Elevation Gain: 1,168m
Distance: 14.4km
Total Time: 9 hours 32 minutes
Date: February 1st, 2024
Pico Viatores is the taller neighbor to El Toro but is perhaps overlooked. That might be because it’s tucked in behind El Toro with out much climbing interest as of yet. However, a standard hiking trail runs all the way to the top and no technical skills are required to reach the summit. As it’s only a short hop from El Toro, Elise, Lina and myself decided to add it on to our trip up El Toro and make a full morning out of it.
From the junction for El Toro we had only around 800m of walking through a well marked path before reaching the upper slopes. The path along the way had been encroached with numerous sharp plant species, but otherwise was straightforward. In the last 100m to the summit the trail steepened and began to weave through limestone ledges. We scrambled up these ledges and then finally stood on the summit ridge. Beyond that it was just a short walk to the summit proper.
We paused only to cool down, as we had limited water left and then pressed on back to the junction. The first 400m were a bit tedious, but after the grade eased off we cruised all the way back to the road. We made on pit stop for some ice cold drinks and then made our way back to the hostel.
