The hardest thing I’ve ever done (or the volcano I still have nightmares about)

In the ‘Achievements’ section of my CV it says “climbed Volcano Concepcion, Nicaragua, 2014”. The reason for this is two fold. Firstly, that thing they say about people looking at CVs for a minute max is true. So I kind of like that there’s this random nugget sitting there that most people won’t notice, yet is a heck of a conversation starter should they pick up on it.

Secondly, because it legitimately is one of the greatest achievements of my life.

In 2014, Kieran and I did four months of travel through Central America. We were in Nicaragua for three weeks and when we had had loosely plotted out what we were going to do we’d put ‘climb Concepcion’ on the to do list.

We literally had no idea what we were signing up for.

Concepcion is a 1600m active volcano situated in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (the only lake in the world with fresh water sharks — just to set the scene). The island itself is called Ometepe and while there are roads, the whole place exists on the volcanic rock from Concepcion. It’s very humid and made up of dense jungle bush. There are monkeys, spiders, snakes, the whole lot.

We were there in May, so not even their summer but we still were hitting 38–42 degree days.

You’re not allowed to climb Concepcion without a guide. For the first 500m or so of the climb, you’re navigating thick bushes however when you break out of this, it’s loose volcanic rock called scree all the way to the top. There’s no way you’d be able to navigate it without someone who knows their way. Plus, at that altitude the clouds roll through very quickly meaning visibility is non-existent at times and the temperature can drop really fast.

Naturally, our guide didn’t speak a pip of English. Seriously, he had “hello” and then we were over to theatrical interpretation on both sides.

We’d read somewhere online to take up a fair bit of water along with high energy food. We each had about 5 litres of water, a Powerade, a snickers bar, some bread rolls, nuts and a muffin each. It sounds excessive. But it wasn’t.

Our walk started around 8am and for the first 2 hours we were actually pretty good. There was about 45 minutes of flat jungle walking before we started to hit any incline. Owing to our start of the day energy the steepness and constant switch backs were manageable.

I got my first sense check at the two hour mark when there was a slight break in the trees giving a good vantage point of both up and down the volcano. I caught a glimpse of how high we’d climbed. Or rather, how not high we’d climbed. I was looking out at the fields at sea level and couldn’t compute how close they seemed. We felt like we’d been climbing for so long, surely we should be higher than we were? I remember then looking up and seeing what seemed like miles of bush ahead of us, and above it the wall of loose rock which now looked entirely vertical. If it had been a movie this would’ve been the cue for the foreboding music.

When we finally broke through the bush we stopped for a proper break. I’d already made it through about two litres of water at this point. We looked up to the summit of the volcano which was now engulfed in a combination of thick cloud and volcanic smoke. At this break station we’d caught up with a group of four German guys and their guide. They looked equally as stuffed and Kieran and I, which was reassuring on some level.

Over the next two hours of the climb, something really shifted in my attitude. We weren’t climbing upright by this stage, rather we were crawling. To be fair, there’s only so many times you can have the rocks beneath your feet slip out from under you before you start to go a little crazy.

Both Kieran and I were very fit, and while getting to the summit was physically gruelling, it was the mental aspect that was the most gruelling.

I started to list off all the things I would rather be doing than climbing this damn volcano. They included running an ultra marathon, giving birth to triplets, and swimming the English Channel — there and back.

At what I’ll call ‘peak crazy Frith’ I remember picking up a rock and slamming it down at my feet at the same time as doing some very loud swears. If that’s not throwing a tantrum, I don’t know what is.

Part of the trouble with getting to the summit was that we couldn’t see it. We were amid such thick cloud there was no way of knowing. I’ve seen photos of other people who’ve climbed Concepcion on clear days. On top of having an amazing view, I can’t help but wonder how much easier it would’ve been to have had the finish line in sight. All we had was a rocky wall disappearing up into the mist.

After four and a half hours we reached the summit. And I cried. It was an explosion of contradictory emotions. I was relieved we’d made it (having twenty minutes prior declared I was ready to quit), still angry we’d decided to do it in the first place, exhausted from the climb, overwhelmed at the thought of turning back and going down again, and completely shocked we’d actually done it. It was the greatest Snickers bar I’ve eaten in my whole life.

Nothing about going down was easy. In fact, it took us 5 hours to get back to the start; longer than getting to the summit. We both skidded every few metres, our quads were jelly and our knees didn’t seem to respond to their basic function of bending.

The flat stretch of 45 minutes at the end was almost the cruellest part. When we reached the bottom we’d psychologically finished, however, there was 3–4km until we actually got to the station where the bus picked us up from. I don’t think Kieran and I spoke to each other for the whole ride home, we were the truest sense of exhausted.

That night I googled blogs about Concepcion. I wanted to know it wasn’t just me who’d found the volcano confronting on so many different levels. And it was a rabbit hole of similar stories. I think if I had read them before I’d have thought these people were being dramatic, but with the feeling only just coming back into my toes, I couldn’t have been more empathetic.

One woman who’d run over ten marathons, done an iron man and had five children said it was the hardest thing she’s ever done both physically and mentally. I also read about a woman who’d been on a group hike when one of her party was bitten by a snake. Their guide quickly had to make a tourniquet from some rope and cut his foot off.

For the next few days Kieran and I walked around as if we were holding bowling balls between our legs. It took a while before we started to think climbing Concepcion was even a good idea and while nothing I’ve written probably sells the experience, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. If you’re planning a trip to Nicaragua and playing around with the idea of a volcano hike, do some research into Concepcion. It’s so hard but incredible. Easily one for the CV.