Route Climbed: Jampa - Espinoza Route Date Climbed: Jan 17, 2006
We climbed from high camp at 15,415', leaving camp at 3:15am, summited shortly after sunrise. The glacier condition was variable from a tough icy surface to crumbly snow. The most icy stuff was at the top, but a good kick would get the crampons planted. Traversing the crater rim was longer than I thought and the crater seems much bigger in real life. We also had fun climbing different routes throught the labyrinth, which also was our source for melt water.
Great peak, clear yet windy. We had 0 degrees F on the summit with probably 20mph steady winds.
For fun we brought a slope meter. While the route bumped into the lower 40's in a couple of spots, the steepest pitch I measured was in the labyrinth. Perhaps though, I did not measure the truly steepest spots.
All of the details, route photos, notes and video can be found on our Orizaba page at: http://orizaba.14erquest.com
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: Jan 9, 2006
Had a great time climbing with Day Hiker and cp0915. The hut wasn't as bad as I expected. It was quite cold and rather windy on the glacier. Our exposed water bottles froze solid to the core. I wore fleece layers and insulated leather boots all of which worked fine. Though we brought a rope we opted not to rope up. We heard some reports that the angle of the upper slope on the glacier was up to 60 degrees but in our estimation it never exceeded 45. In the dark it seemed like we would never reach the summit. I reached the crater rim at 6:43am just in time to see the sun rise. The crater and the sunrise were amazing. The ascent took a little over 6 hours and the return was about 3 and half hours (sure felt longer though).
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier (Espolon de Oro variation) Date Climbed: January 9, 2006
Despite some AMS issues, I summited in 6 hours from the hut. A bit icy in places, but the glacier was in excellent condition. A few, small novelty crevasses along the way...
Day Hiker - Jan 11, 2006 2:23 am Date Climbed: Jan 9, 2006
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier
Did this climb with cp0915 and rwkent. We did our best to acclimate for this mountain by summiting La Malinche and Nevado de Toluca in the preceeding days, as well as hiking up to 15700 feet on the Orizaba trail the day before summit day.
After lying in the climbers' hut (13950 feet) for about 4 hours and getting maybe 15 minutes of sleep, I started up the trail at around 00:47. It took about 6.5 hours to summit, including rest stops and time to put on boots and crampons. Partially from the miserable lack of sleep, partially from climbing a 40-degree snow slope with 10 pounds of boots and crampons on my feet, and largely from the high elevation, I was completely exhausted by the time I reached the summit.
Gaiters were worn, but they turned out to be unnecessary because the snow was firm. The whole climb was done without one single posthole, which is good, considering the combined weight of body, clothing, and gear was about 270 pounds.
There was a steady cold breeze from the west during the entire climb up the glacier, which made me enjoy the times I was traversing to the east and dread the times I had to switch back and traverse to the west. At the summit, there was a steady 15-20mph breeze, and the temperature was somewhere around 10F, which really wasn't too bad for 18500 feet in January. The sky was completely cloud free. Although I was too tired to enjoy it, it was a beautiful day.
My GPS gave a time-averaged summit elevation of 18505 feet. This is my highest summit elevation to date, and it probably will be for a while, unless I do some traveling outside the continent of North America. The two mountains in North America that are higher require sleeping in a tent at -40F/C and not showering for 3 weeks.
Route Climbed: Ruta Espinoza Date Climbed: December-29-2005
Reached the summit of Pico for the second time, this time as part of a team wisely guided by "Oso" Flores and aided by his wife Raquel and Lupe. We had to climb this variation of the "Espolon de oro" route since the normal route up the Jamapa Glacier was somewhat icy. The frigid temperatures (5°F) and the steeper slopes (50-55°) made for a long slog, fortunately the winds were very light and the skies clear. We were able to avoid the labrynt since the snow conditions in "el canalon" were still decent. We had very hazy skies towards Izta and Popo. This was the third of four volcanoes on my trip to Mexico.
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: December 12, 2005
Since I don’t speak Spanish I arranged with Roberto Rodriguez “Oso” from Oriziba Mountain Guides http://www.orizabamountainguides.com.mx/ to climb La Milinche and Oriziba. Oso was wonderful, meeting me at the airport and arranging all ground transportation, food, water and lodging for 8 days. Completed an excellent climb of Oriziba with Michell, a guide from Peru that works for Oso. I highly recommend Oriziba Mountain Guides to anyone that doesn’t speak Spanish and wants to make a climbing trip to Mexico or South America stress free.
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 22 November 2005
7 out of our group of 8 sixty-plus year-old geriatrics made the summit on this perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky. We left the hut on the 21st and bivvied overnight just below the glacier on a flatish patch. It was a straight haul to the top with Diana, my 62-year old wife, hitting the summit first. Thanks Hector. Nice one!
Route Climbed: Jamapa glacier Date Climbed: nov. 23,2005
a very enjoyable climb. I owe it to my friend Deb for motivating me to go and climb this mountain, and I am very happy to have had this oportunity to climb with such a wonderfull companion.
Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: Jan 2005
Climbed it twice in 3 days. (3hrs 56min) Had a great time with a bunch of new friends from SP. Perfect weather and perfect full moon. Didnt even need my headlamp.
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: November 6, 2005
Climbed with Guilty, but not really, since I left the very noisy Piedra Grande Hut at 12:45 AM and Guilty didn't hit the trail 'til 4 AM. Nonetheless, he was on the summit within 30 minutes of my arrival up there and then proceeded to beat me down to the hut. Clear skies, but freezing wind chill factor. No altitude symptoms and up and down in 10 hours. Most excellent, SWEET adventure.
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: Nov 2005
With Joe Akeem. Beautiful easy route on a stunning peak, though next time I'd acclimatise for another day before the summit push...rarely have i felt so sick on a mountain
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: November 6, 05
Left at 4am, and took a great digitial video of the whole route, especially the sunrise and inside the crater. I was back by 10:45am. This was my second time up the mountain. Met some wonderful climbers and locals. That was the best part, eating there food and watching them climb in there street clothes.
Route Climbed: Jamapa glacier/espolon Date Climbed: November 11, 2005
Very nice solo climb, the night was beautiful and the weather perfect. There was some snowfall a day before, and the snow was somewhat deeper in the summit cone, but still in very good cramponing condition.
It took me 7 hours and 30 minutes up to the summit and back down to the hut.
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: December of 1998
This was my first international climbing trip. It was easy to organize. We stay at Senior Reyes and had a good experience. We were in Mexico for only 6 days. I wish we had more time to acclimate. I had quite the headache at 18,000 feet on summit day.
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: 11th October 2005
Climbed the mountain with an excellent local guide (Roberto Flores Rodroguez) during a 4 day window in a business trip. We had the mountain to ourselves, but there was a lot of soft, unconsolidated snow. As a consequence we 'summited' in the Kanchenjunga sense, i.e. we reached the crater rim, but declined to do the last few yards along unconsolidated snow to the pile of metal at the 'true' summit. A great route - and I would also recommend the Limons in Tlachichuca for excellent hospitality and transport.
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: July 2004
Well, my new wife and I made it to 17,500' under bluebird skies with no one else on the mountain. AMS started bothering us so we weren't taking any chances and we went down. We had a difficult time finding a route through the glacier polished moraine since it has retreated so much in recent years. This is a great climb, a little different from your typical glacier slog with scrambling, scree and snow sections. Weather is more stable in the winter, but you can get lucky in the summer like we did and not another soul was on the mountain.
1mvertical - Jan 19, 2006 3:35 pm
Route Climbed: Jampa - Espinoza Route Date Climbed: Jan 17, 2006We climbed from high camp at 15,415', leaving camp at 3:15am, summited shortly after sunrise. The glacier condition was variable from a tough icy surface to crumbly snow. The most icy stuff was at the top, but a good kick would get the crampons planted. Traversing the crater rim was longer than I thought and the crater seems much bigger in real life. We also had fun climbing different routes throught the labyrinth, which also was our source for melt water.
Great peak, clear yet windy. We had 0 degrees F on the summit with probably 20mph steady winds.
For fun we brought a slope meter. While the route bumped into the lower 40's in a couple of spots, the steepest pitch I measured was in the labyrinth. Perhaps though, I did not measure the truly steepest spots.
All of the details, route photos, notes and video can be found on our Orizaba page at: http://orizaba.14erquest.com
CBakwin - Jan 14, 2006 7:24 pm
Route Climbed: Jampa Date Climbed: January 14,2006Left the hut at 2:15am,summited at 7:30,very icy but a beautiful fullmoon night. Fun day, back at Piedra Grande at 11:30am
Rick Kent - Jan 13, 2006 1:24 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: Jan 9, 2006Had a great time climbing with Day Hiker and cp0915. The hut wasn't as bad as I expected. It was quite cold and rather windy on the glacier. Our exposed water bottles froze solid to the core. I wore fleece layers and insulated leather boots all of which worked fine. Though we brought a rope we opted not to rope up. We heard some reports that the angle of the upper slope on the glacier was up to 60 degrees but in our estimation it never exceeded 45. In the dark it seemed like we would never reach the summit. I reached the crater rim at 6:43am just in time to see the sun rise. The crater and the sunrise were amazing. The ascent took a little over 6 hours and the return was about 3 and half hours (sure felt longer though).
cp0915 - Jan 11, 2006 11:51 am
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier (Espolon de Oro variation) Date Climbed: January 9, 2006Despite some AMS issues, I summited in 6 hours from the hut. A bit icy in places, but the glacier was in excellent condition. A few, small novelty crevasses along the way...
Day Hiker - Jan 11, 2006 2:23 am Date Climbed: Jan 9, 2006
Route Climbed: Jamapa GlacierDid this climb with cp0915 and rwkent. We did our best to acclimate for this mountain by summiting La Malinche and Nevado de Toluca in the preceeding days, as well as hiking up to 15700 feet on the Orizaba trail the day before summit day.
After lying in the climbers' hut (13950 feet) for about 4 hours and getting maybe 15 minutes of sleep, I started up the trail at around 00:47. It took about 6.5 hours to summit, including rest stops and time to put on boots and crampons. Partially from the miserable lack of sleep, partially from climbing a 40-degree snow slope with 10 pounds of boots and crampons on my feet, and largely from the high elevation, I was completely exhausted by the time I reached the summit.
Gaiters were worn, but they turned out to be unnecessary because the snow was firm. The whole climb was done without one single posthole, which is good, considering the combined weight of body, clothing, and gear was about 270 pounds.
There was a steady cold breeze from the west during the entire climb up the glacier, which made me enjoy the times I was traversing to the east and dread the times I had to switch back and traverse to the west. At the summit, there was a steady 15-20mph breeze, and the temperature was somewhere around 10F, which really wasn't too bad for 18500 feet in January. The sky was completely cloud free. Although I was too tired to enjoy it, it was a beautiful day.
My GPS gave a time-averaged summit elevation of 18505 feet. This is my highest summit elevation to date, and it probably will be for a while, unless I do some traveling outside the continent of North America. The two mountains in North America that are higher require sleeping in a tent at -40F/C and not showering for 3 weeks.
pacojgarza - Jan 3, 2006 4:22 am
Route Climbed: Ruta Espinoza Date Climbed: December-29-2005Reached the summit of Pico for the second time, this time as part of a team wisely guided by "Oso" Flores and aided by his wife Raquel and Lupe. We had to climb this variation of the "Espolon de oro" route since the normal route up the Jamapa Glacier was somewhat icy. The frigid temperatures (5°F) and the steeper slopes (50-55°) made for a long slog, fortunately the winds were very light and the skies clear. We were able to avoid the labrynt since the snow conditions in "el canalon" were still decent. We had very hazy skies towards Izta and Popo. This was the third of four volcanoes on my trip to Mexico.
Check my trip report for details.
fellersw - Dec 19, 2005 6:45 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: December 12, 2005Since I don’t speak Spanish I arranged with Roberto Rodriguez “Oso” from Oriziba Mountain Guides http://www.orizabamountainguides.com.mx/ to climb La Milinche and Oriziba. Oso was wonderful, meeting me at the airport and arranging all ground transportation, food, water and lodging for 8 days. Completed an excellent climb of Oriziba with Michell, a guide from Peru that works for Oso. I highly recommend Oriziba Mountain Guides to anyone that doesn’t speak Spanish and wants to make a climbing trip to Mexico or South America stress free.
Mike Garside - Dec 18, 2005 4:16 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 22 November 20057 out of our group of 8 sixty-plus year-old geriatrics made the summit on this perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky. We left the hut on the 21st and bivvied overnight just below the glacier on a flatish patch. It was a straight haul to the top with Diana, my 62-year old wife, hitting the summit first. Thanks Hector. Nice one!
snocat - Dec 15, 2005 10:58 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa glacier Date Climbed: nov. 23,2005a very enjoyable climb. I owe it to my friend Deb for motivating me to go and climb this mountain, and I am very happy to have had this oportunity to climb with such a wonderfull companion.
timfoltz - Dec 6, 2005 10:51 pm
Route Climbed: Standard Date Climbed: November 24, 2005Started very early, and watched sunrise from the summit ridge.
gobriango - Nov 29, 2005 9:29 am
Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: Jan 2005Climbed it twice in 3 days. (3hrs 56min) Had a great time with a bunch of new friends from SP. Perfect weather and perfect full moon. Didnt even need my headlamp.
Hikerchick63 - Nov 21, 2005 6:22 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: November 6, 2005Climbed with Guilty, but not really, since I left the very noisy Piedra Grande Hut at 12:45 AM and Guilty didn't hit the trail 'til 4 AM. Nonetheless, he was on the summit within 30 minutes of my arrival up there and then proceeded to beat me down to the hut. Clear skies, but freezing wind chill factor. No altitude symptoms and up and down in 10 hours. Most excellent, SWEET adventure.
Dan Bailey - Nov 19, 2005 12:42 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: Nov 2005With Joe Akeem. Beautiful easy route on a stunning peak, though next time I'd acclimatise for another day before the summit push...rarely have i felt so sick on a mountain
joe_akeem - Nov 18, 2005 5:25 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: November 12, 2005With Dan Bailey in 9 hrs round trip from the hut. Fantastic weather, perfect conditions.
Guilty - Nov 14, 2005 10:28 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: November 6, 05Left at 4am, and took a great digitial video of the whole route, especially the sunrise and inside the crater. I was back by 10:45am. This was my second time up the mountain. Met some wonderful climbers and locals. That was the best part, eating there food and watching them climb in there street clothes.
RModelli - Nov 14, 2005 4:25 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa glacier/espolon Date Climbed: November 11, 2005Very nice solo climb, the night was beautiful and the weather perfect. There was some snowfall a day before, and the snow was somewhat deeper in the summit cone, but still in very good cramponing condition.
It took me 7 hours and 30 minutes up to the summit and back down to the hut.
dkmayhew - Nov 13, 2005 8:40 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: December of 1998This was my first international climbing trip. It was easy to organize. We stay at Senior Reyes and had a good experience. We were in Mexico for only 6 days. I wish we had more time to acclimate. I had quite the headache at 18,000 feet on summit day.
Bill Maxwell - Oct 17, 2005 10:00 am
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: 11th October 2005Climbed the mountain with an excellent local guide (Roberto Flores Rodroguez) during a 4 day window in a business trip. We had the mountain to ourselves, but there was a lot of soft, unconsolidated snow. As a consequence we 'summited' in the Kanchenjunga sense, i.e. we reached the crater rim, but declined to do the last few yards along unconsolidated snow to the pile of metal at the 'true' summit. A great route - and I would also recommend the Limons in Tlachichuca for excellent hospitality and transport.
Seth Maciejowski - Oct 14, 2005 5:06 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: July 2004Well, my new wife and I made it to 17,500' under bluebird skies with no one else on the mountain. AMS started bothering us so we weren't taking any chances and we went down. We had a difficult time finding a route through the glacier polished moraine since it has retreated so much in recent years. This is a great climb, a little different from your typical glacier slog with scrambling, scree and snow sections. Weather is more stable in the winter, but you can get lucky in the summer like we did and not another soul was on the mountain.
edl - Sep 25, 2005 3:05 pm
Route Climbed: Jamapa Glacier Date Climbed: Nov. 97Great route. Easy glacier climb.