Problematic Pitons
‘Climbing
of the Petit
Piton
should only be attempted by very advanced climbers or hikers and only ever with
proper equipment.’-That was what the local magazine had to say on the subject.
Of course, we only read this magazine after we’d climbed it…The pitons are a
pair of mountains in the southwest of St. Lucia. The petit Piton (750m) is by
far a harder climb than Gros Piton (800m) mainly because there’s only one track
up Petit Piton, which is on a 60degree slope…ehem…We went up with Cecil (better
known as Over’s) who had climbed it ‘too many times to count, mon’. We started
off with a trek through the rain forest surrounding the base of the mountain,
but rapidly our angle of ascent increased until we were scrambling on our hands
and knees and pulling ourselves up by roots and stones. Luckily we had thought
it better not to embark on the walk wearing flip-flops. Occasionally when there
was a gap in the trees the view across the bay and the town of Soufriere was
incredible. After an hour and a half of slogging up
the
mountain we made it to the ‘shoulder’. “Only the neck left now” said Over’s.
We looked behind us at the formidable, near-vertical ‘Neck’
…
…
“Alright”
…
So the climb
continued. Less than two minutes after leaving the ‘shoulder’ we found ourselves
facing a 20 foot, vertical rock-face with no hand or foot holds that merit
mentioning. “Hey,” says Over’s, “I’ll show you.” He takes hold of the rope and
practically flips himself upside-down as he hooks one leg round an overhanging
branch. Then he slings himself up, landing on the top of the cliff and calling
down, “See! It ain’t too hard!”
After much struggle
and sweat we all somehow managed to get to the top of the
rock-face,
only to find that we now faced another cliff that was similar to the first other
than its height… it was twice as tall…
After watching Over’s demolish this obstacle with absurd ease we eventually made it to the top… and saw that we now had to squeeze ourselves through a foot-wide tunnel in a rock then wedge ourselves in the crevice behind before slithering up a third cliff onto the dirt path above. To get to the point, after many incredibly impossible tunnels, boulders, cliffs and slopes, we managed to make it to the top.
The Top:
Amazing views across St. Lucia
Hair-raising heights and impossibly steep mountain sides
The Blue flag that Over’s and a few of his mates had erected!
…and…
NO BREEZE! Grrrrrr!