| Pico de Fraile Trip Report |
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| Pico de Fraile   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Mexico, North America Lat/Lon: 19.09456°N / 99.75998°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 12, 2009 Activities: Hiking Season: Summer | Page By: nicstandaert Created/Edited: Jul 14, 2009 / Jul 23, 2009 Object ID: 529680 Hits: 228 Loading... Page Score: 85.83% - 1 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Getting there  View of the parking and hut.
I did this trip on my own, as a day trip from Toluca, as I wasn't sure there would be accomodation near the Nevado de Toluca. You can camp indeed, or sleep at the refuge at the end of the road, but must bring a sleeping bag. As I didnt have one, and since the park closes at 6pm, I stayed in Toluca, in the Hotel San Nicolas at 190 pesos a night. (An even cheaper one is Hotel Maya at 100 pesos). Both of them are near 'Los Portales', that is the archways in the centre of town.
I took the bus early in the morning from the main bus terminal to the village of Raices (20 pesos). I asked the bus driver about how to get to the mountains and he let me of at the beginning of the road that goes up to the refuge/parking. It is quite a drive to the refuge, so I hitchhiked and got a ride from a couple from the capital. We drove up to where there is a parking and the refuge, and where you can buys some drinks and snacks. This is where the trail starts. There is a trail going to the Pico de Aguila, towards the right, but everyone heads straight ahead for the lagunas.
The main trail goes from the parking to the rim of the crater. From there you can see the Laguna de la Luna on the left, and the Laguna del Sol on the right.The trail  View of the Laguna del Sol(the one on the left) and the Laguna de la Luna.
This is as far as most visitors go. I walked down to the Lagunas and started my hike up to the Pico de Fraile from the Laguna de Sol. From the lagunas you can distinguish three peaks, the second one being the pico campanarios, the one on the far right being the Pico de Fraile. There is a clear trail going up towards the first peak. Here I went behind the first and the second, to ascend between the second (pico campanarios) and the third (pico de fraile). Going from behind there is no clear trail, just rocks with some grass growing in between at the lower parts, and big rocks as you go up. There were a couple of eagles flying over my head, always lovely to see that.
The top
Once I submerged from the backside, I walked to the second peak, where there was a metal pole peaking out of the rocks, from where I climbed up to the pico de fraile. I had a good view during the hike, only some clouds came blowing in as I reached the top, which took me about two and a half hours to reach. There is some information by the lake stating the peak is at 4660m (15289 feet), although I've also seen other numbers on the net on that.I was back down at about two pm. A nice family gave me a ride all the way back to Toluca, we stopped for some snacks along the way.
I hiked with my Merrell boots that I had just bought in Mexico City at Ruben's Sports, but there are a couple of other shops in town with good quality hiking gears. I also got my wind and waterproof jacket there, which was great as it wasn't really cold on the top. It was a great hike, although I had initially planned to hike the Pico de Aguila also, which I decided not to do as the clouds came blowing in and I was feeling quite tired already (I had climbed the Ajusco the day before), so I will be back in the Nevado the Toluca! Images
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