Did you know that Costa Rica, the peaceful democratic country with plentiful protected lands and rainforests with beaches on both oceans, has mountains higher than 10,000 feet?  I had no idea.  In fact, the highest tops out at 3819 meters, or 12,529 feet.  Well, if I was going to be in Costa Rica for three weeks, a trip to Chirripo was a must do.  Jorge, who had already hiked it ten years ago, and I drove through the central mountains, past Cerro de la Muerte, the mountain of DEATH (so named ’cause folks went up there and froze), down into the San Geraldo valley where we drove up dirt roads to the small village of San Geraldo de Rivas, a tiny little place where the Chirripo river comes crashing through.  There are only a few restaurants, hotels, and houses here, but it is a legit town even with a rural school.  We arrived at our rustic hotel with a very comfortable eating and relaxing area, and spartan accommodations.  The first thing we did was head down to the hot springs for a relaxing dip.

Chirripo is a carefully guarded national park.  No camping is allowed in the park.  Instead, you must sleep at the hut, which typically must be reserved months in advance.  Since we were visiting in the “winter”, aka the “rainy season”, there was no problem in reserving space.

The next morning called for a 5:00 AM departure in the hotel owner’s SUV up the road about 2km to the trailhead.  By 5:30, we, along with the only other two people staying at the hotel that night, a couple of young American college students, Matt and Kate, started hiking.  I was surprised by the elevation of this mountain, and, thankfully, I had done a tiny bit of homework a few days before and learned that the elevation gain from the trailhead to the hut is substantial – nearly 6,000 feet.  Beyond to the summit is just over 7,000 feet.  Well, this would be quite a stiff first hike of the year.

Much like the Cascades, the trail starts low in the forest and is humid.  Many parts of the trail are muddy, but are easily managed.  We had all started out together, but I decided to eventually pull ahead an hike at my own speed, which also afforded me the opportunity to try out the new video camera.  I waited for the group every two kilometers or so.  The total distance to the hut is approximately 14 km.  It’s another 5 km to the summit, and more to the lakes and beyond.  There’s a “hut”, which is huge and unused, at the halfway mark with potable water piped down from high above.  I waited here again and when we were all together, we headed up again.  This next section is the most consistently steep, finally reaching a high pass at 3200 feet where you begin descending again, just so you can go up a final steep section one more time!  I enjoyed waiting for the group at this nice vista into a large burn area that resembled Icicle Creek Valley in Leavenworth, Washington.  About thirty minutes later, we were all together.  This time, I hung in the back and slowly made my way to the hut.

We arrived quite late, almost 3pm, and checked in.  This hut wins out as the nicest hut in Central and South America that I’ve been to.  It’s clean and has nice facilities.  There’s even satellite internet, which just blew me away.  The rooms have two bunks each and we ended up rooming with our student friends.  Of course, Jorge snored, and the American guy, Matt, also snored.  There should be a victim’s group for people affected by snoring (Kris, do you know of any?  Haha).  Many people decided to get up at 2:45 – 3:00AM so that they could arrive at the summit by sunrise.  Eh, heck with that.  We preferred to sleep in until 5:00 and start then so that we could enjoy the views the entire way.

We set off in chilly weather, but soon enough the sun hit us square in the face.  In my opinion, the terrain becomes really interesting beyond the hut.  What makes Chirripo special is that it sits on a very high plateau covered in stunted green vegetation and lakes.  The “peaks” around are not much more than hills or bumps along this vast plain.  But, the regularity of the greenery and the quantity of lakes that dot the landscape make it different from other places I’ve been.  I was hiking much faster than Jorge and told him that I’d wait for him at the flat grassy spot known as the “Sabana de los Conejos” (Savannah of the Rabbits).  However, when I arrived, I noticed the big bulky clouds making their way up the valley.  I scribbled the news, “Vamos que vienen los nubes” in the mud and started up.  I made my way up the trail and when I arrived at one of the two passes that you visit en-route, I began passing all the people who had left for the summit.  By the time I arrived on the little knob, there were only three people left.  We chatted briefly and they headed down.  I had the next hour or so to myself on the summit.  It was really nice relaxing and watching the clouds wisp all around.  The top is a great view point, looking down on lakes all around and other smaller summits.  The summit was clear for about thirty minutes and then was cloudy off and on from then on.

I asked the time when Jorge arrived and he told me, “9:30″.  “That can’t be!”, I thought.  The only clock I had was on my iPod, which I always keep handy.  Sure enough, even though I had no reason to doubt him, it was only 9:30 in the morning.  I thought it was at least 1:00 PM.  Talking to Matt and Kate later, they also experienced the same sort of time warping.  The rangers did speak of Chirripo as a magnet of energy that attracted aliens…  With this much time, I decided that I’d keep going and visit the numerous lakes below.  Jorge said that he’d had enough and was heading back.  As is his nature, he warned me numerous times to stay on the trail because it’s easy to get lost in the clouds.

The trail became much smaller once I turned off the main trail and headed for yet another pass which would drop me into a remote bowl where around seven significant lakes were situated.  Parts of the trail were hard to make out.  I had ideas of visiting some other lakes that I’d seen from the summit, but that would most likely mean going off trail.  It wasn’t the fear of becoming lost that dissuaded me, but, on this section of the trail, the brush was more constrictive and the most common plant up here, a bush that grew to a sphere of about five feet, featured sharp foliage.  I was feeling kind of lazy anyway and didn’t feel like being pricked for about two miles, so I just hung around these lakes.

One of the areas was a flat bog with brilliant green grass.  Someone had used rocks to create some sort of alien signal in the middle of the bog.  There was also a “Ama a Dios” rock message – “Love God!”.  I went to the two largest lakes which were connected by a lazy stream.  Here, I found a large flat rock in the middle.  I made y way here and then lay down on my back and took a nap.  This was just awesome…until the rain woke me up.  It wasn’t much, but it least made me realize that I should get up and start  moving, slowly at least.  “Hmm, should I go visit another summit”, I thought.  I decided that I would leave this basin and see what the weather did.  It’s really impossible to tell.  Since it was early afternoon now, the clouds had taken over.  You could still see fine, but periodically everything would be socked in, and would clear moments later.  The rain got a little harder and I decided to continue on to the hut.  Good choice.  By the time I got to the Sabana de los Conejos, it opened up.  Many of the cliffs around me now had cascades appearing all over them.  Three kilometers later, I arrived back at the hut very wet.

I switched into my long underwear and dry socks, but I never seemed to really warm up until I went to bed.  We had scheduled to stay up here two nights, which was a good choice, since the driving rain continued into the late afternoon.  Jorge had made it back in time before the rain had started.  Matt and Kate had decided to visit the Crestones, a small granite rock formation high on the slopes opposite the hut, and had gotten drenched as well.  We put on as few of our slimy wet items from the day before as we could get away with, packed up, and headed down.

I marched fast down the mountain passing several porters (who charge $30 to carry 14 KG of items up to the hut).  It was barely 6:00 and they had obviously left early (2:00 AM) and were moving fast.  Man, that would be a tough job.  Much further below, I began encountering others on their way up the mountain.  It seemed to be a much bigger group going up than coming down.  I hiked the extra 2 KM down to the hotel and arrived around 10:15.  I heard some scurrying somewhere in the back and the patrona came out and greeted me.  “Is the kitchen open?”  “Yes, of course!”  So, I ordered the typical Costa Rican breakfast and savored it, waiting for the others.