Having a great desire to make a good trip and considering some options, I finally decided to visit the Chirripó National Park, without knowing that this would be an adventure that would mark me for life and that would make me come back again and again in search of that, that only in that place is found, and that is different for everyone.

I convinced my friend Elmer to take us in his sedan, not knowing that we would have some problems on the way later, my friend Rocio and my niece Oldi Susana, who is a Tourism graduate and would also be a unique experience for her.

After reviewing and reviewing the little information that was on the Internet about how to book I decided on the second of January to call, I possibly called more than 100 times until finally the park staff answered, definitely the entrance to the park was something very demanded and still is.

I was able to reserve for the first days of March, now with the reservation in hand, it was time to look for information about the correct preparation to climb this mountain, the right shoes, sleeping bags, the food to bring, the itinerary to follow, pff were a multitude of things to check. I made my list and shared the information with the other members of the adventure team, so that we were all properly prepared.

Canned food, energy bars, instant soups, sleeping bags, the necessary backpacks, flashlights (yes, flashlights and not headlamps, hahaa) gloves, layers, the right clothes, everything was planned and calculated, nothing could go wrong.

The expected day arrived, I had booked a nice date, from Thursday to Sunday, on Thursday we made the first mistake and was leaving late, about 6 AM, we met in Alajuela and from there we left to Perez Zeledon, being caught in the now common dam from San Pedro to Cartago where we lost a lot of time. And we started to get a little desperate because our itinerary was falling apart.

Arriving in Perez Zeledon we stopped at Maxi Pali, to buy some groceries that we needed, along with some gas cans for the portable cooker and a couple of wines for the road.

After endless kilometers of bad road, we finally arrived at the Chirripo National Park Office in San Gerardo de Rivas where the four of us registered our entry, presenting the bank deposit vouchers.
After an informative talk and advice from the manager, we continued on our way.

I had read that the road was suitable only for 4×4 , on the road, we constantly ran into 4×4 coming from the road that stopped a little as if saying “what the hell is this guy trying to do with that sedan”, everything was fine, the ballast road from Perez Zeledon to San Gerardo de Rivas was passable until we reached several slopes where we had to get off so that the car could climb, it was common to hear the bumps of the river rocks on the road where they hit the bottom of the sedan.
However, all went well, and the car was able to handle the road.

I had booked our stay the first day at the Hotel Urán, which is the closest to the entrance of the park, it is a very nice hotel and very cheap, 9000 colones per night, the cheapest in the area.We arrived at the hotel quite late, about 2 PM.

There we had already made the second mistake, which was to get to the Hotel Uran without having passed to leave our luggage in the office of the porters, so leaving the car at the hotel, we quickly unloaded bags, discarded what we would not climb and each one ready his bag full of non-essential things, and we started to walk to the office of the porters about 4 km, as the cart was not suitable to return by that rough road.

When we got to the porters, again we had to take some things out of the luggage because we did not have enough money to pay for everything to be taken up and well, finally we returned to the hotel,
finally we returned to the hotel.

At the hotel, we had to make an inventory of the food that we would take, at that time, we could cook at the Base Crestones shelter, so we were armed with a gas cooker, but again and not to carry so much weight, we sat at a table outside and began to discard the food that we would not take, thus committing our third mistake and a big one.

Food Distribution

We left food that was indispensable and that we would need later, as you will see, it was a disaster.

In the evening, we had dinner as recommended by the hotel, a good Italian pasta that would give us the necessary energy for the ascent.

We woke up late, at 3AM, I had done some research, and I knew we had to leave at 3AM, but we got up at 3AM and left a little after 4AM, another mistake, we had no idea what was waiting for us, the heavy and steep road that awaited us and all the time it would take us to climb, but it was a lot of fun.

The beginning. Our First Adventure in Cerro Chirripó

The first part of the journey is through pastures until you finally reach the entrance of the park itself, about 4 km, being the first time, in each KM we took the opportunity to take our photos that will remain for history.

Incredibly tired and with a lot of load, since we all carried a multitude of trinkets and even cans of food!! haha yes, to avoid paying more in the porters, we decided to carry them ourselves hahaha, the weight of each one is multiplied by 3 when you have to climb 15 kM!

Kilometer 5

Finally we arrived to a kind of hut at 7 km called Llano Bonito, there, it was already daylight, we sat down, ate and rested, filled our bottles with water and continued .

Tiredness was already starting to set in…

In the background, the Crestones could already be admired.

The landscape was changing, it became more arid, more desolate, we began to see old burned trunks of some fire happened some time ago, we realized how fragile is the forest in the Chirripó National Park and the care that we should have, it is essential that people who go there do not smoke, since a single spark can cause a disaster.
paramo on the way to chirripo

The dreaded slope of the repentant…

The trails became somewhat different now, more moorland, the trees were no longer tall, more pointed rocks everywhere and finally we saw the Refugio Base Crestones in the distance.

Finally we had arrived at our destination, although quite late, it was approximately 2 o’clock in the afternoon and there was no strength left for anything else, we hurried to check in with the park staff where they would indicate our room, we quickly left all the bags lying on the ground and we got ready to rest.

Our packs were already at the lodge, so we picked everything up and got ready to hang out at the lodge.

We could not climb the Crestones that day, what we managed to discover was part of the road that led to the Mirador de la Sabana de los Leones, but we had arrived very late and we were very tired, we only had to drink coffee, eat and sleep for the next day to try to make the most of it.

At dinner, around 7 PM we discovered that we had not brought enough food for the four of us, practically all the food we had brought was gone and there was hardly enough left for breakfast the next day.

Once we were ready to sleep, we began to feel the intense cold of the moor, each one with their respective sleeping bag but I had bought a used sleeping bag for snow!! haha in the middle of the night I had to take off my clothes because of the heat inside.

Saturday, we woke up late, at 3 AM and had breakfast what we could find in the kitchen of the hostel, all the tourists had already left for Cerro Chirripó and surroundings and we were the last ones left, so we could shamelessly look for some food, there were some things left by other tourists, so we ate what we could, a quick coffee and we left at full speed towards the top of Cerro Chirripó.

The road was long so I tried to hurry the pace chop! chop! poor Rocio, who suffered from insomnia could not close an eye, not even because of fatigue the night before and was practically cursing our existence all the way.
The flashlights were getting heavier and heavier with their three D batteries each, with every step you wanted to throw them into the river (who would think of carrying flashlights?) only Elmer was smart with a head lamp.

Tired and hungry we bordered the Talari river until we arrived, we took some photos of the frost that had fallen during the first hours, still at night, we arrived at the Valle de los Conejos, where of course, there was no lack of photos.

We continued, going up and up until on our left was the magnificent Lake Valley, and further on the horizon, we could already see the small lights of the tourists on the top of Chirripó, those who had come to see the sunrise on the summit, it was also our intention but the sunrise found us on the slopes of the peak.

Climbing Cerro Chirripó is almost like climbing, for those who have never done it, it is a unique experience, once up, we met other tourists and we set out to admire the beauty that surrounded us on all sides, and take lots and lots of pictures.

We made another mistake and that was to take too much time to rest, we practically started to descend the mountain at about 8 AM, there was not much time left and we decided to return to the Refugio Base Crestones to have lunch with the little we could find among the leftovers.

We had to rest again, got some sleep and got up at about 2 PM to hurriedly visit Los Crestones.

Climbing up to Los Crestones was not easy, but quite an experience, we reached a point on the trail where a gigantic rock appeared, and the trail became just rock.

Finally we arrived, the main rock called Aguja, but we call it the Indian face for its similarity, past the Indian face we ventured into the heart of the Crestones and explored each point, until we climbed to the highest part where the view is impressive.

We did not have much time, since a downpour fell on us and it was not water droplets but hail, we got scared and returned quickly to the refuge. We could not live an afternoon in the Crestones because of the rain, so our adventure was over.

For the first time, we did quite well, many mistakes prevented us from being able to visit more places and be in good conditions, but we had achieved our goal.

At night, we had to celebrate….

Before going to sleep, we had to put everything back in our backpacks and weigh it in the Roman that the park has for that purpose, since the porters would take our packages back to San Gerardo in the early morning, the same, once again, but this time and not wanting to pay more I decided to take the sleeping bag for snow on my back hahahaha … While Oldi Susana had left a jacket for the cold quite heavy and Rocio his sleeping bag, and Elmer left behind several cans of gas, they could not with the weight.

And finally the last mistake, on Sunday, we got up very late and left back to the Urán hotel at 7 AM, practically when there was no one left in the refuge.
Which we took advantage of to eat all the leftover food we could find 🙂 The weight of the bag during the whole day was very heavy.

The weight of the bag during the whole trip was inconsiderate and could break the Swiss Army salveque I was carrying, it made the straps come undone, after a while, I had to un-tie it from the bag and carry it in my hand, so for 7 kM, hehe I still have it.

Once at the hotel, we got into the sedan and went to the porters office to pick up our packages, and pay, what we had left of money for them, we returned home safe and sound, but we were eager for more, and the next year, we came back.

Mistakes made:

• Not carrying enough food.
• Carrying too much load.
• Getting up too late.

Learn from our mistakes to make your trip more pleasant and get the most out of all the money invested, which is quite a lot, in total we spent approximately between 100,000 and 150,000 colones each.