Mexico - Rest day before Orizaba summit attempt

It is 8:30 am on Thursday morning. I'm sitting on the roof of the Summit Orizaba hotel. Pico de Orizaba is visible in the morning haze. I have less than 24 hours to be on the summit, 10k feet above me. No pressure.

We arrived at the hotel around 11:30 Tuesday night after descending from Ixta. Wednesday we spent resting, repacking gear, resting, eating, and resting.

Each day of this trip has had two students as "leaders of the day." Haro and I are the leaders for Friday's summit attempt. We sat in meetings with the guides for several hours on Wednesday, determining how to help everyone maximize their experience on the mountain. This included taking care of the hikers that will not make the summit, and allowing everyone with the potential to summit have an opportunity. Haro and I will take the reins as leaders from Gus and Tyler around 3pm this afternoon. We will get everyone horizontal, and then roust them out early enough for a 10pm start.

When we arrive on the mountain today everyone will set up camp and cook lunch/supper. I and two guides, Doug and Joe, will scout the route to the labyrinth. This should be 1000 foot elevation gain on relatively easy trail. The labyrinth is a maze of rocks and craigs for another 1000 foot of gain. After seeing the entrance to the labyrinth, I will turn back to camp. Doug and Joe will continue to the base of the Jamba glacier and camp there for the night. I will expect to see them again before 3am as I lead the "fast group" to the summit. With both guides we will traverse the glacier, climb to a ridge, and hike the ridge to the summit. The last 500 to 1000 feet is ice surface at a 35 degree slope.

After enjoying the 18,400 foot summit, we will return to the glacier, hopefully passing another summit group led by Marty, the third guide. Once on the glacier we will be training the rest of the group on the glacier skills we have just learned.

Almost anything can jeopardize our hike. This mountain is relatively close to the gulf and consequently gets a lot of bad weather. We are taking lots of precautions. So many I don't have time to describe them all here. As the start time gets closer, I realize how many things can go wrong. I'm praying for good weather, good decisions, and relying on a family atmosphere that we have built as a group over the last week in country.

I really like Mexico. The people are super friendly. The food is good. The country is interesting. Yesterday several of us got amazing sandwiches from a local hole-in-the-wall. One of my favorite things to do is get local food in a local setting. 

Mexico - Mount Popo eruptions

Mexico - Ixta Summit

Alarms began going off at 2am. Slowly, our group woke up and finished last minute preparations to summit Ixta. We walked out of camp at 3:15 am. The hike immediately became a drudge. I was not super keen about hiking up hill at 15k feet at 3 am. The half moon was fairly bright, so I kept my head lamp on low, at least while we were on obvious trail. We carried water, harnesses, crampons, and gear to rope ourselves together for glacier travel.

Soon the trail disappeared. We stood at the bottom of a massive rock slide. People had obviously been traveling up and down it, so we began to climb it ourselves. You can never tell how big a hill is until you have climbed it. This hill did not have a top. It went forever and ever. Soon we were out of the slide area and climbing steep rock faces. I passed Joe and turned my headlamp brighter and picked our route up the treacherous face. At one point I wondered if I would even climb this in the daylight at sea level. Soon I passed a cross. It had a plaque in memory of some climber, dated February 2018. "Great," I thought, "I'm climbing where someone else died a few weeks ago." But my lightheaded and hypoxic mind drove me onward.

The sun began to rise as we crested the hill. We stopped and admired the sunrise, and watched the volcano belch. Looking down was almost dizzying. I've climbed steep mountains, but I've never climbed them this high. One slip and I would fall literally thousands of feet. I had a pretty stiff headache when I woke up. I downed a liter of water and took one Tylenol before the hike, and now at altitude my headache was wearing off. We walked some ridges up and down until we found the glacier. Right across the glacier was the summit. Joe and I stood at the edge of the glacier, almost 17k feet high, and surveyed the route to the now visible summit. He and I were the first ones there by several minutes, and we knew we could quickly cross the glacier and summit efficiently. But we had a group of 12 behind us that we were supposed to stick with.

A note on sticking with groups. We started with three groups. A fast group, a slow group, and a group that most likely would not be able to summit. That last group grew by a few members from the slow group voluntarily, and one involuntary. Doug made one person go back because they were stumbling and going really slow. Typical of acute mountain sickness. They were tough though, they wanted to continue. The slow group and fast group, smaller now, kinda of merged. This was the group Joe and I waited for as we drooled at the summit.

Everyone soon caught up and we began to discuss our options. We had reached our turnaround time and technically needed to head back to stay on schedule. We had a hotel reservation this night, and half of our group waiting lower on the mountain. We talked about finishing the summit anyway, and adjusting our schedule, likely staying one more night on the mountain. I really wanted to summit, and I half expected Joe to bolt for it any moment. But I was thinking of our next mountain, and the rest of the group below. I knew a lot of people would be disappointed if we didn't make the hotel tonight. It was also getting obvious that we were very tired and in need of some low altitude, comfortable rest. I suggested we turn around. The rest of the guys supported me for the above reasons. I think Doug was disappointed. I know Joe was. But this trip was never about mountains for me. I thought this was the best option for the group. Reluctantly, I turned away and began the trek down.

The trip down was scary. There was almost no room for errors. I focused hard on foot holds and hand holds and moving slowly enough to have enough oxygen to think and make decisions. Joe and I quickly bailed off the mountain. The rest of the group came slower, and some used ropes. On the way down the volcano exploded even more, darkening the sky. The wind blasted our faces with ash, and we smelled a strong sulfur smell. It was awesome. Ever since I first saw the volcano I wanted to see it blow from up on the mountain. 

Back at camp I packed my pack for the trip down and relaxed in our tent waiting for the rest of the group to descend. It snowed off and on. Eventually we packed up our tent and headed down the mountain. My knees were tired. My legs were tired. My lungs were tired. When I reached the parking lot I had decended four thousand feet in one day, plus ascending two thousand. It snowed and rained and hailed and thundered as the rest of the group came down the mountain. I was already down, nursing my stomach ache in the little shelter where I bought a quesadilla two days ago.

We finally loaded everything into vans and headed for our hotel called Summit Orizaba. We stopped at a mall in Puebla to get food. I really need to learn Spanish better. I can speak it just fine, I just don't know the words I used to know.

Our new plan is to rest for two days, staying at the Summit Orizaba hotel, then attempt to summit Orizaba on Friday morning. We would probably camp at the trail head around 14 k feet on Thursday night and leave for the summit around midnight. 

Mexico - Ixta Base Camp

After restocking at Walmart, we set out for Ixta. Much of the drive was through beautiful Mexican countryside, and the last bit was on rough sandy mountain roads. 

Mount Poco is a mountain right next to Ixta. It is an active volcano so no one climbs it. We got to see it belching steam hundreds of feet into the air. The locals say it is visibly active sometimes once a month, sometimes once a year. I felt pretty lucky to see it blow today.

At the entrance to the national park we obtained permits and learned that only 5 people have died on this mountain in the last two months. They asked us to keep the casualties under seven...

The base camp is a sandy parking lot. Lots of groups were leaving as we arrived. There is a little shack where a lady sells some food. Lots of us bought some really good quesadillas from her.

After setting up camp, eating supper, and having worship, a bunch of us set out to carry a load of water further up the mountain. We hoped to acclimatize more and make the transition to high camp tomorrow easier. The sunset was awesome. It literally invoked awe. I personally hauled 8 liters of water and 3 ropes up to 14k feet before returning to base camp at 13k. Our whole group hauled 70 liters of water. We kinda got carried away and didn't leave enough water at base camp for breakfast. I had a little bit of a headache on the hike tonight, and I thought I may take some Tylenol before bed. By the time we got back to base camp I felt fine and went directly to bed.

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. 

Mexico - Ixta Base Camp Quesadillas

I had the most wonderful culinary experience at the base camp of Ixta. A little Mexican lady made quesadillas in a little brick shack, scantily clad in warped pieces of tin. After a little help from Pablo in reading the menu, I ordered two quesadillas myself, in Spanish. Fresh blue corn tortillas cradled potatoes, cheese, and cactus. The first bite was definitely a cultural experience, due to the cactus. By the end of my meal I was ready for more. I want to get some cactus at home and learn how to prepare it. If you like raw okra, I'm sure you would love lightly sauted cactus. 

Mexico - stove guy

I have long dreamed of owning an MSR Whisperlight international camp stove. This trip has given me the opportunity to learn this stove inside an out. I had never used one before this trip, but shortly after I first laid hands on a stove, I apparently became the resident expert. So far I've cleaned jets, cleaned and lubed o-rings, and troubleshot almost every aspect of this stove. It's a pretty cool stove. I'm not sure if I want one any more. I might. Now I have a lot more perspective to use when shopping for stoves.