Forum Index > Trip Reports > PART 3 - Costa Rica Peakbagging - February 2017
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Gimpilator
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Gimpilator
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PostSat Feb 11, 2017 3:56 pm 
Have you seen Part 2? Greg and I were now on our own in a new country. For our first full day we were planning on two volcanoes, Poas and Barva. Poas is often visited by scores of tourists, but nobody goes to the true summit because it’s a jungle bushwhack. Barva is seldom visited as there is not much to see there. February 1 - Volcán Poás - 8871' We hiked the tourist trail to the crater lake overlook and then followed a loop trail deeper into the jungle. At the highest spot we plunged into the brush. Our friend Rob Woodall had just been here a few weeks ago and we were armed with his trip reports and GPS track logs. It was a good thing because the jungle was thick and conventional navigation tactics were not the best option. You could go right past the summit and never even notice it.
crater lake
crater lake
The vegetation was thick but manageable. In some places, everything was covered in a layer of moss. The worst part was occasional thickets of impenetrable bamboo. We did our best to circumnavigate those. We found the summit to be a flat area on the jungle crater rim with a few scattered mature trees.
Poas summit
Poas summit
big leaf
big leaf
We used Greg’s GPS to find our way back to the trail and civilization. On the way back to the car we noticed a large leaf, over 6 feet in diameter. We were both damp and dirty from all the moss.
Video Link February 1 - Volcán Barva “Cerro Chaman” - 9534' We hiked an old road to a trail junction and a sign marking the continental divide. The trail went to a lake which was shrouded in mist. The moisture was collecting on everything and the plants dripped, created rain. I noticed some mottled bromeliads growing on a tree. These are similar to the “air plants” you might have seen before that collect water without the use of roots.
continental divide
continental divide
mottled bromeliads, aka "air plants"
mottled bromeliads, aka "air plants"
From the lake it was only a half mile through the jungle to the summit. Again we were relying on Rob’s GPS track log as a sort of loose guide. We left the trail at a sign. The jungle vegetation was immediately thicker and more challenging than it had been on Poas. With all the moisture, our clothing slowly and steadily got more wet.
Greg informed me that we would have to cross a creek. Despite the thickness of rotten logs, bamboo thickets, and creeping vines, I found some faint trails. There were large fresh tracks that looked liked dinosaur tracks. WTF? I bent down to examine them closely. Three large toes and very heavy, may be even heavier than a human being. I guessed that maybe it was a tapir or an ant-eater, but I’m not an animal expert. For the time being, we called them “tapir trails” and tried to follow them when they went where we were going.
We came to the stream. It was a 20 foot drop of vertical mud. The bank on the far side looked impossible to climb. We went upstream along the top of the bank, bushwhacking. Sometimes we had to crawl on our bellies through the mud to get under tree roots or through messes of bamboo. It was too wet for shooting video and I took very few photos because I had to use my hands a lot.
Barva summit
Barva summit
Greg spotted a fallen log covered in moss and crossed it carefully. I followed. The jungle seemed to get thicker the closer we got to the summit. We were doing a lot of kneeling and crawling now. But we were getting closer. Without the tapir trails, it might have been impossible. A few more tight squeezes and then we found a sign marking the summit. I was wet and cold. It had taken us a long time to cover the half mile. I changed into my last dry layer. There were only a few hours of daylight left. We had to get out of the jungle.
We left the summit and went downhill. It was impossible to find the exact line we had come up. Back near the stream we came to the top of another mud wall. We followed the bank as best we could, but something rotten I was standing on collapsed and I fell several feet into a hole and bruised my back. We crawled under another massive ball of fallen tree roots and then spotted a good place to cross the creek.
Greg below me, climbing up mud and moss
Greg below me, climbing up mud and moss
Getting into the creek was no problem, but the far side was more difficult. We scrambled up steep mud, pulling on rotten moss covered sticks, some of which weren’t attached to anything. On the far side of the creek we had made only a little bit of progress when Greg told me to hold on for a minute. I could hear stress in his voice. He told me we were going back up towards the summit. What? Impossible! The GPS had to be wrong. It might be glitching out in the dense jungle... Unspoken thoughts were louder than the words we exchanged. This could be dire. We had to trust the GPS now to get us out of here. There was no other way. Daylight hours were becoming short. I thought about the poncho inside my daypack and how we could potentially use that to stay dry overnight. But it hadn’t come to that yet.
We worked our way back around to the creek and crossed it again further down. It just didn’t make any sense. It was so weird to put all your trust in a little machine like that. I was searching for the tapir trails. The best of them had been on the far side of the creek, away from the summit. We crawled through more bamboo and then I found a good little trail. Our progress sped up and Greg was happy. So was I. Things started to look familiar. We were making our way back to the lake and it was getting easier. We were drenched and muddy, but so excited to be getting back to the lake. Greg did a wonderful job of navigating and we emerged from the jungle right back at the sign, which was not even visible until we were right on top of it. We exchanged a knowing look. This peak with regular afternoon precip and cool temps has the potential to be a death trap. Not recommended! February 2 - Volcán Irazú - 11,260' This was mainly a drive up peak to break up the drive on the way to our next major hike. We didn’t spend much time up there because we were rushing to get to the permit office for Chirripo
crater
crater
summit
summit
February 3 - Cerro Chirripó - 12,530' Cerro Chirripo is wrapped so tightly in red tape, you might as well forget it. Fortunately for me, Greg had ironed out all the details. He’s a master of logisitics. We picked up one set of permits and drove to another office for another set of permits. Then we were ready for our hike the next day. We started a few hours before dawn. With only a few days in Costa Rica, we had agreed to summit the first day, camp in the hut, and descend on the second day and drive back to San Jose. If we managed to bag all our add-on peaks, this would amount to 9k gain day. Joy!
Crestones visible above
Crestones visible above
The hike up to the hut was pleasant and uneventful. We stopped there for a snack and then proceeded to the upper broad valley south of the main peaks. We hiked over glacier scraped slabs and I noted that every valley was U shaped. This range had clearly supported at least 3 main glaciers during the last ice age, but perhaps more.
Terbi
Terbi
Piramide
Piramide
Chirripo
Chirripo
We came to a pass and could see the main peak in front of us as well as a nice lake down to the left. The last section below the top is the steepest, bordering on class 3. We were very very lucky to have totally clear summit views. This is a cloudy area and many people see nothing or get rained on all day long. We spent nearly an hour on the summit. February 3 - Cerro Piramide - 12,490' After the main peak we returned to the last saddle and ascended off-trail to climb the second highest peak in Costa Rica. We ascended the north ridge and then scrambled down the west ridge. We heard someone yell while we were on the summit but assumed it was just people happy to make it up the main peak.
Piramide summit
Piramide summit
Terbi across the valley
Terbi across the valley
February 3 - Cerro Terbi - 12,352' We returned to the large valley above the hut and then a guy came up to us visibly very pissed off. I had no idea what he was saying in Spanish, but Greg spent several minutes talking to him and calming him down. He asked to see our permits. Apparently you’re not supposed to leave the trail and he had seen us on top of Cerro Pirimide and he was the one that yelled at us. To make matters worse, he thought we were trying to evade him. Once he realized that was not the case he settled down and let us go on our way.
Crestones
Crestones
the lower Crestones
the lower Crestones
The trail up to Terbi is more interesting and we really enjoyed this last peak. There are some interesting rock formations on the southwest side call the Crestones. I explored the highest one looking for a scramble route. I made a few class 4 moves and got near the top but turned around on 5th class slab.
white-nosed coati
white-nosed coati
Near the bottom the mountain we were watching for Quetzal birds, but we didn't see any. We did however spot some ground fowl and I saw one white-nosed coati eating fruit. February 4 - Cerro Buenavista - 11,453' One last peaklet during the drive back to the airport. Buena Vista is the highest bump on Cerro de la Muerte and is mostly a drive up. Later that night when we arrived at our hotel we discovered another flat tire, the second one of the day and 3rd of the trip overall.
Acknowledgements I’d like to thank Greg and John for being supportive when I received some disturbing news on this trip. You guys are awesome! Thanks for everything you put into this trip. I’d also like to thank Rob Woodall for his excellent route beta. We used it a lot on multiple peaks.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSat Feb 11, 2017 5:23 pm 
Nice coati! I think those are semi-domesticated in some places. Related to raccoons and ring tailed cats I think?

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raising3hikers
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raising3hikers
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PostSat Feb 11, 2017 6:48 pm 
you sure get around a bunch! up.gif

Eric Eames
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puzzlr
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
PostSat Feb 11, 2017 11:28 pm 
That mud scramble sounds epic! Congrats on pushing through, literally. Again, it's fun to see photos of Chirripo and the surrounding area. I really enjoyed my hike there in 2010 and I agree about the permits -- I wasn't sure I could go on the hike until I had that piece of paper in my hand the morning of the hike. I spent two nights at the hut so I had a full day to climb Chirripo and Terbi and scramble around on the Crestones. I found a way to get onto most of the Crestones high points, and I might have, ahem, taken some chances I shouldn't have :-).
From highest Crestones pinnacle
From highest Crestones pinnacle
Los Crestones from the front yard of the hut. I was able to safely solo scramble to 4 of the 6 high points visible.
Los Crestones from the front yard of the hut. I was able to safely solo scramble to 4 of the 6 high points visible.
Crestones isolated pinnacle
Crestones isolated pinnacle
The 11th essential
The 11th essential

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Just_Some_Hiker
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PostTue Feb 14, 2017 9:43 pm 
I wish I had the time and resources to travel as much as you do. Not to mention write half the content on Summitpost.

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Gimpilator
infinity/21M



Joined: 12 Oct 2006
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Location: Edmonds, WA
Gimpilator
infinity/21M
PostTue Apr 18, 2017 11:39 am 
olderthanIusedtobe wrote:
Nice coati! I think those are semi-domesticated in some places. Related to raccoons and ring tailed cats I think?
It totally reminded me of a raccoon. I first heard mention of this animal in a ridiculous book by Tom Robbins called Villa Incognito. I never thought I would see one in person.
puzzlr wrote:
I found a way to get onto most of the Crestones high points, and I might have, ahem, taken some chances I shouldn't have :-).
Thanks for sharing the photos. Absolutely right about the 11th essential. I'm impressed you climbed many of the Crestones. That's a lot of exposure and what appears to be slab climbing.
Just_Some_Hiker wrote:
I wish I had the time and resources to travel as much as you do. Not to mention write half the content on Summitpost.
I've made certain sacrifices in my life which have allowed me to get out a lot. I don't have a lot going on outside of the mountains and I like it that way. But people might be surprised if they had a glimpse of my lifestyle.

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