Summit – 3,715m.a.s.l. (12,188ft)

Climbing Season – March-September

Time of year climbed – May

Duration – 6-7 hours

When it came to packing for the trip to Tenerife, taking hiking boots and a down jacket just didn’t quite feel right, espicially when packing them came at the cost of taking my sliders, due to the fact I was only travelling with hand luggage and limited on space.

But it was so right, because situated on the beautiful Canary Island of Tenerife, lies Mount Teide, the highest mountain on Spanish soil. It’s almost rude to go to Tenerife and not visit Teide’s summit. Stunning views and and an incredible sunrise await atop the stratovolcano following a challenging climb.

The Options For Climbing

There are several options for climbing Mount Teide.

For those of you looking for less of challenge and just wanting to see the views, a cable car goes up to 3,555m. From there it’s a 40 minute walk to the summit. There are many operators running tours to do this.

For the full climb, this starts around the cable car’s lower station and involves ascending 1400m to the summit. There are two key things to consider with the full climb, the first one being do you want to climb for sunrise or during the day?

Both have pros and cons. If you climb for sunrise, there’ll be less people (you’ll summit before the cable car opens) and obviously you’ll get to see a beautiful sunrise. The drawbacks are, it’s very cold and can be zero degress celsius and below. This does mean you won’t require as much water though which lightens the load a little while climbing. As you’ll be trekking through the night, you also won’t see much for 95% of the climb until it starts to lighten up. However, Tenerife is well known as one of the best star-gazing destinations in the world, and if you’re going up on a clear night, your views of the stars will more than compensate for this.

If you climb during the day you’ll have amazing views of the mountain and surrounding area the whole way up. No need to pack as many layers to bring with you for the climb either, freeing up space in your luggage. However you’ll have to contend with the heat instead, and carry a lot more water. You also won’t get the sunrise, or the stars, and the summit will be much much busier.

Personally I would recommend the sunrise climb.

The next decision is to whether to use a guide or go on your own. If you go on your own, you’ll probably need to rent a car to get to the trail start if you haven’t already on your Tenerife trip, or you could get a taxi, but depending on where you’re staying on the island that could get very expensive and it could be difficult to get one for your return. If you go with a guide then you can get pick-up and drop off included.

The trail is fairly straighforward and easy to follow, but if you are going at night on your own to do the sunrise climb there’s always a chance you could get off track. Personally I would recommend using a guide, just for the conveiniance. You’ll likely be in a group as well and it’s always good to meet like minded people.

Getting Going

We arrived at the car park at the start of the trail by 1:15am and after a quick gear check, off we set at 1:30am. The goal, get to the summit for sunrise at 7:15am. 1,400m up, cable car back down.

I had half thought about chancing it and not bringing my light down jacket for the trek, but man I’m glad I did. It was 3 degrees and the temperature slowly declined further and we got higher and higher on the mountains. To think I had been sat on a beach in 26 degrees just 8 hours earlier…

Despite the cold temps, the weather was ideal. No wind and perfect visibility. The clear night sky putting on an incredible display of stars. Each stop it was torches off and eye’s up.

Climbing Teide really is a game of two halves. The trek is about 10km in total, with the first 5km and the second 5km being very, very different.

The first 5km are comfortable and relatively flat, ascending just 400m. We hit the 5km mark in under 1 and a half hours, with minimal breaks. After that is when the real challenge of Teide begins.

Things start to get steep with 1,000 m of ascent to cover in just under 5km.

The Second Half

Our guide set an excellent rhythm for the climb. For every 300m we walked we would then stop for a 3-5 minute break. This kept everyone going, as the air got thinner and thinner, and legs began to tire more and more, the next stop was never too far away. The momentum up the mountain felt continuous.

At around 3,250m there is a mountain refuge. Unfortunately the refuge has been closed for around 4 years, but there is an emergency room with a few bunk beds always open and lucky for us it wasn’t in use when we arrived.

This is where we took our longest break of the whole climb, resting here for 30 mins whilst we enjoyed some hot drinks and snacks (…and maybe a bit of lie down).

One of the big challenges of a sunrise climb on Teide is the lack of sleep. I was picked up from my hotel at 11:40pm without having managed a second of sleep. The sight of a free bed at 4:30 in the morning at the mountain refuge was both a glorious one and a cruel one. Had I have gone solo on this climb I’m almost certain I would’ve been too tempted to just sleep for a few hours and bin off getting to the summit for sunrise. One more benefit of having a guide I guess.

The Summit Push

Just after 5am we set off on our final push to the summit.

This time the rhythm was 200m then break. Going from sea level to 3,500m plus in the space of 5-6 hours is tough and the high altitude’s thin air begins to make it’s presence more and more known (… or less I suppose). Everyone was slowing a bit as we trudged on through the night.

The next, and final, milestone on the climb before reaching the summit is reaching the cable car upper station at 3,555m.

At this point I began to get a whiff of sewage, which only got stronger and stronger towards the summit. My stomach was a bit queasy from the altitude and the smell was doing me no favours. I couldn’t believe it. Were there toilets at the cable car station with leaking waste pipes? Was it others climbers getting the squits and relieving themselves left right and centre on the summit trail? Was this assault on my senses the work of one sole afflicted climber? My mind boggled.

I continued on through the smell, before my keen, retriever like, sense of smell began to detect notes of eggyness. The sun was on it’s way and the sky had lightened. As I looked around i noticed fumeroles all around me. The smell was sulphur from the volcano.

Volcano farts, not human diarrhea.

All of a sudden the smell didn’t seem as bad.

And before long we finally arrived on the summit, just in time for the sunrise. And what a sight it was. On one side a spectacular and beautiful sunrise. To the other, Teide’s shadow cast long, off into the distance.

The Way Down

After spending around an hour on Teide’s summit, it was time to descend.

Instead of a 4 hour walk back down the mountain though, it was just a 15 minute one to the cable car station! Happy days. We waited around half an hour for the cable car to open at 9am and then headed down on the first car, just as one came up with the first tourists packed in like sardines.

Then it was back in the car and back to civilisation, but not before some last views of the mountain. Having climbed through the night we hadn’t really seen the mountain as we went up it.