Even before going to this city we had looked into the possibilities for climbing mountains here. And upon arrival to Arequipa , Thursday 21st of april in the early morning light, we could see the two towering mountains guarding it. El Misti is a beautiful perfect cone with its peak covered in snow at 5825 meter (19100ft) above sea level. The other is the mountain of Chachani, with many pointy tops, the highest at 6095 meter (19997ft!) above sea level. There was little doubt that we were going to try this when we discovered that the price for summit attempts was respectively $60 and $80. After being in and trekking in the Colca Canyon during the easter weekend we felt acclimatized enough to book a tour for El Misti for Thursday 28th.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday here in the city of Arequipa, spending time with our volunteer friends from Pisco. Most of them left on Thursday night, and the rest on Wednesday night so we changed hostal to The Scandinavian, a family run hostel 2 blocks from Plaza de Armas. (Trivia: In every city in Peru there is a main plaza, and this is always called Plaza de Armas.) The family running The Scandinavian is really nice, and the husband is of Swedish descendent. We pay 15 soles ($5.5) each for a big bedroom. There is a kitchen and a terrace with a beautiful view of the city and the mountains. Highly recommended for backpackers on a budget in Arequipa.

We left some of our stuff at the hostal and left for El Misti at 9am Thursday morning. Included in the price of $60 was ice picks, crampons, tent, sleeping bag, two meals, clothes, etc. Everything we would need except lunches, snacks and water. Met our climbing team who was our Peruvian guide, Lars, Anna and Steve Young. Haven´t met any Norwegians so far in Peru, but of course, on an Andean mountain they show up. Lars and Anna was a Norwegian couple, Anna originally being from Arequipa. After 1,5 hour driving towards the foot of the mountain we started walking around 11am from 3400m. We managed to fit all the clothes and the equipment in and on our small backpacks of 46l and 50l after some struggling. Our pace was slow to don´t exert ourselves too much and in this way avoid problems with the altitude. After 4 hours we reached basecamp at 4600m. Put up our 2 man tent and chilled out in the beautiful weather and with a stunning view. You wouldn´t believe it, but it was so quiet on that mountain that we could hear our own contemplations. At 6pm the sun set, and beautiful colors appeared both in the sky and on the land. The peaks of the nearby volcano Picchu picchu turned amazing in the light of this setting sun. None of our pictures can justify the reality. Our guide had made us dinner; soup and pasta. Great meal cooked on a gas burner. We crawled into our tents at 7 pm to try to catch some sleep before the summit attempt.

With minimum amounts of sleep, our guide called us at 1.15am: "Breakfast in 15 minutes!" Got up, readied our backpacks, which now consisted on some snacks, climbing equipment and water, and ate breakfast: coca tea, bread with cheese and jam. We were on our way by 2am under a magnificent sky of stars and over the lit city of Arequipa, some 3000m below us. The view of the city can only be described as the same sight you get from an airplane, flying over a city on a clear night. We walked paced slowly and with breaks every hour. Some struggled more than others, but we with our chewed coca leaves under our lips were doing fine. At sunrise it was very cold, on well over 5000m it was minus 10 centigrades and we walked in the shade. When we passed 5500m we could really feel the altitude, both in our lungs and in our heads in form of headaches. Below us, over the city, we could see the mighty shadow of the mountain we were climbing: A big cone lay over the vast landscapes, an amazing view. At 7.30am we could see the summit close by, but on those mountains distances has a weird property of looking smaller than they actually are. Put on our crampons, left our backpacks and with our ice picks in our hands we started on the final leg. Ludvig struggled with a broken crampon but we ascended slowly, every now and then stopping to fix the cra(p)mpon. At 9 am we finally reach the summit at 5825 meters and the 360 degree view that met us there was literally breathtaking. Standing on the top is a great feeling of success and freedom, as long as you don´t think on the descent that is awaiting, because in reality we were only halfway. It was an amazingly clear morning and we could see snowcapped mountains all around us. Just on the other side of an immense valley was the Chachani, looking at and waiting for us.

After 20 minutes on the top, pictures taken and the success of our summit attempt grasped we started walking down. The downwalk was much harder than expected and a lack of food and water(lesson learnt) made it worse. Not cool to walk totally exhausted on a trail in the snow where if you trip and fall, you will have to count on your ice pick to slow down your descent down the steep ice slopes. Our guide showed us a part of the mountain that was only snow and sand, so we literally ran down the side of the volcano. We reached the base camp an hour before the others and relaxed there. Eirik was doing ok, but I was totally exhausted and dehydrated and did have a bad time waiting for the last part of the trip. It helped that the guide informed us that we could leave the tent, sleeping bag and climbing equipment behind for the next group coming up the same day. Walked down the last 1200m for 1.5 hours and upon reaching the car that were waiting for us at 2pm, they offered us a coke and a beer: brilliant! Eirik was exited and I felt a little better, but we were all relieved that we had finished this amazing trip. We had conquered El Misti.

Back at the city, we got some good lunch, water(!) and lay in bed eating chocolate, drinking coffee and reading. In the evening we went and ate a big kebab at the "El turku" restaurant. Amazing food and loads of it, so when we came to the hostel we were stuffed. We both crashed at 9pm and slept continuously like babies for 10 hours. Got up early and had a great morning on the terrace with porridge, coffee and good books. The view of the El Misti is now changed.