Mexico - Ixta High Camp

Mexico - Ixta High Camp

We broke camp before daybreak and prepared to move to high camp. Once again, Joe, Aaron, Pablo and myself headed out first. It was a beautiful bluebird day. We stopped at the cash of water and gear and I picked up more water to add to my already heavy pack. We rested here for a few minutes with a wonderful view of the active volcano. Soon we crested the first saddle and the trail dropped to the Eastern side of the ridge in full sun. The tail became steeper. Lizards sunned themselves on rocks. 

It was a hard hike to high camp, near 15k feet. Once we arrived we rested, ate, and stowed gear. I saw, and heard an airliner fly overhead. Never heard an airliner before. I thought, "shoot, we must be pretty high." In a bowl below our saddle ridge camp, there were cows grazing. They must have been at least 14k feet high on the mountain. That was pretty shocking. 

Soon we headed back down. Between the four of us there was still 70 liters of water to pack from our cash at 14 k feet. We passed the rest of the group here and there as we headed down the trail. It didn't take long to reach the cash. We napped in the sun and dried out our feet before loading up the water and trudging up hill once more. Halfway back to camp, after the steepest and roughest section of trail, several guys met us and split our loads for the rest of the way back to camp. 

When we got back to camp I had a splitting headache. The first time I was at that altitude today I had felt great. I drank a bunch of water. A couple hours later I took a Tylenol. It seemed like hours, but eventually my headache went away. 

We went to bed early and prepared for an early start to attempt the summit the next day.