Joel and Alison's Excellent Adventures Part 2

Mexico Volcanoes – Orizaba Base Camp and Pico de Orizaba – 18, 491′

Pico de Orizaba (Volcán Citlaltépetl), commonly known as Pico de Orizaba, is the highest mountain in Mexico and third-highest in North America, reaching 18,491 feet.

After climbing Sierra Negra, we headed back into town to eat lunch and pick up our gear for the 2 hour drive up to Piedra Grande where we would be camping in preparation for our summit climb of Orizaba.

Gear check where Alison’s crampons didn’t fit the boots (although they were fine in Ecuador?) and Alison omitted the belay loop when fastening her harness – D’oh!
The red building in the distance is a climbing hut where some people stay. It has three tiers of bunk beds and is super noisy so it was actually nice to be in tents.
Crazy cloud formations that we probably should have paid attention to!
Another version of mole – FM
Acclimatization hike the day before the summit attempt. We only went up about an hour or about 1,000′. For the climb it is about 3 – 4 hours through the rockfall and scree up to the glacier. From there it is another 2 – 3 hours to the summit.
Heading back down to the campsite.

I never realized how good a big plate of spaghetti looked and tasted! We went to bed around 6pm, after eating dinner and packing for the summit attempt. I don’t remember what time we actually got up and started hiking but I think it was around 2. The lenticular cloud that I saw when I woke up was pretty startling and the weather basically imploded from there. Of the nine team members, only three summitted – I turned around after hearing that the wind wasn’t going to get much better – in fact it was worse that the forecast stated – Close to 35 – 40 mph winds for 12 hours – No Thanks! All due to a very early season Pacific storm that was about a month early!

Congrats to Jim, Ben & Fernando!
Nice job, way to represent!!

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