climbing up to 3 976 meters - Acatenango

After the Pacaya-weekend I had the opportunity to drive the next weekend to Guatemala City and climb the next volcano named Acatenango.

My alarm woke me up at 4:20 am on Saturday (22nd of January 2011) and we started our drive at 5am. I was really tired, and it was cold.
Our climb started at around 7:30 am, and I everytime feel going to die in the first 30 minutes.

start of the trip

Now I could explain something on my own about Acatenango, but the writer on Wikipedia made it very well and understandable, even for not so good englisch-speakers, so I will copy it...

Wikipedia:
Acatenango is a stratovolcano in Guatemala, close to the city of Antigua. The volcano has two peaks, Pico Mayor (Highest Peak) and Yepocapa (3,880 m) which is also known as Tres Hermanas (Three Sisters). Acatenango is joined with Volcán de Fuego and collectively the volcano complex is known as La Horqueta.
The Fuego-Acatenango massif comprises a string of five or more volcanic vents along a north-south trend that is perpendicular to that of the Central American Volcanic Arc in Guatemala. From north to south, known centers of volcanism are Ancient Acatenango, Yepocapa, Pico Mayor de Acatenango, Meseta, and Fuego. Volcanism along the trend stretches back more than 200,000 years. Although many of the centers have been active contemporaneously, there is a general sequence of younger volcanism, from north to south along the trend.

how steep

 I think I needed in the end 5,5 hours and I almost have been the first of our group on the top. But only because two guys get lost after the first 15 minutes and were waiting one and a half hour for us somewhere we never passed.
You have read that Acatenango has two peaks, but I didn´t know that. I reached the first on my own, so happy being on the top, I started making photos and walked around. In the morning the sky was clear, but during climbing the sky got covered with clouds. And the second peak was inside the clouds. But then came wind and blow the clouds to the side, so I could see the Pico Mayor and couldn´t believe it...
There was another Peak, so much higher then the one I was standing on at this moment. And I saw people climbing the other one, they seemed tiny like ants!!
I started swearing in german: Scheisse, das kann doch ne wahr sein. Was isn das?

Marvin, Jonas, Emperatriz, Kenny and me

But I didn´t stopped, because everytime I stopped, I needed time to warm up my muscles again and it was harder to climb.
So I moved on and walked down the first peak to finally climb Acatenango. The highest peak was only made of sand and some bigger stones at the top. With every step I slidded down a bit. Half way done, I saw two guys coming around an edge of the first peak (a very strange direction)...after a while I realised, that this were Marvin and Jonas. I thought they were waiting since a long time on the top. But I coulnd´t hold my advance. They are both sportsmen and passed me very soon (and so easy). I arrived the peak maybe 10 minutes after them.

half way done of Pico Mayor and view to the first peak

This peak was so different from Santa Maria, because there were no plants at all. Sand and more sand, nothing but sand. And clouds all aroud us, so we coulnd´t see any other volcano around. Kenny and Emperatriz reached the top probably 20 minutes after me. Jorge stayed at the first, lower peak. We made pictures and suddenly heard a bang and saw a brown cloud rising between many white ones. We saw an eruption of Fuego, the neighbour volcano. How amazing was that!!! But you can´t imagine how cold it was up there, at 2pm. It was freezing, but I burned the skin in my face.

Fuego eruption