Santa María — Local services in Municipio de Quetzaltenango

If you motivate yourself to summit you will never regret it. We did it in about 4.5 hours, starting the walk up at midnight. Summit is at 12,375 feet, the trail starts at around 8,000. The walk up is somewhat demanding. You will need to be in decent shape and should probably have a plan if you get hurt. Armed guard/guide is recommended. We were not prepared for the cold (probably about 15-20° F) but fortunately there was a religious group of about 30 people under a canvas tarp at the top. We climbed right in with them and they took us in without blinking or saying a word. We huddled together with strangers singing and reading from the bible. The cold was still more than we planned for even as the sun came up. When I do it again, I will leave around noon and bring enough clothing to sleep outside at the summit. Definitely make sure you see the best sunrise you will ever experience. It's difficult to describe being able to see so many volcanos at the same time along with the giant shadow of the volcano you are standing on top of. There was very little conversation among those present. Bring some gear and stay as long as you can. If you pack it in pack it out....

A dangerous Central American volcano that produced the third largest eruption of the 20th century.

Santa María is one of the most prominent of a chain of large volcanoes that rise high above the Pacific coastal plain of Guatemala. This chain is the result of the process of subduction as the Cocos oceanic plate slides beneath the Caribbean Plate. For much of recorded history, forest-covered Santa María has been quiet, but in October 1902, it erupted, tearing a huge crater in its southwestern flank and killing more than 5,000 people.

Activity today. In 1922, a lava dome—a huge, mound-shaped mass of gray lava—began growing in the massive flank crater formed in the 1902 eruption. This has since developed into a complex of four overlapping domes. Right up to the present day, frequent eruptions have occurred from these domes, sometimes generating dangerous pyroclastic flows (see panel, p.89) or blasting plumes of ash to heights of a couple of miles. Smaller explosions occur almost daily and can be viewed from the summit of Santa María’s...

We did the hike of Santa Maria and we slept on the top with our tent without a guide. About the hike all comments in all trails app are very optimistic , we hiked to the top in 4 hours and 30 minutes and 3 hours to go down and we are in a good fitness conditions. The weather condition was really good, sunny from 8am (when we start the hike) to 6pm , after 9/10am the view of Santiaguiato is covered by clouds but for sunset was clear again (also the view of Atitlan/Toliman and Acatenango/El fuego) , really amazing! For sleep on the top we took with us 6 Liters of water (next time 7) , food for lunch, dinner and breakfast; and obviously everything for camping, it was cold during the night (probably around 5/10° celsius degrees). If you want to sleep and enjoy the top alone go during the week like us, but if you want to see a lot of locals that arrive on the top for pray and bring offerings go at...