Magical ‘White Women’
People when they hear Mexico they think about Cancun beaches, fiesta, drinks, dancing, Aztec culture, anything but mountains. But you will be surprised to learn that there are amazing peaks to climb in Mexico!
I was lucky enough to stand on the top of two of them, Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba.
Iztaccihuatl
Iztaccihuatl is the third highest mountain in Mexico and the seventh highest in North America. Iztaccíhuatl means the ‘Woman in White,” the sleeping lady as seen from the Valley of Mexico. This extinct volcano, it is a unique mountain, it has this very welcoming feel, you want to be close to her. Viewed from either the west or the east you can clearly see her; the beautiful sleeping lady.
The north end of the mountain is:
- La Cabellera: the hair
- La Cabeza: the head
- La Oreja: the ear
- A big dip – El Cuello: the neck
- The summit- El Pecho: the breast
- La Barriga: the belly or La Pansa: the stomach
- Las Rodillas: the knees
- Los Pies: the feet
La Joyita camp (3850m)
On Tuesday 22.03.22 I made my way from Mexico City to Paso de Cortez where I met my mountain guide Juan. From Paso de Cortez we drove to La Joyita camp (3850m), where we stayed overnight.
Juan – my mountain guide was late due to the road accident, so I was stuck at Paso de Cortes, but no complaints as I had some amazing experiences – read more – Paso de Cortes – the day of the ancient ritual.
When we arrived ato La Joyita Camp, there were only two other tents in the area, so I had almost the whole place to myself. We had some food, and after the beautiful sunset I made my way to the tent, I was knackered.
Next morning (Wed 23.03.22) we trekked up to High Camp (4785m). We had to carry everything with us, water, food, sleeping bag, mats, clothes for the summit night etc. We were lucky as Juan’s friend left for us tents in the high camp, as he summited in the morning with another person. We were lighter by two tents and some cooking utilities that we promised to bring down on our way back from the summit.
There is a small basic refuge not far from the high camp, but due to Covid and limited space, we actually preferred to stay in our tents.
The hike
The hike is strenuous up to the high camp, pretty steep grassy field and rocky terrain, also the quick change of altitude, almost 1000m difference in elevation in one day. I had to carry my big pack, and Juan cooked me a huge breakfast – scrambled eggs with ham and massive quesadillas – tortillas with cheese so I think my energy was consumed by my stomach, so I was very slow! This was a lesson for the next few climbs which I did on an empty stomach. For the future – altitude, food and strenuous activity is not a very good mix for me!
The High Camp
When I got to the high camp, I wasn’t feeling that great, my mood was low, energy levels down, weather was grumpy, strong wind prevented us from staying outside. As soon as we got to the high camp, we hid in our tents. Around 6ish we had dinner, after which we relaxed and prepared for an early night as we were due to wake up early for our summit push.
I recorded a video about the way I felt at that moment and time – which wasn’t very positive
Before I felt asleep I decided to change my attitude, and I filled myself with positive thoughts, and while my eyes were closing I was asking for the wind to calm down and mountain to be welcoming. Do you remember the sacred yellow top that I got from Adriana during the ceremony that I took part in at Paso de cortez? I carried it with me, I thought she would be pleased. I brought the piece of her with me, I carried the energy of the people who took part in the ceremony with me to the top of their Holy Mountain!
The Summit Push
My alarm clock rang at 12.30am. I stayed in my warm sleeping bag listening to the sounds of wind for another 15 minutes – mentally preparing for what’s coming. It’s so difficult to leave a warm and safe sleeping bag when it is dark and cold outside. My little cocoon! I totally love my sleeping bag!
We were planning to start our climb at 1.30am so I got up, put my warm layers on, wrapped a bottle of hot water in my dawn jacket to prevent it from freezing, I had a cup of strong coffee and we were ready to go. Now I don’t eat on summit day, as my stomach doesn’t like it, and I perform much better on an empty stomach. Eventually we left the high camp at 1.40 am. The steepest part of the climb is through mountain rocks, technical scramble up to multiple false summits, up and down a few times that includes a glacier crossing before approaching the true summit – the Breast.
When we reached the glacier, and we stopped to put our crampons on, it was a few minutes before 4am.
Juan said, ‘we are too early, we have max 1h 30min to the summit’
So I asked: ‘ what do we do?’
He replied: ‘ Nothing, we carry on’
So, we put crampons on, attached the rope to each other and we went for it!
We conquered the summit of Iztaccihuatl – 5,215m on 24.03.22 at 5.10am
It was supposed to take us 6h and we did it in 3.5h. For Juan it was his best time. On the way down we met other climbers who said ‘you beat the sunrise’, ‘hmm, yes we did’, however, it wasn’t our intention. Of course, I would prefer to stand on the top of the mountain when the first rays of the sun are formed, but instead I could see thousands of stars. On the way down the sun was slowly waking up, warming our cold bodies. We were back in our camp at 7.40am. We had some food, packed everything, and we made our way down to La Joyita camp. I have to say that we did it in a speed time, it wasn’t planned though.
Puebla City
From La Joyita we drove straight to Puebla City. One night there and after transfer to San Miguel Zoapan lodge Orizaba Mountain Guides (OMG) in the region of Puebla – located 190 km East of Mexico City, close to Pico de Orizaba which is my next challenge. The plan was to climb the Pico de Orizaba on Saturday the 26th of March but Juan proposed to to do it straight on Friday 25th, due to good acclimatisation that I had in Itza and possibility of having slightly quieter climb, as weekends can have up to even 200 climbers on the mountain. So yes, the plan is to complete two peaks within 3 days, but you can read about Pico de Orizaba in my other post.
My 24 h in Puebla City was mostly about recharging the batteries, having a shower good food and catching up with some sleep 🙂
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