How to Ascending the Teide volcano peak: Ultimate Guide
The highest point of the Canary Islands and the whole Spain – the Teide volcano that is 3718 meters high – is located on the Tenerife island. Is Teide volcano worth climbing? No doubt it is. This is unrivaled experience, feelings, and excitement about the landscapes opening from that height. In clear weather all other islands are visible from the Teide: La Gomera, Gran Canaria, La Palma and if very lucky, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. We personally are not fans of hiking, trekking and climbing the mountains, but we wanted go up to Teide knowing that cool photos will be shot there – we were much stimulated by these thoughts.
There are several ways to ascend to the top. The first method is easier: drive up with a car to the height of 2000 m into the volcano caldera (the valley of 20 km in diameter), where Teide National Park is. Next to park near the cable car station located at an altitude of 2356 m. Buy a ticket for 13.5 Euros one way, that is 27 Euros to and from. In summer it’s better to buy via the Internet in order to avoid kilometer queues of those also wishing to climb up the crater. The cable car lifts to the 3555 meters’ height in a few minutes. And then you need to overcome steep rocky road uphill by walking. The average duration of lifting is 40 min; the way’s distance is 600 meters, but strong elevation will force stopping to have a rest or simply contemplate the landscapes and they are just breathtaking! Another detail: those wanting to climb up to the crater on this 600 meters’ road must have a permit from the National Park, since there is security checking the permits. Nothing complicated, just a lot of people won’t have place on the crater, and thus there are limitations due to such permits. You can get a permit on the park’s official website, choose the appointed day, and enter the persons’ names. There are warnings on the website and on the information boards that not everyone will manage to reach the peak due to possible height sickness.
We have chosen difficult way No. 2: we entered the National park by car, about 50-60 km from any settlement, parked at the altitude of 2000 m: small parking site in the starting point of the Montana Blanca, where those wanting to ascend to the crater without cable car begin their way. There’s no other path, just this one.
Parking site is usually all occupied, then you can park a little further, or to wait for someone to leave. So we were lucky enough to wait a few minutes for one car to clear a space for us. And we began packing, dressing up and anointing with the sunblock.
Top tips for those going to climb Teide for 5-7 hours to the mountain Altaviste refuge, and then to the crater for a few hours more:
1) Take along food, since there’s neither restaurant nor shop, only kitchen with dishes to warm up the meals that the tourists brought. Fortunately, there’re vending machines with water, coffee, Coca-Cola, and candy bars. You should have minor coins for all of this. For example, coffee costs 2 Euros. You can as well buy Internet but 30 minutes are given free of charge. So, we took so much food that we even didn’t manage to eat it. Find out why below. We roasted turkey steaks, salmon steaks, boiled eggs and rice, roasted pumpkin, bought olives, cherry tomatoes, a variety of cheese and canned food. And 6 bottles of 0.5 liters of water and two chocolates with 70% of cocoa.
2) Be sure to pre-book a bed in Altaviste refuge – it’s worth 25 Euros per person. Beds are limited to 50, and there are lots of those willing, even the retired persons.
3) Take T-shirts for the day, a hat from the sun and wind, and a warm jacket. We even took thermal underwear and it’s nice to have gloves – we’ll tell about this. Our shoes weren’t suitable for mountains and lava, but we had no other choice. Everyone else was walking in special hiking shoes with tough soles. We went in leather casual ecco, and they did not disappoint us and withstood all the blows, and we like the scratches 🙂 Goggles will save you from bright light that will be always ahead.
4) What shall you have apart from food? Only minimum: we took everything superfluous, everything that won’t come in handy, out of the backpacks. We took just everything really needed on the volcano, but this was enough to make our climbing difficult. Especially hauling food and water, but each time we were glad when we gradually drank and ate.
About the way to the Teide peak. We personally divided all the way up into 4 segments. We began the first segment at 1 pm. The road initially was flat, wide and not too steep; it’s quite easy to go. The landscapes are almost identical, no crater on the horizon. We did about 6 stops and had dinner of salmon steak during one of them – and this was like superpower for going on. We drank a lot, perhaps in order to carry less weight 🙂 We had about 5 and 7 kg in backpacks and 3 kg in hands. The temperature was 20°C.
There was no wind, but the sun was hot, and it was comfortable in caps, since our heads weren’t overheated. The first leg of the journey of 5.56 km took about 2.5 hours.
There is way No. 3 – for the almighty. Climbing from the sea level from Puerto de la Cruz. We met a guy when were only 2 km away and came up to rather low altitude. And he has been already going for 6-7 hours to that point, starting from 7 am. This is mega trial, we wouldn’t have taken up such an adventure since we see no sense for us in such a deed.
We were surpassed by the number of people, we were almost the last. Everyone had the same goal for the day: reach the camp, where access to beds opens at 7 pm, and before that, at 5 pm, open a hall and a kitchen.
In fact, Teide is very plump and stout at the waist, thus you need to come to it for that long. Here is the road with the car traces that is the easiest in terms of walking, but it’s difficult in terms of motivation, because you see the result of the past distance very, very slowly.
Here we have come to the Eggs of Teide. The round stones scattered in the valley are called so.
And now the next segment begins, No. 2, – rugged, steep, rocky, narrow, and once more steep. The photo below shows segment No. 1, but the photo is taken on the way of segment No. 2.
Here you can see the path. We were once again given the dust. We began to stop often for eating chocolate and encouraging each other to go further saying we’ll take cool shots, it’s already close to the camp.
We didn’t hurry; we had time till 6 pm to come to the camp for the sunset, so we didn’t worry for the time and rested as much as necessary for the heart to calm down. We trained before but not especially for this trip: we did cardio exercises every morning and walked 15 km a day so we set our minds to the thoughts we will manage to reach the top. We were a bit afraid of height sickness, since there were lots of warnings thereof. Height sickness is the condition when the body is not accustomed to the height over 1 km above the sea level: it’s quite difficult to breathe, the pressure rises, severe headache, sickness, no wish to eat, and changing air temperature. We read about this and said to ourselves – that won’t be the case with us. Just in case, we had no coffee in the morning and decided not to bring wine.
HOORAY. Distance of 10.36 km has been overcome till 5:30 pm! Two segments are past. The air temperature has dropped for about 10 degrees. In total it took us 5-5.5 hours to reach the Altaviste refuge at the height of 3270 m.
It was so cool, and most importantly that the heads weren’t splitting. In honor of this we bought coffee from the machine for 2 Euros. We were the last to reach the camp 🙂 But everyone was still waiting in the hall and had a rest. We surfed on the net for 30 minutes and even took pictures of the Teide shadow. It’s very cool!
Such unusual landscapes, everything new looking and so beautifully bathed in sun. We were pretty lucky to climb in such a clear and sunny day, with no clouds and no wind. The path we climbed up can be seen in the photo below.
As for the camp itself, it’s very comfortable, held all the people. Everybody was simply sitting or lying. Sheer calmness for the body and heart. For a few hours we did so, and then everyone rushed to the kitchen.
There was little space in the kitchen, so we used it in turn. We took a lot of food, but unfortunately appetite evaporated. Little signs of height sickness still were felt. Hardly having a bite of the steak and a little rice – in other case we would have eaten everything we had. Rostyk had to take paracetamol for a headache.
After the beds distribution in three or four rooms, we went out to take the shot of the stars. A very important observatory is located in Tenerife, because it’s best to observe the stars from here.
Different people were with us: from Great Britain, Germany, France, and Spain. Also of all ages, even the very elderly. One boy with parents and I were the youngest.
Night in the Altaviste refuge. Oh, it was muggy, humid, a terrible and short nap. Room for 10 people with too little space between the beds. No ventilation, door is closed from the corridor. We got rid of one problem for ourselves by taking earplugs – this is thing No. 1 for us in travel. So, we heard no sounds of snoring or wheezing. But! There was no ventilation! We woke up with a heavy head and heavy breathing. Metal tripod was wet. We quickly grabbed our things and went out to the hallway in the darkness to fill the chest with air and dressed there. Such a stressful waking up. We bought another coffee since we had no coins more. Had eggs for breakfast in the kitchen and took paracetamol once again, and most likely it was not the height sickness but the result of a heavy night in a stuffy room. We put on everything we had – here the underwear came in handy. +6 degrees outdoors.
We woke up at 5 am and were ready in 30 minutes – we just strived for fresh air! We were the first to go to see the sunrise on the crater.
The most difficult part of the segment No.3 began. It’s necessary to reach the cable car base where the main climbing to the crater starts. We had to go up to 3555 meters from the height of 3270 meters by long bypass. How the path looks like? We got lost in the dark, even having flashlights. We went down the path and began simply clambering over the cobblestones almost on fours. It wasn’t the route common path, for sure. It was difficult to trace the way due to lack of marking as such, only stones laid out along the path, no white paint or beacons.
This segment No. 3 became very difficult personally for us, perhaps we hadn’t recovered after the camp yet. It was emotionally difficult to climb seeing nothing around; we again lapped behind those who set off with us, the Poles were also lost and went on the cobblestones as well, we called them to come to us. Heart was thumping. If yesterday we were going slowly up the height, it was rapidly today. We stopped often. It was good we had taken the pills before. So we were dragging 3.27 km for about 1.5-2 hours.
Then the trails turned to stairs, there were climbs and descents. So we reached the cable car base.
The sun began announcing it would look out soon. We just started going up the last 4th segment – 600 m with the height difference of up to 159 m. The average ascent duration is 40. But it was more important for us to cross segment No. 3, after this the way to the crater seemed to be very easy, so we went up in 30 minutes not even stopping. The sulfur smell told we were in place.
The peak was very small, everyone quickly occupied some place. The air temperature was 0°C. It was very cold and windy. Some people took sleeping bags and thus bundled up. Rostyk had no gloves, his hands were frozen, so we changed, I gave him mine. Just cap wouldn’t be enough, if not for the jackets’ hoods that were well protecting from the wind.
What happens on the mountain, on the volcano Teide crater? It’s beyond words, it must be felt personally. But we’ll say that it was incomparable. As if something important happened in the life, different from everything felt before!
There were many people, fortunately, this time we came not the last and thus we found a place for us. People were talking around, rejoiced, and waited for the star – the Sun. This is such a tradition for anyone coming this way. The most memorable were joyful applause of everyone present, as soon as the sun appeared on the horizon. These sounds were somehow impressing.
Sulfur didn’t stink that much, probably because of the wind that blew the flavor to the other side. We sat there for a long time, our feet froze, cheeks as well. But we had to realize where we were. No breathing difficulties, as usual, we felt no pressure or lack of oxygen. We waited until everyone takes photos first of the sun against Gran Canaria backdrop, then themselves, and then themselves with giant Teide shadow at the background against the ocean on the backdrop.
The crater is really small, about 30 m in diameter. One can walk only on one side, where the path has led.
Some Spanish guys have repeatedly climbed here so they were just having a chat with others, turned back to the sunrise 🙂
The Poles also came, they didn’t get finally lost. But one guy came after the sunrise, when only two of us were left. He said that he had eaten something bad the day before and could not get up early, but still reached the peak.
We were so lucky that we saw all the islands. Here La Gomera was where we drove later. El Hierro is behind it. Unfortunately we didn’t get there. This little thing is so small, remote and non-touristic that there was no easy transport connection and we didn’t manage to drive to and fro to visit it.
Teide’s Shadow almost reaches to La Palma – also extremely interesting island, we went after La Gomera.
Everyone got away in order to leave the crater till 9 am, since it’s stated in the rules for those coming up from Alcavista camp and having no special permission, and we were alone! Though got cold but we were happy )
The crater of Mount Teide is in the picture. A bit of smoke and that’s it.
We headed for going down to the cable car. We chose descent with a cable car, for which we had bought a ticket online in advance but it’s possible to do that just in the box office. Some descended the same way they came through Altaviste refuge to the parking site.
Now it was clearly visible what the way up was.
The only minus in descending by cable car is that, if you ascend and stay overnight at Altaviste refuge, then the lower cable car base is in 3 km from the parking site in Montana Blanca. So even after we got on the highway we had to go those 3 km by feet with no pedestrian lane until we reached our car.
The first cable car goes down at 9 am, so it’s good we stayed on the crater for longer, and didn’t have to wait long till the working hours. There were again coffee machines and we wanted coffee so much, but we had no coins (We didn’t take care of it, since we thought we wouldn’t want coffee from the machine.)
So, briefly about the main for Ascending the Teide volcano peak:
- Book staying overnight at Altaviste refuge here
- Buy ticket for the cable car for the way back – here
- Take along food and water
- Don’t take anything you won’t use on the volcano.
- PICO DEL TEIDE ACCESS PERMIT here, but it’s unnecessary in case of staying overnight at the camp. Since you ought to leave the camp till 7 am, hence everyone manages to ascend to the crater and to go down till 9 am, when tourists start coming.
- Clothing: caps, jackets, gloves, sunglasses, sunblock, comfortable shoes
- Total mileage on feet in one direction is about 17 km + 3 km to the parking site in case of descending by cable car – 20 km in total.
- The total timing: path to the Alcavista camp 5-7 hours. + 1.5-2 hours from Alcavista to cable car + 0.4 hours ascend to the crater itself. 7-10 hours in total.
- The Altaviste refuge is located at altitude of 2370 m, kitchen and hall opens at 5 pm; rooms with beds open at 7 pm. There’s no shower there, only toilets. Blankets are very warm, so you don’t need to take sleeping bags.
- The general route we have gone through is called No. 7 Montana Blanca – Pico del Teide.
- The 600 meters’ path to the crater is route No. 10 Telesforo Bravo. There are other routes to other observation decks. For example, for those who went up by cable car and cannot climb to the crater, there is easier way No. 11 Mirador de la Fortaleza, from where views of the Teide Peak open up. And there is route No. 12 to the old peak located below. All information is available on the official website in different languages https://www.telefericoteide.com/en
- You can take pills for a headache, we took only them.
Should you be on Tenerife – make this trip to the Teide peak. Such impressions are very rare. Good luck!
With love, RH.
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