Pico de Orizaba summit! 

With bellies full of cheese from last night’s dinner, we powered our way through a midnight wakeup. The first few hours of the route take us through “The Labyrinth”, which would be an easy place to take a wrong turn. Fortunately, we have Allen (our local guide) with us to help us efficiently navigate. Through the Labyrinth and at the base of the glacier we donned crampons and make our way up the ever-steepening slopes of the Jamapa Glacier until finally topping out on the third highest peak in North America!

Congrats to all the climbers who summitted La Malinche, Iztaccíhuatl and Pico de Orizaba! We now just spend the night at Dr. Reyes’ soap factory museum before most of us head home tomorrow.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

This morning we head towards Pico de Orizaba, one of our main climbing objectives of the trip, relaxed and rested after two nights and a full day in Puebla.

Rest day activities were varied, as usual. Some intrepid folks made their way to Cholula, where you can view and hike up ancient Aztec pyramids. Others explored art exhibits in Puebla and while others just fully relaxed. RMI Guide Lauren Macklin and I found our way to a brand-new bouldering gym before enjoying afternoon lattes at my favorite coffee roaster in town.

The evening was capped with a nice dinner at El Mural de los Poblanos where we sampled some local mezcals, ate delicious traditional foods and shared our rest day stories with the group.

Puebla feels to me like the world's biggest little city and is the place to stay when in this region. There is a ton of history, great outdoor activities and it’s more laidback than Mexico City. We could easily spend the duration of this trip having a spa day in Puebla and drinking fancy wines at rooftop bars. But alas, we have a mountain to climb. On to Pico de Orizaba!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier and team

With dust in our eyes (it hasn’t snowed here since early January) and a dream in our hearts (no matter how dirty and tired we are, we all continue wanting it), we awoke at 12:45am this morning to climb Iztaccíhuatl (Ixta). Actually, we were all awake around 10:45pm to overhear the saga of two of our climbers trying to get a mouse out of their tent. Either way, these alpine starts always seem to come a touch too early.

Our day started with a sleepy ascent of “The Knees” section of the route. Once atop “The Knees”, there was a moderate wind that stuck around all day. Most of us wore parkas for nearly the entire climb; it was chilly but beautifully clear. Once the sun came up, we could clearly pick out skyscrapers in downtown Mexico City, which is unassumingly, the fifth largest city in the world.

The group powered through cold, wind and dust and everyone who made the attempt today also reached the summit! Congrats to this bus full of climbers who will enjoy their well-deserved Tacos Arabe in Puebla this evening.

Dustin

Feliz Día de San Valentin :)

We are now settled in at high camp on Ixta after a day of good Mexican eating and a four hour hike with heavy packs.

Everyone is in good spirits as we enjoy another nice sunset and prepare for our first big summit attempt of the trip.

Dustin

Today we are headed to Ixtaccihuatl via a several hour bus ride from the La Malintzi resort. It was a restful evening feasting on a parrillada and watching the Superbowl on a Spanish telecast. A well-deserved restful evening after successfully summitting La Malinche, which is hit or miss and dependent on how much argument (in Spanish) you’re willing to engage in with a heavily armed police officer. This time they left us alone, perhaps because it was such a nice day with no threat of lightning or rain.

Now we are in transit to Amecameca for some last-minute supplies. Today is mostly a travel and organization day, not quite a real rest day yet. We will update via InReach from the mountain so you can follow our progress!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier