Pico de Orizaba Climber's Log

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cmcalhoun

cmcalhoun - Jun 17, 2023 7:43 am Date Climbed: Mar 29, 2023

Pico de Orizaba  Sucess!

Amazing!

reedochalek

reedochalek - Dec 19, 2022 7:06 pm Date Climbed: Dec 19, 2022

Lovely day on orizaba  Sucess!

Great weather, perfect climbing conditions. The glacier was small but not too icy. We obtained a ride to the hut with the Cancholas family. It was pricey but well worth it. The hut was not too full being a Monday.

bennovak

bennovak - Aug 5, 2022 11:34 am Date Climbed: Nov 9, 2019

Regular route

Summit with SMI

katelyn.condra

katelyn.condra - Jul 3, 2022 5:00 pm Date Climbed: Feb 27, 2021

My first 18er  Sucess!

Amazing climb with my team!

mElliott47-2

mElliott47-2 - Apr 28, 2022 12:35 pm Date Climbed: Mar 23, 2022

Beautiful mountain, great people   Sucess!

First: use the 'Joaquin Canchola Limon' hostel. Maybe the best hostel experience I've had with people who were so kind and fixtures in the local community (to my knowledge they were the first hostel there, and Joaquin even helped build the freaking hut). Spent some time with friends at the other options, and not where it's at. Really can't say enough good stuff.

Got to the hut on a Monday, took Tue/ Wed to acclimatize (coming directly from sea level) and do some route finding. The 'Labyrinth' wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting, and snow conditions were absolutely perfect - so overall pretty mellow (although, we did basically nail the best weather window of the season, that I know of). We did get a pretty high res gpx file for the path, but there were no parts that were super hard to fund (mostly marked with good blazes), and even if you did get lost, I didn't see any options that would make sense that were above low 4th class (the trail/ easiest option basically being 2nd class). Summit Thursday, starting just before 2am, and taking about 10 hours (took our time on the way up, and really took our time on the way down). Talked to a guy who said he had or has the fkt at sometime <3hrs and I could definitely see it. Did see some VERY small crevasses on the glacier (3"-1' max), but weren't particularly concerning.

Overall, because of the long acclimatization and good weather, very smooth trip - but really stunning.

Bring lots of TP, water, and stay with Joaquin.

Confeta

Confeta - Feb 1, 2022 8:21 am Date Climbed: Jan 3, 2022

not quite easy, but doable  Sucess!

liked the labyrinth and the snow part, though the last seemed quite steep and endless to me

Pete Castricone

Pete Castricone - Nov 17, 2021 10:36 am Date Climbed: Nov 14, 2021

Summit  Sucess!

Summit obtained

natethor

natethor - Sep 2, 2021 9:37 am Date Climbed: Nov 28, 2013

Orizaba!  Sucess!

Traveled to Tlachichuca, have dinner and stay with Mr. Reyes at his soap factory turned mountain lodge. Hiked up to a high camp around 16,000' the day before summit climb, then descended back to the Piedra Grande hut and got a ride down to Tlachichuca to again stay with Mr. Reyes.

Incredible trip, great memories.

bdreese2

bdreese2 - Jan 31, 2021 5:36 pm Date Climbed: Feb 6, 2015

Orizaba  Sucess!

https://peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=502041

BLBonnet

BLBonnet - Oct 30, 2020 2:19 pm Date Climbed: Mar 7, 2020

An Incredible Experience All Around  Sucess!

Been dreaming of climbing this mountain for nearly 6 years. Was able to top out on a day of perfect weather.

https://blbonnet.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/a-week-in-mexico-part-2/

micaela - Sep 24, 2020 9:58 am Date Climbed: Sep 17, 2020

Avoid guide Ivan Loredo Vidal

Planned a trip to climb Pico de Orizaba with Ivan Loredo Vidal. We got to basecamp and it was pouring rain all night so we couldn’t climb. I was pretty disappointed since I’d paid about 10k pesos for all the expenses of the trip, plus taking time off work. So at 2:30 in the morning, Ivan and I agreed we wouldn’t attempt to climb in the rain, and I would instead join another group in about a month.

I had paid upfront for his fee, plus all the transportation, food, 3 sets of batteries he bought for himself, etc. So I was losing a lot of money and would have to spend it all again the next time, minus his fee. By joining another group, I was making sure he’d get paid the same but actually would make the climb once instead of twice. I had paid 1500 pesos to rent his clothing, and the one thing he said he would reimburse me for was the gear I didn’t use at all, which was 650 pesos worth.

As we are in the taxi to his house, where I left my bags and needed to grab them before going back to Mexico City, I asked for the 650 reimbursement. He gave me 500 pesos. I pointed to his calculation of the rentals and said it was 650. He said, “No matter how pissed you’re going to get or pout this is all you’re going to get.” I told him using the word “pout” for my simple request was misogynistic – he proceeded to say “if you were a man I wouldn’t give you anything”. Then he conveniently decided he was “done with me”, would not take me on a tour or speak to me anymore about the fact he was stealing to me and breaking a promise, went to his apartment dramatically taking my bags out, triple locking the door behind him, telling the taxi driver to come up because he didn’t trust the “gringa loca” (I am a 110 pound female and he is about 3x that) and calling me a “b****”. !!! So just completely stole my money.

There were red flags that he had a questionable character – from saying things like “women always want to try to climb in the rain and then they come down wet and get b*tchy, or at least the Mexican women do,” to the fact that he moved basecamps from the bigger one to the tiny isolated one when another group of climbers came up, saying “they won’t stop talking, plus they like you and are going to ask questions, like do you have a boyfriend, and maybe you don’t, and maybe they’re lucky,” which I thought was particularly odd thing for him to complain about – the idea that someone might ask me if I have a boyfriend? (You would have hoped that a guide might realize a woman traveling with him alone might feel very vulnerable and be sensitive to that – but no, he insisted on going to an isolated, tiny basecamp away from other people despite me telling him I’d rather stay at the other one). But in case there was any doubt about his character, after stealing my money and insulting me, he texted me a slew of insults saying he should've "barfed on me" and I was a typical 'hypocritical Catholic'.

He also seemed to have no regard for his other clients. We saw the forecast that it was going to rain much more the following night, and he had a group coming to climb. I asked him if he should call them early so they could turn around, since they were driving from San Luis Potosi. He told me, “They wouldn’t want to turn around,” and so didn’t call them, so they could go through a similar experience that I did.

TL;DR: Avoid going to Pico with Ivan Loredo Vidal. He is a completely unscrupulous, miserable thief.

blueshade

blueshade - Apr 20, 2020 10:40 am Date Climbed: Mar 15, 2020

Orizaba std route  Sucess!

Climbed several acclimatization peaks before this, including Izta 2 days before. Friend didn't want to get up early which ended up working out well as we passed about 30 people bailing and about 30 people still on the way up. Up in 3:41 with only three groups making the summit ahead of me that started almost 5hrs earlier. Car to car in 6:43.

Weather window held with very good conditions.

adriaacarlos

adriaacarlos - Feb 22, 2020 9:11 pm Date Climbed: Nov 18, 2019

Incredibly Dry Glacier  Sucess!

This was my first summit of Citlaltépetl.
I arrived in the afternoon two days before in order to sleep at altitude overnight and to let my body fully acclimate. The next day I hiked up to the base of the glacier to learn the route. After hanging out at the base for a while I hiked back to the refuge to prepare my summit bag, eat dinner, and sleep (around 4pm). I began my summit attempt the next morning at 1:00am. November was incredibly dry so the glacier was mostly hard and flakey ice. The ascent felt incredibly long while on the glacier but the good weather and eventual sunrise made it all worth it.

adriaacarlos

adriaacarlos - Feb 22, 2020 8:57 pm Date Climbed: Feb 3, 2020

Beautiful Sunrise   Sucess!

The mountain had just received a fresh layer of snow and the weather/wind conditions could not have been better. My three person team was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise at the summit.

KingOfStoke

KingOfStoke - Feb 2, 2020 2:47 am Date Climbed: Feb 1, 2020

Slick Summits  Sucess!

Day 1- Get to the hut late afternoon. Brian started feeling ill again and made the hard (but smart) decision to head back down end enjoy some churros and tacos. Hiked up about 500 feet to avoid the crowds. Weather moved in. Looked bad.

Day 2- Big carry to high camp. Several teams turned back because of weather and ice. Nobody made the summit. Reportedly, the glacier was climbable up to about 17.5 thousand feet. That night, winds reached up to 50mph and neither me nor Zach felt good enough to sleep apparently as we both tossed around like crazy.

Day 3- The winds died down so I told Zach we should push for the summit. Zach agreed eventually and we crawled out of our bags dehydrated and hungry. One other team of 2 climbers was ahead of us by about 15 minutes by the time we got started at 07:30. About halfway up the glacier (around 17,200'), I started to notice the snow had blown off and my crampons weren't holding well. The ice was almost entirely exposed in certain places and we were facing a nearly 40° angle as a result. To say it was a slog is an understatement. I pushed ahead of Zach by about 10 minutes, and caught the other two climbers on the crater rim. Zach and I regrouped when he reached the rim and sumitted together at just before 10:00! Us 4 were the only people to make the summit that day, and I figure that, unless there was someone on Denali or Logan, we were likely the highest people on North American soil for a few minutes while up top. Took a while for us to get down after packing up because I made Zach stop for some crampon bouldering (7/10 form), and we were back at the Conchola's before 17:00!

Thank you so much Brian and Zach for a great trip! Couldn't have done it without both of you! Time for some churros and beer!

AnniinaH6C9trXd

AnniinaH6C9trXd - Jan 6, 2020 2:42 am Date Climbed: Sep 24, 2019

Perfect September weather, solo climb  Sucess!

I had a perfect solo climb at the end of this September to Pico de Orizaba. Here few remarks that I didn't see in the post.

As it was September, it was really tough to share a ride with anyone as I couldn't find any other climbers in Tlachichuca. I decided to organize a one-way trip through the Reyes family for 500 pesos. Reyes was very nice and called all guides to ask if someone is going up - I figured that in two days a group would be going up. I wouldn't be able to join them, but at least there would be someone else.

I slept alone at the smaller refuge. On the first day I was completely alone and I did an acclimatization climb to 5000 m. I had just climbed Izta so I was in pretty good shape. I left at 1 am, about 30 minutes after the bigger group (8 people) left. It was pretty warm and the sky was clear with no wind - all the way up! The trail on maps.me is not exact but as there are many stone piles, it was easy to navigate and I don't think there are risks of getting lost, as soon as you make sure you locate stone piles every few minutes.

It was quite easy to get until the glacier part, which is definitely the toughest as there was no snow, yet the ice was soft enough for the crampones to hold safely - didn't really need the ice axe. It's quite heavy for the ankles to be the whole accent in 40 degree angle. Reached the summit around 8 am so missed the sunrise but it was perfect - I even opened my jacket as the weather was quite warm with very little wind. I would estimate just a couple of minus degrees. Going down I was quite exhausted.

All in all I think that as the weather was so good, and the conditions were not icy, it was a very easy climb, even though physically very demanding, and from the other group only half made it all the way up. Should not underestimate the altitude - there was also a solo American climber who claimed to have climped so many high hills that this is a piece of cake, but he descended after just one hour climbing up. The crevasses were clearly visible and not more than 1 or 2 meters deep.

I was lucky to get a free ride back to Tlachichuca. I heard that very sadly the glacier is probably going to melt totally within the next 5 years so you better go when you still can, and do what you can to slow down climate change. There were some scientists studying the glacier the recording sounds of the glacier as an "audio documentary" to memorize the Jamapa glacier once it's gone.

halfotinos

halfotinos - Dec 23, 2019 8:30 am Date Climbed: Dec 22, 2019

Pico de Orizaba   Sucess!

Start at 1 a.m. from Piedra Grande hut, low visibility because of the fog lead to continuing past a turn in the labyrinth and going up the gully on the right side of the valley. Luckily, it turned out well and we got a more interesting route than the normal way. Reached the glacier at 4:30-ish and found a strong wind and continued low visibility. Summited a few hours later and were lucky enough to have a small break from the wind and fog and got to enjoy the view.

jacoblab1

jacoblab1 - Mar 25, 2019 12:02 pm Date Climbed: Oct 26, 2018

North face no summit

Got to within 100 meters of the summit but ended up turning back.

Started my climb too early and ended up near the summit about an hour before sunrise. Quite cold with fairly strong winds - too cold to just sit down and do nothing for an hour while waiting for the sun to come up, so I turned back.

Will probably start between 2am and 3am on my next attempt, as I climbed too fast for a 12:30am start.

Here's a blog post I wrote on doing the climb independently if anyone is interested.

How to climb Pico de Orizaba

Neanderlalex

Neanderlalex - Mar 24, 2019 8:43 pm Date Climbed: Mar 22, 2019

Pico de Orizaba Late Season Climb  Sucess!

Our team of five climbed up the north side of Pico de Orizaba on Friday 21, 2019. Alpine start from piedra grande hut at 1am, and had great weather through the climb. The Laberinth section had moderate ice requiring crampons and some anchor set-up. The glacier was in great condition, with good ice wavelets facilitating steps. No crevasses or ice bridges seen. We roped-up on ascent and partial descent, as the early afternoon made the glacier slushy towards the bottom. Great conditions at the top, about 15 degrees Fahrenheit with a 10-20 Mph wind.

eli.boardman

eli.boardman - Dec 27, 2018 10:16 am Date Climbed: Dec 30, 2017

Unguided, south slopes route  Sucess!

Whole family made the summit, beautiful conditions, no snow on the south-side route from 13k camp in Valle del Encuentro

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