Iztaccihuatl via Arista Del Sol in one day

Needless to say this wasn't easy. Mild headache, a night filled with disruptions, and moist darkness make for a slow morning.

We packed the night before and took or planned to take the following gear:

1. Hiking polls

2. Crampons (the snow was soft enough to boot up)

3. Ice Axe (I switched to the Ice axe on steep snow)

4. Helmets (I would highly recommend, even though I survived)

5. Warm clothes (the down jacket and warm gloves proved unnecessary)

Within minutes we run into multiple tents and realize that maybe we should have camped here and away from the bus and the party. From here the trail goes up sharply. Frozen mud proved to be great footing. The air feels light and we move slowly. We arrive at the hut in 3 hours.

NOTE: The attached track starts at the Grupo de los Cien hut.
We take our first major break to decided where to go. The descriptions are somewhat confusing, but it feels a bit more clear when you can see the faint trail. Also keep in mind that you are following RED dots on rocks. The route climbs up but stays way left of the ridge for a long time. The picture below has a cross (middle/center) and the hut (right/center). You will need to come to this cross on the way back in order to avoid cliff outs. Just before the cross the trail turns into Class II maybe Class III scramble. I would say helmets are almost mandatory in this section because small rocks bounce so high off the boulders above that sometimes you only hear them flying past you. If one were to hit you in the head, it could be deadly. Of course, I left my helmet at the car. I believe the blue line on this picture is what you end up doing if you follow the RED dots and then YELLOW dots.

At 11AM we peaked out at the Luis Mendez refugio, which probably used to be a structure. From here a beautiful snow field opens up. A guide and the fastest guy of their group were waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. They informed us that we were about 1 hour away from the summit and that the views would only keep getting better. They were spot on, on both accounts.From here the route stays on top of the ridge as much as possible.

After the refugio you come down some ways and come up to a higher sub-peak. From here you can see the glacier and the rim of the summit crater. The altitude keeps draining all of our strengths and the thought of climbing on the way back is demotivating, but the summit feels close and the way down to the glacier is quick and easy. Once you climb out of the glacier there is one more dip, but it is really small. We follow the ridge as three climbers (the rescuers?) encourage us.

About 30 minutes before we came up on the crater rim, the clouds caught up to us and we were caught in a complete white out. On the rim the tracks ended and we quickly decided to call our side of the crater, "the top", and not go into the white out in search of the true peak. We were less than 45 feet lower than the tallest part of the rim. For a few seconds the clouds cleared and we tried to take the picture of the crater. The failed attempt is below.

On the way down our worst fears came to fruition and the Humps proved to be extremely difficult to climb. After Fuis Mendez refugio we managed to come up on a cliff out and had to backtrack to the cross in order to come down. By the time we got the Grupo de los Cien hut, we lost plenty of altitude and had enough strength to get over the last hill. Nevertheless, the headache persisted to pounce our psyche almost all the way to Amecameca where we sat down for a dinner in the Cafe across the street from the Hotel San Carlos.