Trip Reports

Mexican Volcanoes - 19 Dec - 3 Jan '09

Reaching the crater rim on Orizaba
Trip Report

Written by Leader Joe Gittins, January 2009

What a great trip! A beautiful country, amazing landscape, delicious food, inspiring mountains and very friendly people! Although it was wintertime in Mexico, for us it meant shorts and tee shirt weather! We started with an initial trip to the Teotihuacan Pyramids, the history of which is impressive, to say the least. Moving onto Nevado de Toluca, we climbed two peaks, Eagle Peak and Friar Peak. The vast majority of the group summitted on both, giving great, early acclimatisation. In Nevada itself, we visited the Botanical Gardens, with its awesome stained glass windows. This is the largest example of stained glass in the world, consisting of 500,000 pieces and is truly amazing. We then moved onto Iztaccihuatl, next to the presently active Popocatepetl, an awesome sight. Again, most of the group summitted, to be granted amazing views, of both our previous climbs and the next climb, Orizaba, the highest in Mexico.

After a rest day, with plenty of eating, we moved up to Orizaba and journeyed to high camp at approximately 4,900m. A cold night gave way to perfect visibility and views and again the majority of the group summitted here too, getting photos on the crater rim with spectacular views all around.

Colds and chest infections were the only things to affect a strong team that otherwise would have had a 100% summit record. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all, everyone gained valuable mountain experience and skills. We all certainly sampled the local cuisine and wines and New Years Eve was definitely a great night to be remembered. This trip will get more and more popular!

Joe Gittins, Expedition Leader« | »

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