Hiking Mt. Gimie

Mt. Gimie

Yesterday I climbed Mount Gimie! Mt. Gimie is the highest peak in St. Lucia! It stands 3,200 ft. tall. We started the climb at 10am. At about 1:00 and just 1 hour to the top I was bear crawling to the top, I was so tired. One hands and feet I slowly ascended stone over stone to the summit. Our hiking party was 13 strong, and I was the 3rd one to arrive to the tope. When I got there, boy was it a sight to see. We had a clear view for about 20 minutes before the clouds and fog covered the peak. I hear you are lucky if you get a view from the top because peak is always covered in clouds. When I got to the top and looked out at the 360 degree view of the island and ocean, all the strain and weariness from climbing for 4 hours faded away in an instant. Incredibly, a rainbow appeared near by where it had been raining. Absolutely beautiful!

We started our dissension at 2:45. Seven of us reached the halfway point by 4:30, where we waited a good while for the 2nd party of 6 to catch up. At 5:15 we became concerned about hiking back in the dark and decided to begin to make our way out, without the other party. We knew they had a couple of flash lights to help assist them. As we were climbing over large boulders, across thin ledges, and using roots to help us climb I began to worry for the safety of the crew that would be trying to follow the 6 inch wide, nearly buried trail back in the dark. The climb isn’t easy; its and advanced trail (rated a 5 on a 1 – 5 difficulty scale established by the forestry department), and should probably only be attempted in the light of the day.

At 7:05 just as the trail is widening out to the road that takes us for our final stretch I received a text message from Wendy in the other crew saying that they just reached the river that marks the half way point! This means they were 2 ½ hours behind us and by now completely in the dark! We reached the trail head by 7:30 and were on Wayne’s bus sleeping by 8:00PM. At this time Wayne called Lynn, who’s hiked the trail 5 times now and had stayed in the 2nd party of hikers. Lynn said they would be out in 1 hour. At 9:00 Lynn says the same thing, “out in an hour.” At 10:00 it’s the same answer, and we are thinking that surely they must have gotten lost. At 11:00 Lynn says the party is just at the part of the trail where it widens to the road for the final stretch. At 11:30 three of the guys, Burt, Gylan and Mervin go back down the trail to try and speed up the party. At midnight Burt came tromping out of the trail with a girl on his back! We had been waiting for 4 hours on the bus for the 2nd party!

One of the girls in the 2nd crew had a very difficult time getting down, and this is what slowed down the party so much. When speaking with her more I found out that she is not an experienced hiker, and she had never gone hiking with our crew before. Now, I thought it was a tough hike for sure, and I did come out with plenty of battle scars (stripes from the razor grass mainly) but we all got to see what the mountain can do to someone who is not a hiker; can be down right debilitating!

Nonetheless, I’d hike it again!!