Volcan Santo Tomas Climber's Log

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AnniinaH6C9trXd

AnniinaH6C9trXd - Oct 28, 2021 5:50 am Date Climbed: Sep 15, 2016

Climbed and got lost - September 2016  Sucess!

We (I and 3 friends without a guide) climbed Santo Tomas in September 2016. We found some old blog post with a sort of map online, that we printed and brought with us. We started at Fuentes Georginas and the locals were supportive that it is safe. We made it with no issues up to the root of the top, where we camped. The hill was very muddy but doable, even though it was September. There were a couple of crossroads and the path is not marked, but with the help of the map we navigated quite easily, and people had made signs with sticks to some paths that lead to nowhere (or to wrong direction).

We camped close to the top and started climbing up at 6 am, reaching the top close to 7 am. Did not figure out that had we continued a bit further, we would have reached a plateau with a better vision. It was mostly forested where we imagined it was the top.

We started descending but soon noticed the track wasn't visible anymore. We continued to a direction we imagined was the correct one, until we were totally lost and reached a steep cliff. We had come down from wrong side of the mountain. None of our phone had reception and we didn't have any offline maps either - even the poor paper map was at the tent. We started moving to direction we imagined was the correct. We had only ½ liter of water each and small snacks. The terrain is very difficult to move as there are lots of fallen trees and branches. We moved for one hour and started to shout for help. One of us had stayed at the base camp because she felt weak. This was our savior, as a group with a guide had arrived at the camp from the other direction and they realized that we must be lost. Soon my calls were answered and the man asked us to stay where we are. He came with a machete to free us from the jungle. We were less than 500 meters from the camp at this point.

Lessons learnt - always pay attention that you are on the right track, and if you are even a bit unsure, turn back to assure that you aren't lost. Now I have offline maps which I didn't know existed back then, so I could track my way back. This route isn't marked on any offline map I know. We would have eventually made it to the base camp within half an hour, but something much worse could have happened - we could have gotten lost without any equipment, we could have hurt ourselves or been bitten by snake...

It rained heavily as we came down and reached Fuentes Georginas around 4pm.

BLong

BLong - Sep 8, 2009 11:49 pm Date Climbed: Nov 18, 2007

Great climb  Sucess!

A great climb, especially when combined with Zunil. I have done them both from Aguas Georginas (see my topo map) on two occasions.

ChristianRodriguez

ChristianRodriguez - Oct 22, 2008 12:01 am Date Climbed: May 12, 2007

extra long trail  Sucess!

Amazing trip, nice villages, beautiful nature, great fisical challenge... we started at 3 am from Alaska "Las Antenas" and get Santo Tomas summit at 7 pm, last 4 hours under a huge rain.

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