Pico de Orizaba

I didn’t expect to sleep much with the 12 hours of sleep I had gotten the night before, not to mention the fact that at least 5/12 people were snoring in the hut. So when Roberto got up to start boiling water for coffee at 12:30, I got up to start stretching. I had some minor stomach cramping and took a Cipro, Doxycycline and loperamide to head off any potential issues for summit day. Jonathan and Steven woke up just as breakfast was almost ready, the two small groups being combined into a group of 5 for the summit attempt. We wolfed down a quick breakfast of fruit and muffins, then headed out into the calm and crisp night, brightly lit by a nearly full moon bouncing light off the glacier above.

Unfortunately, my stomach cramps continued and I started to feel a bit nauseous as well. I hoped this would subside once we started climbing, but instead I felt worse, and short of breath quite easily. I started having serious doubts about the decision to move up our summit attempt a day early, but I pressed on with the others. I had a full pack with crampons and an ice axe and the day before had nothing, leading me to think that perhaps I wasn’t well acclimated after all. Luckily, answers began to present themselves. The shortness of breath was actually from the chin strap on my helmet, digging in tight when I was looking down at the ground. I immediately felt better once I unbuckled it. The nausea began to go away, and I figured it was probably from the four pills I took on an empty stomach before breakfast. By the time we reached the high camp at 15,500′, my cramps were gone as well and I was feeling great again, even with the heavy pack. We had our first rest at the high camp after 3 AM, seeing a string of headlamps up on the glacier from a British team that had camped there the night before. By the time we put on our crampons it was nearly 4 AM, and we started up our first ice of the day onto Jamapa Glacier.

This section of the route is known as the labyrinth but the name was a bit of a exaggeration. In reality, it’s nothing more than a series of 3-4 parallel couloirs with glacial icefall leading on to the glacier proper. We headed up a fairly steep couloir, probably between 30-40 degrees, and had to take breaks often. But we were soon above the bands of rocks and on to the main glacier, the summit rim illuminated by the moon up above. While we could no longer see the headlamps of the British team, we (correctly) guessed that they had shut them off, with the light from the moon being easily bright enough. With a set turn around time of 11 AM and only 2,500′ to the summit, it was starting to seem like a sure thing. We started weaving and switchbacking up the glacier, low angle at its’ base but growing steeper as we climbed. The sun started to rise, and we paused to take pictures of the dramatic volcanic shadow cast to the north.

We spotted the British team, now only about 500′ above us and scattered across the upper glacier. We were nearly at 17,000′, and all of us were starting to feel the altitude. The angle steepened considerably here (which is why we had closed in on the British team) and we tied into a rope, with self arrest being challenging if not impossible on the hard ice. As we slowly worked higher, I started to develop a mild headache and early signs of altitude sickness. I had actually stopped taking the Diamox after passing out on La Malinche thinking it contributed to my accident. As we climbed, the angle steepened further- at least 50 degrees in places. My headache slowly worsened and the low oxygen meant my muscles were became more and more fatigued. The final 1,000′ I zoned out, thinking of only where to place my next step. We needed to take short breaks every 100-200′, feeling the altitude quite a bit on what was truly the most trying part of the day. It wasn’t until we reached the caldera rim that we all had a boost of energy, only 150′ below the summit. I let out an animal cry with Roberto joining in, the entire group recharged so close to the summit.

After taking a few photos, I couldn’t help but get teary eyed. It wasn’t from the headache or physical exhaustion, but from the raw beauty of the summit. The caldera was so deep that you couldn’t see the bottom, giving off just enough heat to prevent any snow from accumulating. It was perfectly asymmetric, flanked by towers of ice and small volcanic spires. Tears ran down my face as we ascended the final 150′, and I composed myself for the victory shots with a group shot provided by the British team just as they were descending. The 360 views were incredible in all directions, with mountains in every direction, many obscured by clouds far below. With Denali and Logan out of season, for a moment, I was the highest person in North America.

It was 9 AM, taking 7 hours to summit. The brothers would later admit they were so out of it at the top, they barely remembered the summit at all. The rest (and ibuprofen) had eased my headache, and I felt pretty hungry. After 30 minutes on the summit we started to descend, myself leading the rope team down. The brothers were both still fairly bonked as we started down, so the descent was very slow, plunge stepping in the softening ice all the way back down to 16,000′. The sun was reflecting off the ice and heating us quickly, and we started to peel off our morning summit layers. About halfway back to the labyrinth Steven announced he had been having his own stomach cramps, and couldn’t make it back to camp without relieving himself, right there at 17,000′. He started digging a small hole in the glacier with the 5 of us still roped together, no privacy in any direction for 1,000s of feet. Luckily we were at a low enough angle that it was safe to untie, and I rapidly plunge stepped 1000′ down to the base of the glacier, resting on a boulder in the shade for a good 30 minutes.

We dropped into the labyrinth, hardly intimidating in the daylight, and found more mud than ice as the hot sun had its way. Done with the ice, we removed our crampons and stripped out of our warm gear, facing the final 1,500′ of descent back to Piedra Grande Hut. The remaining descent went quickly, and we were treated to a hero’s welcome by the other climbers planning their ascent the following day.

After a quick lunch we drove back to Tlachichuca, the afternoon clouds holding off for the entire ride down. Having summited one day early, I spent my free day on the trip exploring the region with Roberto and the brothers, including a nearby lake formed by a caldera, as well as the partially excavated ruins of Cantona.