Hiking the highest

How did I end up hiking the highest mountain in Andorra?

As we were leaving from our apartment to do our second hike, mom told us to take a lot of clothes with us. From that I figured we'd climb high today. It's always cooler on top. So I wrapped myself under a top, sweatshirt, hoodie and scarf.

We drove to the side of the country that was close to the French boarder – again it's not too big of a country. We stopped to ask for advise on which rote to take and this guy behind the information desk told us to climb up 3 hours to this little base where we could either rest or keep climbing even to the highest mountain in the whole country. To my ear that sounded like a challenge and I immediatly told that yes I am going to do that. The info man looked at me, my short legs and very girly being and laughed a little. ”Oh I don't know about that. Let's see how tired you are once you reach the refuge” he said. But he didn't know that he'd sold the idea to me for good.

So we left for our climb. Through a tunnel, left after the curve and to the bridge that goes over the waterfall. We drank the water from this streaming river and kept walking uphill, through the woods. Pretty soon I realized how overdressed I was and started ripping off the layers. We passed bunch of horses coming down, walked over few mountain streams and few waterfalls. Then came the hill. And it went up. Quite straight. Me and my short legs got to work a lot to reach over every stone to be able to take every step. But I was so determined to make it all the way up that the idea itself kept me going. Often I had to slide down from big rocks or climb with all the four limbs. It was some heavy climbing. Going up the mountains. I was getting tired and stopped for 10 seconds after every few minutes to take few breaths. But I was climbing fast, right behind my dad who was leading. Mom and Luukas where a little behind because my brother wasn't feeling too well.

After maybe 1,5 hours we stopped for sunscreen and bananas. I had packed some blueberries and macarons to my bag in the morning so that I'd have something good to snack along the way. Again we notised how important it was to eat. In this point we had burned over 1000 kcalories and my body was craving for some energy to keep me on the narrow path.

As we were getting higher I started feeling my legs get heavier again from yesterdays walk. But I kept going. It was quite an extreme incline but we kept on a good speed. And soon we were at the resting area. We sat down on a bench with a view and ate some sausages, boiled eggs and other protein food (like macaroons). My parents in this point were about to head down after our snack and my brother was having headache from the thin air at 2000 meters. I on the other side was about to go up. My parents thought it would not be a good idea, it's not an easy climb. But I don't need easy, I need possible.

So we filled our water bottles and kept hiking towards the hill that would take me up to my climb. I was walking so fast that all the others were left behind. And that for me seemed to be a good thing, now no one could tell me not to climb. So I started going up the mountain. The narrow path went up zic zacing. Above I saw how my dad and brother tuner around to go back and my mom seemed to deside that she would go up some more. In this point the climb was still semi easy. But after maybe 20 minutes of climbing I had reached the point where there are no more trees nor grass. The path became rocky and bumpy. Then it curved up. I kept up my speed. I stopped to wave to my mom. Then I kept going. Zic zac up the mountain. Behind a corner. And soon I could not see my mom anymore. Nor the cottage we had rested our legs. I put the plugs to my ears and started to listen to music to keep my focus away from how tired I was becoming.

Soon the air became thinner. I'd never experienced anything like that. I don't have asthma, nut allergies or anything that could harm you breathing so not getting enough air to my lungs was kind of scary. I had to stop to breath and to get used to the altitude. For a moment I really thought that I would die but then I just started to breath slower and that made it easier. So for that I had to walk slower too. Which wasn't a bad idea, the path was so narrow that one misstep would take me down for hundreds of meters. The mountains don't really have anything where you can hold on if you wobble so I needed to focus on my every step. In one point I had to crawl over a high rock and hold on with all my strength because the dropdown was right there on my right side, just few inches away. That took my breath away for a moment.

Soon my mom called me that she wasn't gonna climb any higher and I should start coming down too. She asked if I had reached the lake at 2600 something meters and I hadn't. She told me to turn around at the lake and call her - and I promised to do so. But as we kept talking of should I come down or not I saw the lake. I realized I could keep walking for some more time, I had bought myself time ”until I would get to the lake”. So I climbed. The path disappeared. There was only some tiny flat stones that run from under my steps. It was hard to keep balance, the little stones just ran down the hill as I tried to walk up. But I got up, slowly, twice slower than 20 minutes ago. I was reaching 2700 meters and the air was getting so thing I had hard time climbing an breathing at the same time. But I was so determined to do it that I didn't let it stop me. And everyone who knows me knows that if I decide on something, I will go through with it.

And so was I gonna do now. After the stones ended I saw the very top of the mountain, the peak. Had maybe 100 meters left. I felt like screaming but didn't have enough air in my lungs for that and didn't want to create a landslide. And soon it occurred to me that the top was frozen. Snowy and icy. I didn't think it was a problem until I tried to go up almost a straight, icy side of the mountain. I was sliding down faster than going up. I couldn't hold on to anything and my Timberland boots couldn't hold on the icy surface. I would have needed ice spikes or snow shoes or both. My lungs hurt from pushing through. I realized I could not make it. I felt so bad. Like giving up. Like not being good enough. I just felt terrible as I started to walk/slide back the way I had come.

It occured to me that the flat stones where even harder to go down than up. I sat on my butt and started sliding down. I almost slipped a few times and fell all the way to the lake but managed to keep some balance. In this point my mom called me. ”Yes yes I just reached the lake, I'm coming down”. Which wasn't even a lie. Because I just reached the lake again. And continued down this decline.

I got to my mom after some time. And well I was pretty mad at myself for not being able to do what I had decided to do so that equaled that I was mad at her too, not talking for a long time. But as we were getting closer to where we started we had picked up a fun and nice conversation and I had almost forgotten how I failed to climb the last maybe 100 meters. In that point it didn't matter anymore. Hiking was fun again.

Passing the last waterfall we saw that the boys had driven the car there to pick us up. And I was so happy to sit down again. My feet hurt so bad. I had bruises in my toes and one of them was bleeding a little but at least I still had all ten that I had left with 8 hours before.

The hike for me ended up being probably somewhere around 23-25 kilometers, I got up to something like 2750-2780 meters and had burned over 3000 calories so yes, I was happy to eat a sausage, some chicken and fruits when we finally got back to the village where we stayed.

But all in all, now I can say that I have climbed the highest mountain in Andorra. Almost reached the top. Next time I know to pack a shovel (or ice spikes). 

Now to up date I will say that I am back home in Finland. We hiked one more time on Saturday. Sunday we spent shopping in an outlet in Spain and made our way back to Barca where I went to the beach with my mom and dad to suck in all the last vibes during my sunset swim before flying away to Helsinki. There my army green boyfriend waited for me at the airport to spend an evening together. Then I drove my sweetheart back to the military base for the week and watched him walk inside the gates as the sun slowly dropped down from the sky. AND BACK TO WORK TOMORROW MORNING! Hold your thumbs up that Friday would come faster.

Kisses,

Linnea