I push off hard and am making great progress. In the first hour I cover over 4km and ascend 450m. Right on schedule, wohoooo! But there are more issues to consider than just the late start. I had almost broken my ankle when hiking back in August, so for the previous two months I have done next to no training. My only training has been some turbo sessions on the spin bike. Also, this is my first serious hike at altitude. Also the first time I am abroad doing a big solo hike. Now I have been at similar elevation before, Colombia last year where I experienced first hand how terrible altitude sickness can be when going straight from sea level to 3,000m up. I hoped that I will just get up and down the volcano before my body has time to protest, given that I wouldn't be staying up at 3,700m for long, I was about to find out. At about 2600m I start to feel that the elevation probably is having a bit of an effect on me. Here I make another fuck up. I miss the trail veering to the left and only realise a few hundred metres later. I could have backtracked, but that seems undesirable as I'd have to also descend and reascend a bit. In reality that would have been nothing, but since I am in a hurry and feeling some fatigue from the altitude I don't want to go back down. Looking at my map I thought I can just swing left whenever it gets easier and I'll be back on the trail. The scrambling is getting more serious with huge rocks, small rocks, many unstable underneath the feet and I'm having to go over or around them. The terrain on the left is about a 40% gradient and very fine loose gravel which I'd probably slide down if I attempt to traverse. So I have no choice but to carry on. No worries since the trail eventually hooks back to the right so carrying straight on should intercept it again. This route, however is way more strenuous than any trail would be and it is really kicking my ass, especially now combined with the altitude. I am slowing down, my vision seems a little less focused and it gets to a point where if I take large sips of water, due to the short period of not breathing normally it is making my head spin for a bit. The bigger the sip, the more I feel like passing out. I have to resort to taking smaller sips instead. There is still no simple way to cut back onto the trail. I have about thirty minutes left until sunset. The last person I have seen was two hours ago just after I started my hike. I am starting to feel like a bit of an idiot. So what you gonna do, definitely not scramble back down all this way, gotta keep going. After a bit more suffering it evens out a bit on the left. I reach 3,100m of elevation and am back on the trail again finally. This in itself feels like a victory already. I have covered 2km in the last hour taking my 'shortcut'. Time to take a comfort break, eat some flap jacks and change for the weather. It is probably about 5 degrees here and so far I've managed to get up in just shorts and a t-shirt. I change into my trackies and hoody and a dry shirt. So it comes down to this, carry on or go back. I have majorly missed my target, but even if I didn't lose the trail and started slightly sooner, the elevation difficulty would have stopped me from reaching the top in my expected time anyway. Any rational thought here is obviously saying to go back. It ain't happening, not today. You are so under prepared. This trip has been a bit of a failure. I'm just thinking here we go, another failure, my morale is down. There's a guy back at the hostel who I've shared my hiking plan with. He said there's no way I will make it up there and he will only believe I made it up there when I show him a photo from the summit. Another failure to go back to. I'm feeling quite dreadful and contemplating life here. Sun is about to go down in the next fifteen minutes. I have a head torch and there is a refuge house somewhere near the top. I don't know where but near the top somewhere. The cable cars which take all the rest of the folk up goes to 3,500 metres. That's 200m below the summit. Surely it's around there somewhere. There's only two trails anyway, can't be that hard to find. I could just take my time, no rush and get up there. Only 400 metres up from here. You need to book to get a bed beforehand but surely they'll just let me in when they see I'm gonna die otherwise. I could just crash on the floor next to the radiator or whatever.

Off-trail route which I came up

Couple of selfies later and I'm heading up since I'm stubborn AF. All this failure in my head told me nah, I can do better. Damn this trail is so much easier to walk on, why did I lose it in the first place? Of course it never really gets easier. Elevation is increasing and it's beating down on me more and more. Aside from a spinning head when I grab some water, every so often my body takes a few involuntary sideways steps. It's as if I'm drunk and I only manage to regain composure and stand up straight after slightly drifting to one side. I'm there thinking, my body is truly giving up on me. People do die from altitude sickness and I'm aware I know nothing about it. What's the next symptom? Shall I not worry until I start bleeding from my nose or ears? I keep on going. I'm taking breaks every twenty seconds. I feel like my speed is comparable to a baby crawling next to me, and then the baby would probably leave me behind. How do people climb Everest? How fit are they? Oh wait, they acclimatise. Yeah that's probably how they move with all their gear. I stumble left again and catch my ankle on a sharp rock. It makes a deep looking cut but it's not bleeding too bad. It's quite dark out by now and stars are shining bright above me so there's no need for my torch still. There's quite a bit of snow so I can see fine. The starlit sky is looking phenomenal and I decide to take a break and try do some astrophotography with my phone. I lean my phone against rocks and have a go at some long exposure shots of the sky. I spend quite a while with this and my feet and trail running shoes have been wet the entire time, but surprisingly I'm not getting cold. That's strange since I have poor circulation and often struggle with cold hands and feet. I'm just in awe of the photos I'm capturing and for a while there I'm just enjoying the silence and the moment. It almost makes me forget about the big mission I'm on here.

Starlit sky looking up towards the summit

After a while of standing there it's reality calling and I make a move again, before I start getting cold. I'm starting to think, what if I don't find this refuge? I will go to 3500m but what if there is no refuge there? After all this time I'm quite fixated on carrying on going, but there's no guarantee I will be fine. If I don't find the refuge I will have to hike back the five miles in the dark. Once I get lower than the snow line I will need my torch. I reach 3400m. Only 100m more right. The trail leads to the right and steadies out for a bit. It provides me with some motivation. Suddenly there's a torch light far away lighting up the side of the mountain. I'm think yes, it's the refuge just behind this mound. I yell out 'Oi' a few times and eventually a yell responds. Blood rushes to my numb toes and I'm getting excited. I yell again for 'Is that the refuge?' but no response. I carry on till I get around this mound but still nothing. Took another twenty minutes till I could see concrete. Fuck yes, I'm safe, I've made it. There's a huge structure where the cable cars come to with some smaller bungalow height concrete dwelling. It has windows but no light. I keep walking and reach the end of it - I don't think this is the refuge. Well that sucks. The trail splits in two here, I already know the left goes up to the summit for the final 200 metre ascent and the right fork must be the other trail. I don't know what the trail on the right brings - will I find the refuge if I carry on that way, will I die if I don't? I'm so knackered I don't know how much more my body can take. I've been going for almost five hours now and I doubt I have too much water left. If my body suddenly totally shuts down on me then there is nothing else to do. Mentally I will only push through so much but eventually the physical exhaustion becomes the limit. I turn my phone off airplane mode and to my surprise I have signal. Although what good is calling emergency. This is no UK size mountain with mountain rescue coming to get you. Most of them don't even speak English here. So here's the plan. I will go to the summit. I'm so close now I might as well achieve that. I won't get any nice photos but at least I know that I made it. Really feeling like a deluded Himalayan climber here with summit fever. I don't want to think what happens after but stick to one task at a time. I will try to figure out the location of the refuge during the final ascent and should I not find the refuge location once I get up there are two options - I can either go back down the same route or try sleep it out on the mountain. I don't really want to risk it with the second trail since it leads me a few miles away from my scooter once it reaches the bottom again and it's all unknown terrain in the dark. Also I'm so tired I'm worried my body will simply shut itself off if I descend back the way I came. Plus getting to the scooter isn't the finish, it's an hour ride on the scooter back from here and bloody cold the entire way. I'll get sick for sure. I'm thinking of rather going back down, going underneath the huge structure of the cable car and crashing on the flat concrete underneath that I saw when I went past earlier. I can change into my one pair of dry thin ankle socks, put on all of my still dry clothes which are a long sleeve base layer, another short sleeve and my hoody and stick my feet in my bag. It's - 1C according to the forecast now but my wet feet are still fine as I've been moving up all this time. So I take the left trail and very slowly inch myself towards the summit. I'm running on pure adrenaline. I'm 70 metres from the top and I decide to get on my phone, since should I get cold while browsing for the refuge then I will warm up with the last ascent again, hopefully. Once I'm up at the summit there's nothing to warm me up. I have signal but I'm unable to exactly locate the refuge. At this moment I wasn't aware it's called a refuge so I'm struggling to google for this place. I keep looking and looking until the only info I get from one page is the number 3200m. You've got to be kidding me, that's 500m below me. The refuge is probably on the other trail. And I still don't know whether the trail goes right past it or maybe there is some other branching path and I might miss it. Probably gonna have to try sleep on the concrete it seems. Just as I'm about to make some silly decisions suddenly I hear some voices in the air. I'm thinking I'm going bat shit crazy up here. But no, I keep hearing them. No way, there's people below at the cable car stop. They keep getting louder and closer so I just sit and wait. No rush. All of a sudden I start seeing some lights and realise the voices are in fact above me. Three guys are descending from the summit. All totally kitted out - jackets, hiking poles, head torches. They reach me and look a bit puzzled. I ask them where the accommodation is but they only speak Spanish and don't understand me. I push my non-existent Spanish to its limits with words like 'dormio' but still nothing. Eventually one of them mentions refugio and I feel like I've successfully made contact with aliens. One of the guys actually speaks some English and says to follow them, they'll take me there. We get down to the cable car and start descending down the second trail. It gets super icy and slippery but they say this only lasts for maybe one hundred metres. Would I have tried coming this way myself there's no way I would have carried on since I wouldn't have known how long this goes on and without the chains on the side it was impossible to move along this slight incline in my trail shoes. The trail is steep and technical all the way, even one of the guys takes a tumble. Needless to say I take at least five tumbles and have over thirty near miss falls skating like a figure skater. Finally I get to make use of my torch as well. After forty minutes of descending we make it to the refuge after 9pm. Am I happy to be here, Jesus Christ. Don't even know what my body is running on but the downhill was so much better than going up. We go in the refuge and once the Spanish only speaking receptionist realised I want to stay the night he wants me out of there and says I can't stay. I'm there thinking what the fuck, I'm gonna die out there. I might look alright but I'm far from it. I've got a banging headache and that's the least of my worries. The three hikers step in and argue with the receptionist for a while. I'm sure they tell him that they found this idiot in a hoody and no kit looking rather lost near the summit. Whatever they say it works, one of the hikers tells me that as one person hasn't turned up today due to bad weather there is one bed available but it I will need to give my passport and pay 25 Euros. I almost want to laugh, I am ready to be the guy's slave. Anything than going outside again. Here, take all my money. By pure chance my passport was in my bag. Who takes a passport up a mountain right? I needed it in the morning to pick up the scooter. I wonder if I didn't have it whether he would have still kicked me out. I pay up and spread out my wet clothes on the radiator and go straight to bed since there are no showers, nor hot water at the taps. My headache is killing me but I manage to fall asleep after a while. I set my alarm for half six so I can leave at seven and go back up for sunrise should I feel up for it. Thought one hour for ascending 500m is fine. I know my estimations have been shit but I will probably feeling better in the morning. I wake up just after six because it's too loud. Everybody has been moving around since five already. I eat the small bit of food I still have, there is none available at the refuge. Luckily my clothes and shoes have just about dried so I pack up and leave. I'm feeling so much better, even though I am already 3200m up. The night must have acclimatised me a bit. I reach the top about five minutes before sunrise, now that's the timing I want. I change into dry clothes and take my position next to everyone else who was at the refuge to see the longest shadow in the world to shoot across the ocean. I get some crazy good snaps and then take the cable car back down.

How about them apples

Volcanic fumes escaping the surface

It's a few miles to walk on the main road back to my scooter and I've never been so high on life as I am right now. Just can't stop smiling since I nearly died last night. I'm a lucky man. In hindsight, there's no way I would have slept on the cold concrete. I would have tried and gotten way too cold and would have had to make my way back down again. Luckily I don't need to wonder how that would have ended up.

Strava link for the ascent