Entries from Mexico
Yesterday was a rest day in the colonial town of Puebla. This is a fun day for the team, one where everyone gets a chance to explore the town a get taste of this beautiful Mexican city. We reconvened at dinner to share the day's exploits. Trips to the city's fort, churches, shopping and general exploration were the missions recounted at dinner. Now it's off to Tlachichuca, where we will rig for our attempt on Orizaba. The weather looks more promising today, and we all hope it holds and improves for another few days. Wish us luck amigos.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Now our team is safely in Puebla, getting cleaned up and reorganized after a valiant effort on Ixta.
As we pulled into our high camp yesterday afternoon our fingers were crossed tightly for a break in the weather. By the time we sat up to fire stoves, a ferocious snow storm pelted the tents and kept us at bay. It came down hard for a few hours, then the wind started. Camp remained in a wet windy cloud and still we waited, hoping for a spell in the storm. It never came. After a mostly sleepless night, the sun finally turned our cloud light and we started packing up. The team handled the sub-ideal conditions like true climbers, realistic that safety trumps all and hunkering down in this case was by far the most prudent choice. Now we rest in Puebla and get ready to head to Orizaba for the next climb, just a little hungrier.
RMI Guides Jake Beren & J.J. Justman
February 14, 2012
Posted by: Jake Beren, JJ Justman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 14,750'
Hello everyone,
This is RMI Guide JJ Justman checking in. We want to let everyone following our Mexico's Volcanoes Expedition know that we are at high camp on Ixta (14,750ft). The Team is doing fantastic. We are preparing for our summit bid tomorrow, so we are getting our water ready. We are planning on waking up around midnight and getting hot drinks going for our crew.
It is pretty unusual right now, there is a ton of snow that you don’t normally see here on Ixta, but it is actually making for some pretty nice climbing. Weather is calm there is no wind, so we will keep our fingers crossed. It’s looking like it is going to be a great day tomorrow, so stay tuned. We will check in again tomorrow and will hopefully have some great news. We are looking at a nice safe climb of Ixta.
Ciao from Mexico!
On The Map
Hello from the Mexico's Volcanoes Team,
Today we left our high altitude training site ready to go higher. After a lovely brunch overlooking the Txacala waterfall we continued to the town of Amecameca to finish acquiring our provisions for Ixta. Loaded with plenty of food we drove to Paso de Cortez, the col between Ixta and Popo, to finish our approach to the Altzimoni hut. Here we rest, with full bellies, and finish our last preparations before hitting the trail to our high camp on Ixtaccihuatl.
The weather has been a bit unseasonable so far, with rare snow at these elevations. Folks from the surrounding towns have been driving up to check out the snow and we have passed more than a few cars with tiny snowmen perched on their hoods. Our fingers are crossed that the "White Woman" (as Ixtaccihuatl is known because it resembles a woman sleeping on her back, and is often covered with snow) will be without her blanket of clouds tomorrow.
Wish us luck,
RMI Guide Jake Beren
On The Map
Good Luck Team Hermano!
Posted by: Hannah on 2/15/2012 at 6:51 am
Hope you had a brilliant summit. Post some pictures and send my love to mr. Rogers.
Posted by: Bonny Rogers on 2/15/2012 at 5:48 am
Hello this is the RMI Mexico's Volcanoes Team checking in from La Malintzi, which is at the base of La Malinche (14,636 feet) this is the mountain we went hiking on today. For the first time that I’ve ever seen there was a fair bit of snow to hike through up top to get to the ridge. The team did very well getting through some pretty good conditions; a little bit of snow, a little bit of wind, and a little bit of rain. A real mixed bag. It was a great day and everyone did very well. We are going to grab some dinner and get ready to head toward the Altzimoni hut tomorrow which is at the base of Ixta.
That’s all from here, everyone is doing great and we will keep you posted.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
RMI Guide Jake Beren checks in from Mexico after the team's acclimatization hike.
On The Map
Hello from Mexico City,
Tonight the team arrived, all with the same number of bags they left the states with and ready to go. We had a great intro dinner at a classic Centro Historico restaurant and retired to our rooms to get a good night's sleep before leaving the city tomorrow. Off to a good start down here and we'll check in from La Malinche tomorrow.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Hello from Mexico City,
Tonight the team arrived, all with the same number of bags they left the states with and ready to go. We had a great intro dinner at a classic Centro Historico restaurant and retired to our rooms to get a good night's sleep before leaving the city tomorrow. Off to a good start down here and we'll check in from La Malinche tomorrow.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Hello from Mexico City,
Tonight the team arrived, all with the same number of bags they left the states with and ready to go. We had a great intro dinner at a classic Centro Historico restaurant and retired to get a good night's sleep before leaving the city tomorrow. Off to a good start down here and we'll check in from La Malinche tomorrow.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
After a safe descent from the top of Pico de Orizaba, it was apparent how lucky we were about the weather. All around us in the valleys below storms raged, but it was relatively warm and calm on our climb. We had the whole mountain to ourselves and with a skiff of new snow on the glacier, a clean canvas for a great day of climbing. Everyone climbed well, and we needed to because Orizaba makes you earn it. After a cup of tea and a quesadilla, we loaded up the trucks and headed back to town. It was beautiful out and the mountain was covered in alpenglow by the time we arrived back in the courtyard of Dr. Reyes. After a celebratory meal, we had a solid night's rest after a big and great day. Congratulations team on a job well done!
Now it's time to say adios. Thank you everyone for sharing in an awesome trip and safe travels back home.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
P.S. Upon getting off the mountain we learned of the earthquake in Japan. Our thoughts and hopes go out to everyone in harm's way. Suerte
Hello points North, this is Jake on the summit of Pico de Orizaba with our team who did a great job today getting up in good style. We had awesome weather, light winds, warm, we are on the top looking into the crater right now. Enjoying some great views and really unbelievable day.
So thanks to everybody back home for all of the support and we will be calling you when we get down. Well, all right, that's it from the third highest point in North America.
Take care up there and we'll be seeing you soon.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
RMI Guide Jake Beren calls from the summit Pico de Orizaba
On The Map
CT - thought of you all day yesterday going up, up, up. So proud of you! Hugs!
Posted by: Holly Stuart on 3/11/2011 at 2:03 am
Congratulations Kelsey and the entire team! Can’t wait to hear all about it! xo Kirky
Posted by: Kirsten on 3/10/2011 at 7:41 pm
Good luck. I hope the weather cooperates this time so you can summit Orizaba.
Posted by: Bonny on 2/17/2012 at 3:51 pm
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