Cascade Mountain - 2998metres above sea level. I climbed 2534metres - got to the first peak.

Climbed Cascade mountain today with a few people from the hostel. Met at 07:30 and took two cabs to the bottom of the mountain. We set off at 08:15.

Everyone had hiked before except me, so was a little apprehensive as to whether I would be able to hike up! As soon as we set off it was an upward climb from the start.

I found stopping for regular breaks helped, but couldn't stop for too long, as the others wanted to reach the peak in daylight.

After about three hours or so we started to clear the trees and hit the rocks! It was pretty hard, as there wasn't much of a clear path set out, so it was a bit of a scramble to climb the not so sturdy rocks! If anything though I found it easier to climb the rocks than to hike up from the bottom, as it was a continuous struggle! The air got noticably thinner too!

Me and one of the guys decided to try to make it to the first peak, as we were both stuggling, so we let the others go ahead.

It wasn't really until we got to the first peak that I stopped to view the scenery, as I was constantly looking down watching my footing as we were hiking up. We were so unbelievably high - 2534/2634 metres I was told.

I found it really hard coming back down too - harder than what I thought! And I don't actually know whether going up or coming back down was harder!

I was buzzing after coming back down from the mountain, even though I was pretty tired, I had such an amazing time and really pleased that I achieved something! It was really great and I had a great bunch of people to climb it with - this was definately a highlight of my trip so far!

Was such a challenge, but really amazing!