Soufriere - Gros Piton

When my dad arrived and said he wanted to hike one of the Pitons, we humored him and said "Sure, great idea" thinking that once he saw the size of the mountains he would change his mind. He still wanted to go, but we agreed it might be best to just go halfway up. We called ahead and made arrangements to hire a guide (the forestry department requires you to go with one) to hike Gros Piton. Gros Piton (2671 feet) is the more hikeable Piton. Although not as tall as Gros Piton, Petit Piton is very steep and at some points you have to climb on fixed ropes. So we met up with Mervin, our guide, and set off up the mountain. Somewhere along the way, the plan for only hiking halfway up turned into going for the summit. Round trip, it's a four-hour hike: two hours up and two hours to get back down. It's an elevation change of 1900 feet from trailhead to summit (compared to 1100 feet for Camelback Mountain in Phoenix). The last half of the ascent was extremely steep and we were all feeling it. Except Mervin, of course. He didn't even break a sweat. It was also impressive that he was hiking in what appeared to be women's shoes (plastic multicolored jelly sandals).

Anyway the view from the top was priceless. There was a southern viewpoint where you could see St. Vincent on a clear day (too hazy for us), and a northern viewpoint with views of Petit Piton all the way to Martinique (again, not clear enough the day we went). I will say that the hike back down was excruciating for me, very hard on the knees and joints. It felt like it took forever but finally we got back to the village of Fond Gens Libre, where a nice lady was waiting with a cooler full of drinks, and of course a gift shop full of T-shirts.