OK, now Adam gets the altitude. Our pace has slowed slightly, but we are both feeling strong. It’s been important to focus on guzzling as much water as we can throughout the day. We try to drink 3 liters before we finish our climb (or before 3 or 4 PM), then drink sparingly for the rest of the day so we don’t need to wake up every hour to go to the bathroom in the night. Annie’s not quite as good at drinking water as Adam.
We stopped for lunch today at Lava Tower at the highest elevation we’ve experienced so far. We could definitely feel it. It wasn’t terribly intense, but everything required just a little more energy. There were lots of ups and downs. Calvin and Ahi frequently told us “Pole, Pole,” meaning “Slowly, slowly.”
As we arrive, we see an enormous vertical wall on the opposite side of our camp. Annie doesn’t yet realize that we need to climb up it. Adam had already been briefed by Ahi that it would be a bit jarring to see the wall we’ll need to climb tomorrow. The Barranco Wall is known as the “Breakfast Wall” because your breakfast is gone by the time you reach the top. Calvin warned us not to get nervous about the wall, but we were still nervous. Somehow we got wifi here and Adam called the family to say that we were all doing great.
