Pico de Orizaba (Primer Ascenso) 11/6/2010-11/8/2010

    
          This expedition was my first trip above 15,000 ft or 5,000 mts and I was an assistant/aspiring guide on the trip. The party consisted of CM (Cookie Monster), myself and our client Luis who was also a friend of CM. The night before we left for Pico, Friday night, we prepared all our gear. I sharpened the edges of my crampons and ice axes, double checked my gear and packed my bags. The days leading up to the weekend I had been having "digestion issues" (diarrhea). The only thing I could think of that would be worse than altitude sickness would be uncontrollable diarrhea at 18,000 ft probably combined with altitude sickness anyway. You will find out if either of these things happened.

  Saturday morning we woke up at 6:00am to double check the gear and get ready to leave. Luis picked us up at CM's house and invited us to a café. After an amazing cup of café in the centro of the city we started the 4 hour drive to Tlachichuca. It only took us 2.5 hours to get there. Luis has what he likes to call an aggressive driving style, I would agree. We arrived at the climbers hotel where the 4X4's leave to go to the base of Orizaba. The hotel is a compound within Tlachichuca with various rooms, a dining area and garages for cars and 4X4's. After eating an amazing meal at the compound we loaded up the 4X4 behind a group of Russians also getting ready to leave for the base. At first the drive seemed to be all to easy and you wonder why you are in a 4X4. It becomes quickly apparent why you can't drive up there yourself. The road is filled with large muddy ruts and sections steep enough that a 4X4 has trouble ascending. The drive up to La Piedra Grande refugio, the hut at the base of Orizaba, takes around 2 hours. The hut is at 4,200 mts, nearly 14,000 ft. We decided to set up our tents and spend the night outside el refugio. That night we hiked up about a 100mts to where there was enough snow to practice basic ice climbing safety (self arrest, rope ettiquite, etc). Afterwards we ate a dinner of soup and noodles and I set my alarm for our early departure at 3:00am. We got into our tents at 8:30pm but I couldn't fall asleep until 11:00pm because I was too excited (not sexually).

         I woke up at 1:50am before my alarm could start beeping and we got up to prepare for our departure. After oatmeal and coffee we double checked our gear and headed out. I hadn't taken ten steps when headlamp died. It wasn't the batteries which I had changed the day before, it was simply because it was old and apparently not acclimatized to the altitude. Needless to say I now have a very reliable headlamp and a backup. I hiked the first hours watching CM's light until around 6:00am when there was enough light to see. On our way up we passed a climber, David, fumbling around his tent and quickly discovered he was suffering from HACE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema). His incredibly sensitive party had left him in his tent in order to summit. Luckily there was a couple there and someone was already preparing to take him down. We made sure he was safely on his way down and then continued up. We passed the party that had left David and informed them of their obvious responsibility for him. Two of their party started descending in order to make sure he was okay. It was around that point we put on our crampons and roped up.

          The sun was finally coming out and the cold was not as biting. We ascended up to the glacier making short rest stops along the way. Once at the glacier it looks as if it could be ascended in an hour or so. In fact it takes about 4 hours for the average person because at that point you are above 15,000 ft. We began the ascent up the glacier and about an hour in Luis began asking how any meters were left. We were about an hour from the top when Luis said "No me voy" or "I can't go." He was out of gasoline and each time we stopped he fell asleep. After some pushing by CM we continued on with the goal of the crater in mind. Luis suffered the rest of the way but made it to the crater rim.

             There he sat down and said "this is my summit." He insisted that Armando and I go the final 200 mts to the top. After assessing Luis for any signs of HACE or severe altitude sickness we decided that we could quickly and safely summit without him. We secured him on the rim and made a very fast ascent to the summit. We made it quickly to the top, took a picture and then descended back to Luis all in about 10 minutes. Once at the rim we had Luis drink more water, eat what he could and then we began the descent. It was 11:30am at this point. Descending is easier but also more dangerous and for that reason you have to cuidarse mucho.

          We descended with some short stops and lots of jokes. One thing I love about Mexican Spanish is how often and casually they swear. If we were talking about the beautiful trees it was "ay fuck your mother look at those beautiful fucking trees." The word "fuck" translated into Spanish doesn't carry quite as much weight as it does in America and in addition people aren't as sensitive to it but that is not to say that everyone in México swears all the time. These are generalized observations that I think are funny and are not to be taken seriously. One of my favorite quotes came from Luis when he was talking about the glacier with our 4X4 driver. The quote translated into English was "If you slipped on the glacier...Ay fuck, you would fall straight to motherfucking hell... olympicly motherfucked." Olímpico can also be translated as completely but I like it more this way.

          We made it to the refugio and to our tents by 4:00pm. We packed our bags and put them in the 4X4 once again. We drove back down to Tlachichuca all the while discussing the existence of aliens and various encounters with inexplicable happenings. We got back to the compound and ate a quick dinner before leaving for México City. We hit traffic around 8:00pm and didn't make it back to the city until after 11:00pm. We got back home, ate some cereal and passed out. Most importantly, despite not having officially summited Luis was still extremely happy with the trip and had no regrets.

El Sarcófago, Pico de Orizaba