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[TR] Mexico--Pico de Orizaba and La Malinche - Jam


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Trip: Mexico--Pico de Orizaba and La Malinche - Jamapa Glacier

 

Date: 1/5/2009

 

Trip Report:

Inspired by stories we read on summit post and a strong desire for international climbing, Nick and I decided to take a shot at high altitude climbing by heading to Mexico to climb Pico de Orizaba, North America’s third highest mountain, which stands at 18,500 feet. We had two weeks during winter break in which to climb Orizaba and the neighboring La Malinche (14,600 ft), with time leftover for visiting some other towns and important historical sites in Mexico. While we pretty much planned the first half of the trip, the remaining week we were free to explore the country. Here’s what we ended up doing:

 

TRIP SCHEDULE

Day One: arrived in Mexico City and traveled to Puebla

Day Two: traveled to Apizaco, and then took a cab to the La Malinche resort

Day Three: climbed La Malinche (14,600 ft), traveled to Tlachichuca and stayed with Maribel Canchola

Day Four: jeep ride to the Piedra Grande hut, short acclimatization hike (to ~14,700 ft)

Day Five: hiked to 16,000 ft (base of Jamapa glacier)

Day Six: climbed Pico de Orizaba (18,500 ft, left at 1 am, summited at 8:30 am, back to hut at noon), traveled back to Tlachichuca

Day Seven: traveled to Cholula and visited pyramid

Day Eight: traveled to Oaxaca

Day Nine and Ten: visited Oaxaca and ruins at Monte Alban

Day Eleven: traveled to Mexico City

Day Twelve through Fourteen: visited Mexico City and Teotihaucan pyramids

Day Fifteen (Christmas day): flew home!

 

Purifying our hotel tap water (it was a pain, but we never got sick!)

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The first few days of the trip seemed to fly by, and in no time we were standing on a mountain that was just slightly taller than Rainier! La Malinche was an excellent acclimatization step which I feel was essential for our success on Orizaba, and I recommend it to anyone planning to climb Mexico’s volcanoes. It was amazing to feel my body adjust to the altitude in such a short amount of time, to where staying in the hut at 14,000 feet felt fairly comfortable. We took a cab from the town of Apizaco to the camp at the base of the mountain, and the summit can be attained in a 4-5 hour hike up a pleasant trail.

 

Our cabin at the base of La Malinche

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View of the summit

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Summit of La Malinche

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Another piece of advice would be to stay with the family of Maribel Canchola in Tlachichuca, our starting point for Orizaba. They were an extremely generous and welcoming family, and we really felt at home with them. I contacted Maribel (who speaks good english) by email about 2 months before our climb to make a reservation, and she had dinner and a room waiting for us as soon as we arrived. We bought 20 L of purified water from them for $3, and they let us use their 2 burner stove while on the mountain.

 

Pico de Orizaba

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Hut transportation provided by Joaquim Canchola

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For the climb of Orizaba, Nick and I still felt it necessary to take a day to acclimate while hiking up to the base of the glacier at 16,000 feet. Not only were we able to cache 4 L of water for our summit attempt that night, but we also got a chance to check out the route through the labyrinth, a section of steep ice and boulders that has to be navigated in the dark. I don’t think we ever took the same path up or down this section, but any route is about as interesting as the next. Crampons were needed from 15,500 ft on, although steel crampons are advised as you will frequently travel between ice and rock.

 

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We left for the summit just before 1 am with a fellow Seattle climber, giving us time to get up and down before the afternoon weather settled in, as it tended to get windy later in the day. I would also advise doing the climb midweek when the hut is less crowded, although it was fun to meet all the people coming down on Sunday when we arrived. The altitude really hit me at about 17,000 feet, but by moving slowly and steadily we were still able to make good time to the summit. Drinking large quantities of water also really helped with the altitude, although it was easy to forget to drink up there.

 

Alpine start on Orizaba (1 am)

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Sunrise with our Seattle friend (17,000 feet)

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Mountain shadow

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Summit!

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Descending the glacier

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Interesting ice formations in the labyrinth

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Participating in an AMS study with Utah grad students

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All in all, we really enjoyed the feeling of high altitude climbing, and after some rest we were already talking about where we wanted to go next time (Kilimanjaro, Cotopaxi,…?).

With some much needed rest at Maribel’s house that night, we were ready for the next phase of our trip!

 

The Cancholas

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We spent a pleasant day in Cholula, Puebla, where we visited the largest pyramid in the world, followed by three days in Oaxaca.

 

Church on top of the pyramid

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Oaxaca was perhaps our favorite town to visit—very artsy and full of activity. We spent some time in the zocalo (historical center) people watching and sampling tasty local foods. We also visited the ancient Zapotec/Mixtec ruins at Monte Alban on a guided tour, which was well worth the $20 we paid.

 

Oaxaca

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Finally, we stayed at a hostel in Mexico City for three days prior to our departure. We were given free guided walking tours of some historical sites in the city through our hostel, as well as breakfasts, dinners and drinks. Mexico City is huge and full of people and cars, so the air is very polluted and gave Nick a pretty bad cough. I wouldn’t suggest hanging out there too long before climbing the mountain. That being said, it was a fun place to spend some time and meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world.

 

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We had a great time on this trip and can’t wait for our next adventure!

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons, ice ax, helmet, (didn't rope up on the glacier, but brought the gear just in case), GPS (for labyrinth).

 

Approach Notes:

Bumpy ride to Piedra Grande!

 

A little Spanish goes a long way when it comes to buses and taxis.

Edited by Hayley Sierra
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Look like a nice trip. Oaxaca is such awesome town. I having such a flash back I just have to share.

 

I remember vividly rollin' in there on Christmas Eve. We had driven straight non-stop from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Oaxaca, 30+ hour drive. The last 6 hours were hell, my sister had just gotten done rolling our Bettle, roof caved in front windshield smashed out, one wheel bent, and in a fit of rage at my sister I smashed out the rear windshield too with my foot. People were nice and helped us roll the vehicle back over and push it to the nearest house before the feds showed up, we hid our money and ID's just in case, they would have taken everything over in that area if they did show up. It turns out this house is brothel and while my sister and gf were going into town to fetch supplies to I could get our car together the prostitutes were hitting on me. I worked as fast I could to get pull out the fenders, replace the front wheel and kick out the roof of the car. They came back soon with plastic and tape for the windshield and rear window. Then I taped some red potato chip bags onto the broken tail lights. The one hour drive we had left to Oaxaca turned out to be three when we got caught in the worst hail storm I have ever been in. I was completely blind and driving by feel, my gf was holding the windshield to keep it from bowing in too much at our raging speed of 5+ mph. We finally arrived in town just as they were setting off the fireworks, ten minutes later we were drinking margarita.

 

A margarita never tasted so good! Thanks for the memory one freaking crazy trip.

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way cool and nicely done.

 

Hey, did I see you on training on Granit Mountian around the end of October?

 

You passed me and a group of Boy Scouts (the younger boys) like we were standing still. :D

 

As much as I would like to say so, unfortunately that wasn't me. Good to hear you're getting more young people outside though!

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