Climbing Volcan Conception

Sunday May 25th Today I along with my guide and 4 people from Belgium and 2 Aussies climbed Volcan Conception up to the 1400 meter mark. The volcano is almost a perfect cone and is 1610 meters high with an almost vertical climb through the jungle up to the 100 meter mark. Then it is slippery volcanic rock which is mostly like loose gravel. The last 300 meters involved hanging onto rocks to keep from sliding back down. The volcano was active only 5 months ago so that added to the level of excitement and danger. We saw lots of howler monkeys on the way up through the jungle. At 1400 meters we wanted to continue but the clouds completely covered the top of the volcano and the guide said there were many crevices to fall in and since we could not see , we would have to go back down. That is when it got really scary. The descent was very slippery and everyone kept falling and then sliding for several feet before being able to catch onto a rock. The guide even caught one girl who started sliding and slid for almost 10 feet before he stopped here. Needless to say we went down very slowly. The climb was 9 hrs up and down and everyone was tired and bruised afterwards. I will post pictures hopefully tomorrow.