Robert Assarian and me tried the normal route in just one day... long hiking more that 12 hours in a beautiful environment. my second time in this mountain.
It was a nice climb and was challenging enough to be rather exciting. Kessler (six years old) and I summitted on Christmas Day on day 2 of a 3 day climb (including two other summits). Kimberly (wife) and Shaylee (four years old) didn“t make the final ascent of the steep headwall to the cloud-forested summit area, but Kessler and I made the summit and joined back with his mom and sister late afternoon and we had a nice Christmas celebration of sorts while camping in the rainforest.
We saw a monkey, some owls and many waterfalls. The kids had a very nice time camping in the rain forest. We also sang lots of Christmas songs and read Christmas stories.
I climbed this peak during a time when I was attempting to summit all of the Central American high points. Celaque is a beautiful climb, the cloud forest is amazing. It is unfortunate that there are no views from the top due to the thick forest cover.