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Some adventures can be had virtually anywhere; others you have to seek out. You can visit virtually any island in the Caribbean and enjoy a beautiful resort or even hike a nature trail, but the Petit Piton, that’s a different beast altogether.
That’s the kind of adventure you seek out if you are brave and if you’re looking for a hike that will provide a challenge unlike any you’ve ever experienced before.
The Petit Piton is not an easy hike by any stretch of the imagination, and it is one that many hikers abandon long before reaching the summit.
Looking up the smaller of the St Lucia Piton mountains, you know it is going to take everything you’ve got to reach the top. Reviewers who have left reviews on websites say things like “one wrong step and you’re dead” for a reason. This may be an overstatement, of course, but a Petit Piton climb is no nature trail hike, that’s for sure.
Definitely not for beginners, this hike requires that you travel with a guide and after only a few minutes of hiking the mountain, you know why.
It’s hard. Think of the hardest hike you have ever done and add in heat and a nearly vertical ascent and you might have an idea of what this hike is like.
Don’t get me wrong, hiking Petit Piton is one of the greatest achievements you can enjoy on the island of St Lucia and the view from the top feels like winning a great prize, but it is no easy feat. I recommend bringing a few bottles of water, as well as snacks and a camera.
Put them in a backpack, though, as you are definitely going to need two hands to scale this rock. Do not underestimate the difficulty of Petit Piton or the heat of St Lucia.
Bring more water than you think you need, but know that there are few places where you can safely stop and take a drink.
The trail up Petit Piton is incredibly narrow; so narrow that it can be hard to follow at times. The beginning of the trail is easy enough, but it gets incredibly difficult incredibly quickly. Along the way, you will use everything from tree roots to makeshift ropes to pull yourself up the steep ascent.
The drop-offs can be especially intimidating, and without a good grip on the ropes or vegetation, there’s good reason for that.
In some places, the drop off can be as much as 100 feet with only 8 or so inches of slippery trail and a rope to keep you from plummeting. The entire hike is pretty much straight up, there’s no stretch of flat, easy trail to be found.
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