| Report Type | Full |
| Peak(s) |
El Pico de Orizaba - 18491 |
| Date Posted | 11/22/2017 |
| Modified | 12/10/2023 |
| Date Climbed | 11/19/2017 |
| Author | ddeckys |
| El Pico de Orizaba - Mexicos tallest volcano |
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Getting ThereI feel that this warrants its own section because Orizaba is sort of in the middle of nowhere so getting there can be a challenge, especially for someone (like myself) who is on their first international trip to climb a mountain. Here was the planned itinerary: Day 1: Arrive in Mexico City in the evening Day 2: Possibly see the pyramids at Teotihuacan and then travel to Tlachichuca Day 3: Go to the Piedra Grande hut early in the morning and do an acclimation climb to 16000 ft Day 4: Summit day! Day 5: Return to Mexico City Day 6: Fly home to Colorado Our flight went smoothly, however after arriving we would soon discover that lugging all the equipment around Mexico would be a real pain. For the first evening we stayed at Hotel Aeropuerto, which was cheap and a very short walk from the airport, no complaints. One thing that shocked me was the insane amount of traffic in Mexico City, it reminded me of LA during rush hour, and our first Uber drive told us that this traffic was typical during most hours of the day. It took nearly 45 min to get to Walmart which was just down the street! At Walmart we bought lots of bottled water along with snacks/meals that we would bring with us on the mountain. Unlike Colorado where we are from, tap water is not safe to drink in Mexico. To get to Tlachichuca we opted to take the bus, which included two parts: a direct bus from Mexico City to Puebla, and a bus with stops from Puebla to Tlachichuca.   The bus from Mexico City (pictured) was super comfortable and I felt super safe. It left directly from the airport and didn't stop until Puebla, you can find it easily by going to the airport and following signs. I was able to get some rest as the seats reclined into almost a bed! The cost was around $30 USD each for a round-trip ticket and they accepted credit cards.  On the bus ride we got some great views of Popocatépetl (left, farther) and IztaccÃhuatl (right, closer). There are the second and third tallest mountains in Mexico, both 17ers. Upon arriving in Puebla, we realized that the only bus that goes from Puebla to Tlachichuca leaves from the station called CAPU, and that was not the station we were at. No big deal it was a quick Uber to the other station, but it's something to note and next time I would make sure our bus goes to that station instead. We arrived at CAPU, and had to walk around the station a few times until we could find the bus line that would take us to Tlachichuca. Puebla was the point where we stopped encountering any English. Ben (my friend who was climbing with me who speaks no Spanish) mostly had to stand back while I spoke with the people at the ticket counter and at the bus terminals. It ended up costing around $85 pesos (~$5 USD) each way for tickets, and note they do not accept credit cards or USD only pesos. CAPU is a confusing station, it took a minute to find the terminal once we had the tickets, and once we found the terminal it was not obvious which bus was going where. The bus from Puebla to Tlachichuca wasn't bad, but also wasn't as nice. By the end of it there were so many people on the bus that there were not enough seats and many people had to stand. At several of the stops street vendors would walk onto the bus while it was stopped to try and sell various things (ice cream, potato chips, OJ) which was very interesting, Ben ended up getting potato chips.  It took most of the day to get from Mexico City to Tlachichuca, but it was all worth it once we arrived and got our first glimpse of Orizaba. We stayed with the Canchola family (www.summitorizaba.com) and cannot recommend them enough! They treated us like family while we were there and made sure we had everything we needed, they are wonderful and trusting people. If you are planning on climbing Orizaba, you must stay with them. We payed $185 each for two nights stay, four meals, and transportation to and from Piedra Grande. I ended up giving them extra as a tip since it was really a great experience there.   We were thrilled to put our bags down in our room after lugging them around all day, then we proceeded to walk a few blocks to the center of the town to explore. We ran into Maribel (one of the people who ran the Hostel) and helped her carry groceries back to the place, and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Tlachichuca is a tiny town without many services, to my knowledge they did not accept USD or credit cards anywhere, so we came prepared by getting a lot of pesos in Mexico City. That evening I did not sleep well at all. We had to get up fairly early (6AM) to leave for the mountain, and apparently we so happened to be visiting Mexico during the anniversary of the Mexican revolution (Nov 20) and Buen Fin (Nov 18-19, Mexico's version of "Black Friday"). Even in this small town they had fireworks starting around 8 until 1am, and were BLASTING music in the town square which was just a few blocks away. I ended up putting in earplugs after an hour and a half of the fireworks and was then able to get some sleep.  In the morning we piled into the car along with another climbing group visiting from California and began the ~2.5 hr drive up to Piedra Grande. Piedra Grande is a hut at just under 14000 that would serve as the "base camp" during our climb.  While driving up we were caught in the shadow of the mountain as the sun was rising, a very cool view.  Our spot in the Piedra grande hut, the hut sleeps a ton a people so I probably wouldn't worry about finding a spot. There are several rows of wooden slabs where you can put your sleeping pad and bag, we chose the top because it seemed like it would be the least noisy. If you choose to stay in the hut instead of a tent, earplugs are REQUIRED. People were very noisy and not too considerate, and had I not brought earplugs I'm positive I would not have gotten a minute of sleep before the climb. Some final notes on getting there: I was not expecting the amount of Spanish that was required to navigate the bus system and travel. The buses were a fun and cheap way to get there, but outsize of mexico city I don't think we encountered anyone who spoke English until Tlachichuca. This was a non-issue because my Spanish is good, and I enjoyed the opportunity to practice. However, you may want to think about hiring private transportation unless you have at a minimum a basic understanding of Spanish. Had I not known Spanish we would have had an incredibly difficult time. That being said I would recommend taking the bus, it's a lot of fun and you get to explore areas of Mexico that many people who just go to the touristy beach areas never see. I discovered Uber is wonderful! I'm always a little worried about taking cabs in Mexico, but this trip I decided to use Uber. Every Uber driver we had was professional and nice, it was also very cheap, non of the rides were over $3 or $4 USD even ones that took 30-40 minutes because of the traffic. Again, none of the drivers spoke more than a few words of English so be prepared for that. If you stay with the Cancholas, the bus drops you off directly in front of their place. They have their website logo and the mountain painted in on the wall so it is impossible to miss. We did not get the chance to see the pyramids of Teotihuacan because we realized the buses would take longer than we thought. If I were to do it again I would make sure to have an extra day in the itinerary for that and to explore Mexico City more. The Climb:Acclimation is an important part of the climb. We live in Colorado, and in preparation for this trip we were doing 14ers on a weekly basis so we had a head start on acclimation. If you are coming from sea level I would recommend doing at least one more day of acclimation or climbing another peak in the area. We arrived at the Piedra Grande hut around 9 AM, settled in and then immediately left to do our acclimation climb. We planned on hiking until we reached the glacier and we made it to 16600 ft and then returned.  Here is a view of the route starting at the hut, you can see all three parts of the climb: The Approach: a steep trail hike, lots of loose rock. The Labyrinth: an icy and rocky scramble, no trail, the most difficult route finding is here Jamapa Glacier: over 2000 ft of gradually steepening glacier at the highest elevation of the route. By far the most difficult part. The route is straightforward and follows almost a straight line from the perspective of this photo all the way to the summit. The only part with difficult route finding is in the Labyrinth. However, if you pass through it on your acclimation hike and are comfortable with class 3 scrambling you should have no issues.  This is the view from the bottom of the Labyrinth. There were two ways to go up when we were there, a longer traverse along the left which some climbers told me would remain at class 2, or a snow gully on the right. On acclimation day we tried to go to the left, but I think we went the wrong way because we ended up stuck in class 3+ scrambling which started to get sketchy once we started to get to some heavily iced over areas. So instead we decided to cut right to the snow gully and get on the crampons.  Here is a view of the snow gully, we found this to be the easiest route, we put on our crampons at the bottom and were able to keep them on all the way to the summit and it was a very direct route. after the top of where this photo is taken there is probably a few hundred more feet of snow climbing in a clear path to the glacier.  Exiting the labyrinth looking up at the glacier. Don't be fooled, the glacier looks small and tame from the bottom and especially in photos, however it is 2000+ ft of elevation and will take hours. For us it took longer than all the other parts of the climb, make sure you take a good break before attempting as there are no places to stop and rest.    On summit day we started at 1:30 am, and were lucky enough to be on the glacier in time for sunrise to see the amazing shadow Orizaba is famous for, it extends to the horizon! Most groups started anywhere between 1 and 2 am and I would recommend that in order to make sure you have plenty of time to safely ascend the glacier.  Taken from about halfway up the glacier looking down at the route, the approach and labrynith are to the right of that rock. We did not go directly up the glacier and instead opted to go a bit to the right as other climbers warned us that the center was pretty icy.   The glacier seemed to take forever, and it was very difficult to tell how far we were because it all looked the same. We were greeted to this view as soon as we stepped over the top!   However this was not the end yet... after reaching the top of the glacier there is probably another 100 ft of traversing the crater until the true summit.     The summit was amazing, the view was unlike anything I had experienced in Colorado. We were blessed with an almost perfect weather day, it was warm and there was no wind. Notes about the climb: The day we went it was VERY icy. It wasn't bad in the morning but it seemed as soon as the sun hit the glacier got significantly more icy, climbing down was not fun and went very slowly as self arrest would have been incredibly difficult. Several groups who left later than us got turned around by the ice, and to my knowledge we were one of two groups that day to summit via Jamapa Glacier route. Another group I talked to said they witnessed someone suffer a large fall and have to self arrest themselves. Be prepared for any conditions on the glacier. The altitude hit a lot harder than expected! This was my first climb higher than a Colorado 14er and above 16k ft was when the serious pain started. It seemed every few steps I got winded and it was hard to catch my breath. Fortunately I experienced no AMS aside from a slight headache on acclimation day which two Advil solved. Don't take the altitude lightly, although it is technically a "short" hike it took longer and felt significantly more difficult than many 14ers that I've done. The trip and the climb were tons of fun at it was a great next step from a 14er, I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for an intro high altitude climb. If anyone has any question about logistics or the route I would be more than happy to try and help, just comment or message me.   Saying goodbye to the mountain and enjoying some margaritas after the climb Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow): 
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