Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

March 28, 2024

2256m

Jamaica

Blue Mountain Peak is also called “The Peak” and is the highest in Jamaica, boasting over 2000 m prominence and over 200 km isolation as Jamaica is an island country. This is not a country known for its hiking oppourtunities as most tourists rush directly to the beaches and resorts after landing in Kingston, but a hike to the summit of the highest peak does attract some international tourists. The hike itself is very straightforward but the challenge is getting to the trail-head, as a serious 4×4, high clearance vehicle is needed and that can be difficult to arrange on one’s own without local connections. Daryn D. and Kathy R. organized the entire trip and I did no research and simply tagged along. I did read Adam Walker’s trip report and I knew how much he hates being guided, so I was not aware until the very last minute (after reading Petter’s most recent trip report in Feb. 2024) that one actually does not “have to” have a guide by law. But on the other hand, it’d be difficult if not impossible to organize a group of 10 without using a touring agency, considering the transportation and the trail-head accommodations. There’s even a recent fire that took out the traditional guest house so we had to be put into another house/hostel nearby. The cost for the 1-day ascent with basically another day of transportation services was 385 USD per person (for 10 people), which was ridiculous, but I’m slowly coming to a realization that Jamaica is a rather expensive country. The dinner after the hike easily costed me over 40 USD and I have no damn clue how could these poor locals afford their own services. Maybe they never go to a restaurant.

In any case the 10 of us took the Arajet flight from Santo Domingo to Kingston and arrived at 10 am, but the pick-up made us wait there for almost an hour in the heat. I was just thankful that for once, the international flight had no delay whatsoever. Cheryl, the head person of the touring agency showed up and piled us into two vehicles, with only one that had 4×4 capability. I had no damn clue why she couldn’t spend 200 dollars or something (out of the 3850 that we paid together) to charter another vehicle as there was not a lot of space for us. The two vehicles were significantly overloaded that two of us had to be squeezed on the very back seat that could normally fit a dog or two in some extreme uncomfortable body positions, and the air conditioning was only partially functioning. We were then transported to some touristy places including a ice cream shop that apparently had earned a “top 5” rating in the world. I’m not interested in knowing how they managed to give a rank to such an arbitrary and opinionated topic but the ice cream was indeed pretty damn good, although it came at a cost. My two-scoop Sundae costed something like 18 USD, so maybe take that into consideration. I nevertheless paid the price because this would be my only visit to Jamaica so I might as well come home with some experiences. The company would not provide snacks for the hike so we had to make a few more stops, but were eventually transported to the mountains. We had to be rearranged as Cheryl’s 2WD vehicle was not capable in reaching the trail-head village/hostel and there’s another pick-up truck waiting for us. There was again, hardly any space to pile the 10 of us and our luggage in. I had some experience in sitting on the back of these kind of trucks, as well as riding motorcycles, snowmobiles and mountain bikes and I knew the most comfortable body position would be standing (not sitting), so I opted for that, which was actually quite fun. Those of us sitting were all complaining.

The road was indeed very bad, and a serious 4×4 vehicle was indeed “needed” to get us up high. The driving was difficult as most parts of this road could only accommodate single-lane traffic and the traffic volume was not low. Not to mention that in Jamaica, the driving is on the left side of the road and the vehicles do not generally have automatic transmission. I knew Petter rented a truck, drove it up himself and did this peak unguided and unsupported, but most of us here (myself definitely included) would not have the skills to carry out such a mission. So again, giving money to this expensive touring agency was the only practical way. Our hostel was about a kilometer from the actual trail-head but we were all happy to walk that extra distance on the following day, so that was fine. The room was again, not large enough to fit us in, that three of us had to be transported to another cabin that was about a kilometer back. That was the end of the gong show, but taking in account the fact that we were travelling in a group-of-ten this was probably as good as we could get, frankly speaking. The dinner was served well, and the sleep wasn’t too bad as most of us were already exhausted. The cost breakdown stated that the stay in this hostel (basically just a cabin) was 40 USD per person, which was about two times more expensive than a “mountain hut” in the Canadian Rockies. The price could be considered “acceptable” only if it also included the food services, which I think it did, but am not 100% sure.

The three of those who slept in the different cabin showed up at 5:30 am so we all woke up at that time. The breakfast was served at 6 am and we started hiking at around 6:45 am. After all of the logistics complications it was eventually the time to face the mountain itself. There were two guides accompanying, with one leading in front and one staying behind. Right off the bat within 10 minutes from starting Linda took off ahead and did the rest of the hike solo. I would normally do the same and I had done that many times, turning the ascents into a race with the guide, but this time I opted to stay in the group and let the guide do his job. The pace was definitely slow, but the weather was stable and there’s zero risk in jeopardizing the mission. Well, I shouldn’t have said that as Linda’s approach could actually be smarter as she was alone on the summit for a while, away from the guides, but more on that later. About 1/3 of the way up we passed a ranger station that seemed very official to me. There’s a gate that could not be easily bypassed, so while hiring a guide was not legally required one does have to pay that 20 dollars entrance fee no matter what. The rest of the ascent was uneventful. There were several viewpoints along the way, but the actual summit was disappointing with hardly any open views. I later climbed the lower bars of the trig point and got a bit of views, and there’s one decent viewpoint slightly beyond the summit and that’s the end of Rockinstraw’s GPX track. But there’s a sting in the tail.

I was not aware of the issue until Craig B. read out Petter’s trip report in front of us, that apparently there are two peaks (Blue Mountain Peak and “Middle Peak”) that share the same elevation. That was stated on the trig point on the summit, and confirmed by Petter’s GPS readings. Without a more precise measurement one could not conclude which of the two is the actual high point, so we must do both. I don’t think most of the previous summitters had done both, but fortunately the “Middle Peak” was only 100 horizontal meters away and there’s an overgrown trail leading towards that direction. Craig B. and I took off despite the angry yells from the guide, and Keith followed and the three of us made the tree-covered summit a few minutes later. It was not as thrashy as we thought, and the best approach was to find that overgrown trail extending beyond that viewpoint. Everyone else opted to abide the rules and I got in a big argument with the guide upon returning. If I were with Adam, Petter or some of my other authority-hating friends from PNW we would have given him a much harder time, but nobody here joined me so I stopped in a few minutes. The guide kept stating something like the trail “was washed out” and “hadn’t been used for years” and this guy clearly did not understand what “bushwhacking” was. Honestly I could not blame hard on him because his scope of vision is Jamaica or more precisely, the tourists who had hired him on this peak and it’s “okay” for him to not understand who we were, so I was trying to “teach” him that there are people out there who does not need a fucking path to hike up a fucking peak. After realizing the teaching could never be successful I gave in, climbed the trig point and opted for peace instead.

On the descent we more or less stayed together and finished the round trip in 6 hours 50 minutes. Again, the pace was slow but tolerable and I was happy to be chatting instead of listening to music. We were served with lunch afterwards, but the transportation gong show back into Kingston was just as bad, and probably worse. This time Hans (1.9+ meters tall) and I volunteered to be squeezed into the back of the vehicle but I managed to find a feasible body position, by scissoring our legs (we weren’t interested in each other, by the way), and I actually felt asleep briefly during the uncomfortable ride. Finally it was the expensive food and hotel stays. I had spent at least an hour researching the options in this city and I came to a conclusion that the easiest way was to choose Altamont Court Hotel where everyone else would be staying. For the cost of 150 USD per night this was literally the worst hotel I’ve ever seen, but welcome to Jamaica. As aforementioned we all went out for dinner after checking in, and that costed 40 to 50 USD per person. I don’t think I’ll ever come back to Jamaica so here’s my final tip to the country.

On the following day which was supposed to be my “buffer day”, a few of us were already heading for the airport. Craig B. and Cherie were planning to stay a few more days in Jamaica and invited me to join them on a museum tour to learn something about Bob Marley. I have to admit that I did not know anything about this guy nor would I care that much because I mostly only listen to Chinese music, but the history and the learning made it worthwhile, even for a singularly-focused peakbagger like myself. The tour was about 1.5 hours and costed 25 USD. Among the 10 of us here Cherie is the only one who doesn’t call herself a “peakbagger” so she’s the one that brought the other elements into the trip and I definitely appreciated that. If not because of her suggestion I would be wasting this entire day sitting in the hotel watching some Chinese TV dramas.