Expedition Team of 22 Summits Belize’s Tallest Peak, Doyle’s Delight

The verdant mountains of Belize’s southern region are a sight to behold—stretching across the country’s southern and western districts and creating magnificent formations along the way. The Maya Mountain range is home to Belize’s most famous summit: Victoria Peak. But it is also home to the country’s tallest peak, Doyle’s Delight.

Although Victoria Peak is frequently visited by weekend warriors fond of a good challenge, Doyle’s Delight, which is just 4 meters taller, hasn’t been summited for over a decade—until now, that is. Last week, a total of 22 hikers made it to the top of Belize’s tallest peak. The expedition covered a total of 63 miles and took 5 days.

Doyle’s Delight is Belize’s Tallest Peak

Ringing in at 3,688 ft (1,124 meters) tall, Doyle’s Delight is officially Belize’s tallest peak. Named in 1989 by the late Sharon Matola after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle* it sits 35 miles (57 km) southwest of Victoria Peak and straddles the Toledo and Cayo districts.

While Victoria Peak is known for being an extremely challenging hike, Doyle’s Delight has much shallower slopes.  Despite this, the peak’s extremely remote location demands much more planning and logistics.

*This is because of the mountain’s resemblance to the prehistoric setting of The Lost World, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes series). (Source)

Many believe the quote from the book that inspired Matola was “There must be something wild and wonderful in a country such as this, and we’re the men to find it out!”.

Meet the First Team to Conquer Doyle’s Delight in 16 Years 

On June 24th, 2008, Doyle’s Delight saw the first-ever successful expedition team to reach its summit. It took the team of three Belizeans, two Guatemalans, and one German seven days. And, sixteen years later a team of twenty-two would conquer the summit in five. At the helm of the 2024 Expedition was Bruno Kuppinger, owner of Toledo Cave & Adventure Tours. Kuppinger, who also was a part of that first expedition, was joined by members of the Belize Defence Force, Rangers from Ya’axche Conservation Trust, and civilians from the USA, Britain, Canada, and Belize.

According to Kuppinger, an initial team of five Americans, one Brit, and one Canadian (who, according to local news media has also summited Mount Everest) reached out to him knowing he had helped to lead the 2008 expedition. By the time they took off on Sunday, May 5th, 2024 at 4:00 am, their team had grown to a total of twenty-two. And although they completed the challenge an entire two days faster than the previous team, it was a grueling trek nonetheless. The five days were difficult, and the planning that led up to it took a total of four months. Despite challenges, however (like having to search for freshwater and finding mostly dried-up rivers and creeks), the team prevailed in record time.

 

Kuppinger, speaking to Channel 5 News, said that the 63-mile journey covered plenty of rough terrain.

It is going up and down. And then of course, the rations are a little bit of rice here and there, some of the ramen and cheese and whatever we have and a little bit of corn tortilla the first two days and the rest we would find in the jungle.”

-Bruno Kuppinger

“All of them did an excellent job. They worked together as a team. All of them, they had different goals, but the main thing was to reach Doyle’s Delight and they accomplished that one,” said the tour company owner to local media house Love News.

Ultimately, Kuppinger’s hope is that the expedition will bring greater awareness to Belize’s tallest peak.

 

“I still meet many, many tour guides, many, many teachers everybody when I ask them what’s the tallest peak, they will tell me it’s Victoria Peak,” he said to Love News. “I [say], no, it can’t [be]. It’s 1120 meters to Victoria Peak and 1124 meters [to] Doyle’s Delight. So we have to create a little more awareness about that one.”

Photo Credit: All photos are courtesy of Toledo Cave & Adventure Tours on Facebook