Christmas 2014 on Orizaba and Iztaccihuatl

You Tube Slideshow with Music

Summit Video

We made the assumption that we were the highest people in North America at the time as it was highly unlikely that anybody was this high on Denali or Logan this time of year. We headed back down after a little over an hour up there and decided to go for a more mellow descent. We went farther down the ridge from where we hit it towards Ice Needle. Jane and I ended up exploring the ridge a bit too far thinking the saddle would afford a very low angle line. It did, but the glacier was too icy at the saddle. We had to reclimb about 200 vertical with some scrambling, which isn’t easy at 18000’! We lost about one hour from this, but it did give us some pretty sweet views of the crater! The glacier was still very firm, but the plunge stepping down was easy as the snow was perfect for crampons.







We made it back down the Labyrinth and took yet another track down. We came across a family of 3 Mexicans at an optional 4th class step. After Jane and I downclimbed it, the older man couldn’t decide if he wanted to face in or out! Jane and I couldn’t figure out the Spanish word to say, so we just gave him the umpire home run signal to turn around. Nothing like working together with a language barrier!



The good thing about Orizaba unlike other big mountains is the descent is very quick. The trail had turned into a bobsled run near the hut as all the locals who go up a ways in tennis shoes had made it very slick! Jane and I got back to the hut at 12:30 for a 10 hour day. Dave can say that he smoked his wife down! Our ride down the mountain was on time and we were back at the Canchola’s in Tlachichuca after a long, dusty ride. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and enjoyed a nice dinner at Canchola’s before embarking on our next adventure in the morning to Iztaccihuatl.

Iztaccihuatl

The logistics to climb Orizaba and Izta can be somewhat involved, so we decided to use the shuttle services of Antonio for the entire trip. We were down to a team of 4 as Chris and Kimmie went to a nice resort, while Jessica stayed on Orizaba. Antonio’s employee Joel picked us up right on time and we were off to the La Joya trailhead. We stopped at a Walmart to restock on snacks and I tried to experience the culture more by getting a few “drink” items. One “beverage” looked like some kind of green veggie drink. As I started drinking it in the front seat, Joel gave me a weird look and I said, “Mucho caliente, Senor!” Come to find out I was drinking a chip dip with picantes and jalapenos! I also purchased the Mexican version of eggnog and didn’t realize it needed to be mixed con leche! Joel mixed it with water for me and it tasted like coconut water!

Joel drove us up the paved road to the gate at Paso de Cortez, the saddle between Izta and Popo. Here we got our permits, but got the disappointing news that Joel couldn’t drive us to the La Joya trailhead because it was very busy with all the locals wanting to go up and see the snow and there is a limit on the number of cars they let pass through! I think there may have been some miscommunication, because we talked to a hiker later who was able to drive up. All of the sudden we had to figure out if we could still pull this climb off. Now we would have to hike 8 km up a dusty road just to get to the trailhead late in the afternoon with full packs for an early start in the morning! I figured we had paid to get here, so we might as well give our all and that we did.



We had no maps other than a GPS track of the route itself. After about 1.5 miles and 300 vertical up the dusty road, a kind fellow hiker from Monterrey stopped to give us a ride! He and his two sons were also going to attempt a dayhike of Izta in the morning. We were so fortunate that they stopped, otherwise we would have only gotten a couple hours to rest before starting! Joel said we needed to be back at Paso de Cortez no later than 4pm, which was going to be rough since we guessed Izta could take up to 12 hours from the trailhead.



Iztaccihuatl (17159’)
Via La Arista del Sol
10 miles RT, 5100’ gain
December 30, 2014

On Christmas Eve, a storm dumped a lot of snow on Izta, more than there was on Orizaba. The snowline was at around 12500’, still accessible by car. Snow is a novelty to Mexicans, and with the holiday it was a cluster of activity up there! Our friend was kind enough to drive us all the way up to a spur trail only about 1.5 miles below La Joya at about 12800’. The locals are so enamored by the snow that they build a little snowman on the hood of their car and watch it melt as they drive down the mountain. We trudged up the steep, snowy trail and the locals looked at us like we were crazy going up with these huge packs! Loco Americanos, si, seniorita?

The trail somehow petered out after we topped out on a ridge and we had to posthole offtrail through some uneven tufts of grass and contour down to the road. We finally hit the real trailhead at 13000’ about an hour before sunset and were treated with a world class sunset as we were making dinner! I bought Jane’s 900 calorie Pad Thai meal from her, hoping that it would give me some extra energy for the long day ahead. Taylor and I shared my tent and we didn’t get settled down until about 8:30. I don’t think I got any real sleep, so I hope I could survive this long day at altitude! It was Jane’s first calendar winter camping, but it sure didn’t feel like Colorado winter camping.







In order to allow ourselves enough time to get to the summit and all the way down to Paso de Cortez by 4pm, we started at 1:30am. We got up early enough to pack up camp and cached our camping gear since there would be a lot of people milling around while we were gone. By my calculations, we needed to summit in no more than 8 hours to get down on time. We knew there was a lot of snow on the mountain, so we hoped it was nice and firm all day. Dave set a nice steady, mellow pace out of the gate and it was very warm out, with temps in the upper 30’s. It was cool to see all of the city lights far below. After a gentle ascending traverse, the trail climbs steeply to about 14040’ to a saddle, the first portillo. The trail then descended briefly on the other side of the ridge and we then climbed steeply up to another saddle at 14430’.

We were making good time, but the wind started to pick up. It was surreal climbing such a big mountain in the dark and it was hard to tell how bad the runout was below! At the 2nd portillo, the trail crossed back over to the left (west) side of the ridge. The snow was very firm, but there was a nice track cutting across the slope. After a couple minutes across, Dave got out his axe and I suggested that we all go back to the little saddle and put on our crampons. We couldn’t see the runout, but you would only have a few seconds to self arrest on this firm snow. It turned out to be a good call as it felt a lot more secure with crampons, even though the terrain was easy. It was a long traverse on both sides of the ridge. The route passes through the saddle between the feet and the knees, before finally reaching the Grupo de los Cien hut at 15500’. We made it to the hut in 3 hours, which was good considering we had a couple breaks and had to mess with crampons already.

The climb to the knees summit is really demoralizing in the dark because you have no sense of reference as to when this slope is going to let up! We climbed about a 35 degree snow slope to the left of the ridge crest to the famous cross, then had a brief stretch of some class 3 scrambling. When we reached the summit of the Knees, we could feel the wind a lot more. Luckily, it was still pretty warm for such a high altitude even though the wind was blowing 30mph at times. There was a brief downclimb below the summit of the Knees that was trivial on the return but got your attention in the dark with the wind blowing in your face. The rest of the traverse to the summit involves another 3 false summits, but isn’t very sustained.

We made good time in the mellower areas as our acclimatization was really starting to pay off. The sun finally rose and I must say it was one of the best I have ever seen. All the smog in the valley is very bad, it makes for some great color contrasts for the sunrise! This was literally one of the most scenic climbs I have been on, and I have been to a lot of cool places in Colorado!










We were all excited that it looked like we were going to have plenty of time to summit. I think the final two false summits were cooler than the true summit. There was a cool fin of snow that we crossed after the final false summit and we finally topped out at last on the 7th highest free standing mountain in North America at 7:32am for a 6 hour ascent.



We stayed on the summit long enough to take a few photos, then took a break out of the wind on the edge of the glacier plateau. The bad thing about this hike is you are up high for a long time and you have about 1200’ vertical on the return. Perhaps half of the hike is above 16K, so I thought it was a bit more strenuous than Orizaba! I just kept pounding the snacks and water and felt pretty good on the descent. The views on the way back were superb. It was cool to finally see what we climbed since about five hours of the ascent was in the dark!







There were only 3 people that we passed on the way to the top, but there were some people strung out on the ridge beyond the hut. Most of them had not reached the Knees on our return, so we figured only a solo Mexican climber and another group of 3 were far enough along to make it. One of the guys had a deflated look when I told him he had dos horas left! We finally were able to take our crampons off after the long traverse and the lower trail had turn into a mud bog in spots and slick slush near the bottom as there were many locals coming up in tennis shoes. On the return down the ridge, we were treated with a minor eruption on nearby Popocatepetl! It is a regular occurrence. The last 200 feet to the trailhead may have been the crux of the climb! We arrived back at camp at 12:15pm and we got our stuff packed up in short order.

I didn’t have high hopes that we would find somebody to give us a ride down. The father and his boys had turned around below the summit of the Knees on our descent and were a few hours behind us, so we just started marching down the road and hoped somebody felt sorry for us. We were once again treated to another eruption over on Popo, and this time the ash cloud was very high!



I think it is currently more active than usual because it made the news. The 5 mile walk down the road was a cluster of activity. First we trudged through slush, then mud, then all the dust from the traffic. At one point the road was so jammed that we had to wait to walk through the traffic! We got back to Paso de Cortez at 3pm with an hour to spare, and Joel was waiting for us with awesome tacos, a Coke, and water! The final mile was brutal in mountaineering boots, but the view over to Popo made up for it.

Joel got us back to Mexico City where we stayed at a nice Doubletree hotel near the airport and had a nice celebration dinner that night. This is a trip that I will never forget, and I am sure my partners would agree. The trip to Mexico made me feel blessed for the modern conveniences we enjoy in the US, but the people down there cherish their families, and that is something that I admired. I would highly recommend the Canchola’s family in Tlachichuca (www.summitorizaba.com) as their services are very affordable and convenient. Antonio is also an excellent choice for shuttle services if you are going with a good sized group. The logistical conveniences were well worth the extra money. If you are looking for a taste of international mountaineering where you can day hike to high elevations, then Orizaba and Izta make for a great introductory trip!