Pieter Both – Hiking / Climbing

824m. Pieter Both, with its mythical head in equilibrium on its shoulder is the highest yet one of the most difficult mountains of the island. We start at 0700 at la Laura village at the foot of the peak. We will equip ourselves with helmets, harnesses and ropes. You have rightly guessed! This is not something for the weak hearted…

 You will be given a small briefing on lightning hazards and emergency response. We will start at 0730 and hike up a small steep trail that will take us directly to a vertical dihedral. This is where serious business starts. An instructor will scramble up and place a safety rope for the group. We will in turn connect to the rope and progress upwards. The rope is just a safety.  We will hike up a 55 degrees plain to reach the shoulder of the mountain where we will gear up for a ridge traverse that will take us to the base of the head. There used to be iron ladders cemented to the rock. These are now rusted and unsafe. We will traverse the ridge using mountaineering techniques. Once at the base of the head, you will have to use the remnants of the iron ladders to hoist your body up to the summit. Of course throughout the day you will be roped up safely. The scramble up to the peak would have taken us 3- 4 hours. No need to say that the view from the peak is breath taking and rewarding!

Summiting from the shoulder can be done only if there are no passing clouds.

We will hike down though the same route, in approximately 3 hours.

Level : Difficult