It’s now Feb 25 and our first ‘pre-committed’ day. Dan booked us for a guided trek to the peak of Teide – the third largest volcano on the planet. Teide is only 8% above ground – 92% is below sea level – although it’s peak is only 3,700 m (12,200 ft), it is taller than Mt. Everest when measured from the base. It was an amazing day! In the end, we had over prepared for the cold. It was sunny and even at full altitude we barely needed our hat and could have avoided gloves totally. It was perhaps 10C with full sun and no wind – so actually quite pleasant.
Our guide Jonathan was a glacial geomorphologist and very passionate and knowledgeable about Teide. In addition to all the info shared on the tour, afterwards Suz the geologist, me the wanna be geographer, and Jonathan, had a long geeky chat. He would love to visit Mt. St. Helen’s s it is a ‘living’ small scale Teide in it’s behaviour. When MSH erupted in 1980 it provided great insight into the formation of Teide. The current physical characteristics of Teide are almost identical to those of post eruption MSH – although Teide is 10 times the size! They learned that the eruption starts with a massive collapse of the cone (slide to one side), then the release of magma in a huge explosion, followed by the flow and fallout. All of this happens in a couple of minutes. Teide would have put up an ash cloud covering the entire planet and changing the climate for years.
I had no previous knowledge of the uniqueness of these volcanic island formations. The deep oceanic trench is just one part of their source. The collision of the European and African plates is another piece – but there is even more going on than those two factors can explain. It is much more complex than the Hawaiian islands or New Zealand, or Icelandic volcanoes. They still have much to learn.
The different colours of rocks and lava flows were a surprise to me. Apparently the longer the gasses sit in the magma, the more variety of rocks are created beyond basalt. You get the yellow rocks from sulphur, orange from iron, and much more – check out the photos.
As for the actual trek…. We started by taking the cable car most of the way up – to hike the whole thing requires overnight, and sorry but we are not up to carrying our gear to do that! You arrive about 200 vertical meters shy of the peak. I could feel the sudden change in altitude immediately – I’m clearly not as fit as in my Kilimanjaro days! Walking flat was fine, but every steep slope found my heart pounding and eventually my head. But I survived quite well in the end. And I still can’t get over the cyclists around here who climb the endless hills and freewheel down- even on the route up to Teide at altitude!
Climate change is having an impact here too it seems. We were lucky to see the Teide violet in bloom on the mountain (no photo sorry to say) – which used to bloom in June, but now in February!
And this was just the Teide trek part of the day… no more to be said – just check out the photos!
