My experience of hiking mt teide at night
Pre hike
The organisation leading up to the hike is confusing and stressful. There is so much miss information about permits and what you need and don’t need.
We had the PNT 07 Montaña Blanca - La Rambleta and PNT 10 Telesforo Bravo. 07 was the first part and 10 was the summit hike.
After a good few hours of trying to work out what to do I had found the correct permits and we were ready to go.
Hike
We were staying in Costa Adeje and thought getting a taxi would be a good idea, we set off about 1am arrived a 2. It took us some time to find the actual start of Montana blanca as the taxi driver (uber) was lost however, he was kind enough to stick around and let us work out where to go. Later I found out that uber drivers now have a feature in which the meter still runs. So that extra 10 mins of confusion cost us an extra 40 euro🙃
Anyway, as soon as we started we were mesmerised, we had never seen such a clear sky. It took about 30 mins to walk 5 minutes as we were constantly trying to get the best photo of the sky ! (I won best photo). We met this first couple from Pamplona pacing up the hill and they asked if we had the correct equipment as they tried yesterday but got turned away, this became a theme. The next 40-60 minutes we walked past by 4-5 groups that had been turned away due to not having the correct equipment. Through my broken Spanish and putting all the different conversations together the main issue seemed to be not having foil safety blankets.
Luckily I had 3 but there were 4 of us, so we were anxious. After going past the last group of lads that had just been turned away due to lack of foil blankets, they reassured us that having 3 for 4 of us would be okay. However, it’s hard to be reassured by a group of lads wearing air max’s on mt teide. Nevertheless we continued.
We arrived at this car, two guards popped out and asked if we had permission. I said yes. They said equipment, I said yes and opened my bag. Upon a glance it looked like I had more foil blankets than I did so I was hoping we would be okay. However they were inspecting quite thoroughly. I tried saying there were dos en cada paquete, he was unsure. Then I started asking about how long they are up here and if it gets cold and just general chit chat, making them laugh. Next they asked for long trousers, another thing I didn’t bring however I was determined. I said si aquí and showed my thermal under armour top scrunched up and that sufficed. Then they looked at our permits and let us continue.
Now, whether our equipment sufficed, they got sick of turning people away and the bar was set pretty low with the air max group or my general chit chat. I’ll never know, but we got through and the journey continued and I’m grateful
The next section was when it started to get harder and you could feel the air was thinner. You are constantly in an incline but walking a zigzagging path which mentally could be quite tough. You feel like you are just at the ridge but the zigzagging is non stop. It was a constant battle of continuing slowly and focusing on your breath. I personally enjoyed this part because it felt like one big mediation. A mediation in which you stray away from your breath you enter a state of disarray and dizziness.
With the sunrise creeping and the peak nearing, a combination of sleep deprivation and altitude sickness created a concoction of delusions and delirium. However, we powered through and arrived at the cable car.
We arrived a bit later than we wanted too and from speaking to people at the top they said we might get fined if we get caught walking down without the correct permit Our summit permit (pnt10) was between 6-9am but we arrived about 8:45 so we waited to speak to the guards.
When they arrived we mentioned our situation and said that this will probably be the only cable car today so you can do the summit but you will probably have to walk down. Although disappointed, we didn’t fancy walking down again so we hopped on the cable car and decended.
Quick note, a lot of information online says you pay for descent only at the top with a qr code. This didn’t happen. We were brought down and paid at the kiosk at the bottom.
Post hike.
We had completed it (pretty much). It was a surreal experience that none of us had gone through before. We felt great. Well now time to go home.
Uber cost about 180 euro, there was ONE bus a day that went to mt teide which arrived at 4pm. So we had to make a choice, try for the uber, try hitchhiking or wait. Well we tried all optioned we finally got an uber excepted at 2pm and by that point we said we might aswell wait and save the money. Luckily there is a nice cafe at the bottom so we ended up getting a few bottles and drank the time away playing games.
In addition, the cable cars were running all morning and day so we actually could have done the summit but oh well !
We learnt that most people hire cars, we hired one a few days later to drive around the north and it’s such an easy, cheaper experience so if transport is an issue, do this !
Overall
The hike is not as hard as it’s said online. I’m the experienced hiker in the group so I’m biased however, my friends with little to no experience managed it. We even passed an overweight dude would was killing it !
The only issues would occur if you go too fast and you are not prepared. If you take your time, breath and have the right equipment (foil blankets) you will get there.
Im not sure if anyone will care to read this but I thought I’d write this account because one, it was such an amazing experience and it’s fun to relive it !
Two the information is conflicting and confusion so I hope it helps anyone and I’m happy to answer any questions about the planning