I normally consider myself a ‘Man of the Mountains’ having grown up literally at the foothills of the beautiful flatiron peaks in Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately after climbing the tallest volcano in the Coconu range of Southern Colombia I feel like I may have lost a little bit of that manliness. Volcano Purace resides at a massive 15,256 feet and took us over 5 hours to summit. Walking at a snails pace through the alien looking landscape of strange volcanic rocks and craters we did manage to reach the top of the beast, but were breathing harder the finals of a Fat Camp jumping jack competition when we arrived. As we began our descent exclaiming to each other that this was literally the most difficult physical challenge we have ever undertaken, a massive hail and rainstorm commenced. To our disgruntled bewilderment the already mud path we made our way up had quite literally turned into a river. Ill-equipped for cold weather and without even a waterproof jacket I waded through the freezing rain river for a teeth chattering 3 hour descent all the while knowing that if one of us slipped and twisted an ankle it could turn into an extremely dangerous situation. We managed to survive the adventure, but will be more hesitant with the next massive volcano that challenges us! Below is a video interview at the summit of the volcano with an exhausted Alexplorer…
I Like Going Places
The Adventures of Alex Vere Nicoll