This was my third attempt at climbing Pico de Orizaba (aka Citlaltépetl, which means Star Mountain in Náhuatl). Orizaba is the tallest point in Mexico, the third-highest point in North America, and the highest volcano in North America. Because of all those superlatives, its standard, north-side route attracts WAY MORE people than Iztaccihuatl or Nevado de Toluca.
The Route
We planned on doing the standard Orizaba north side route. The standard route climbs from Piedra Grande at roughly 13,900 feet to the summit at 18,400 via the remnants of the Jamapa Glacier. I’ve heard the upper part of Orizaba described as technically similar to the south side of Mt. Adams or Avalanche Gulch on Mt. Shasta, which sounds about right. It’s a steep snow slope, but no longer poses much crevasse risk. The south side route is a giant scree slope that is growing in popularity, but sounds terrible. The recent unusual “dry season” snow meant the snow level was at a lower elevation than the last time we’d attempted the route, 20 years ago.
The deets: Climbed December 17, 2023. 4.75 miles, 4,397 feet of gain, 10 hours round trip. GPX track.
Logistics
We stayed at Summit Orizaba, who I cannot recommend highly enough. They have hot water, good food, and good drivers, in addition to being good people. Their package of $250 per person includes two nights lodging (before and after the climb), transport to Piedra Grande (the start of the route), and dinners and breakfasts before and after the climb. The whole operation is run by Maribel, who managed to get 120 people up to the mountain on the same day we went up while still being patient with foreigners asking questions in bad Spanish and losing their valuables.
The Worst Road in the World?
The road to Piedra Grande, where the Orizaba climb starts, is pretty terrible. We had taken our rental SUV on some not great dirt roads, so I had wondered whether it was necessary for us to pay Summit Orizaba to drive us up. It was.
Not only do you need a high clearance 4×4 vehicle, but I think you need to know the road. Our driver, Joaquin, has been driving the road for 59 years and knew Fred Beckey. The road also seemed to be in worse shape than normal due to the recent rains, from what Joaquin told other drivers.
The road was rutted and so heavily eroded into the surrounding terrain that at points us passengers were about eye-level with the forest floor. At other times it seemed like we were driving between trees with barely any clearance. One time it seemed like we were going to drive off a cliff, but quickly turned to the right and the road continued. Suffice to say that I would not have wanted to bring my rental SUV up there.
There are charges of 50 pesos and 80 pesos you have to pay on your way up, although it doesn’t appear that the money goes beyond the pockets of the guys collecting it. The 50 peso charge is to a guy with a semi-official looking truck. Some other climbers we talked to thought this first checkpoint was just a cartel payoff. The 80 peso charge is to the national park, although it is unclear where the money goes, since the road is not maintained and the guiding companies maintain the hut themselves.
Losing my Passport at 14,000 Feet
Because of the cash we had to pay on the way up, I had a plastic bag with my wallet, extra cash, and passport in my hands on the way up. As people close to me know, when I have too much stuff in my hands, stuff disappears. We got out, unloaded our stuff, found a campsite, made camp, and I was getting ready to do an acclimatization hike when I realized I did not have my bag of valuables.
I searched my backpack and the tent and couldn’t find it. I started to panic. Fortunately one of my friends had cell service, and called Summit Orizaba to ask if the bag was in the truck. They told us that the truck wasn’t back yet, and to call back in 10 minutes. We then searched the parking lot, although searching for a plastic bag on melting snow underneath trucks is hard.
When we called back, the Summit Orizaba people said they had the bag. The Summit Orizaba folks gave my friend a stern talking to about keeping track of her stuff, which wasn’t really fair since she wasn’t the one who lost her most valuable possessions at 14,000 feet in Mexico. Nonetheless, I felt incredibly relieved and grateful.
Acclimatization Hike
I did a short acclimatization hike to blow off the adrenaline, getting up to about 14,800 feet in an hour and then descending back down. I noted that the slope was already in shadow and starting to get icy, and recommended that we start in crampons when we went for the summit.
Tent City
Despite the road, Piedra Grande was packed. Fortunately we brought a tent, so we didn’t have to fight for limited hut space. We found a place that was reasonably away from people, although not level. Around 6pm a group of young-ish guys with cheap gear showed up and set up camp right next to us. Between the noise, and sliding around inside the tent, and some digestive issues from the dehydrated meal I ate for dinner, I didn’t sleep much.
Climbing Pico de Orizaba in the Cold
We woke up at midnight, packed up our tent, and tried to hide it under rocks (we had heard that theft was a problem). We then joined the stream of people going up. One of my friends and I were moving pretty quickly and passed a lot of people. Our other friend was moving much slower. She’d had a lot of breathing issues after our Iztaccihuatl climb. We stopped after about 45 minutes, waited for our slower friend to catch up, and discussed. It was incredibly cold, so my faster friend and I didn’t feel like we could keep waiting for our slower friend and stay warm enough. Our slower friend said she would go about another 500 feet up or so and then would turn around.
My faster friend and I took off. We continued to pass people until we were going about as fast as we could go and maintain our breathing. We entered the “Labyrinth” at about 15,300 feet. The Labyrinth is so-named because it’s a jumble of rocks that are often hard to find your way through, although with the recent snow and the stream of people there were no route-finding problems this time.
After the Labyrinth, we started ascending steeper snow slopes at about 16,400 feet. At this point we were wearing all of our layers and warming our hands up in each others’ arm pits. My core was ok, but my hands and feet were cold and I was regretting not bringing overmitts. At this point my friend decided to turn around. I felt comfortable continuing alone given the low technical difficulty and the plethora of people around.
I french-techniqued my way up, trying to switch back strategically to avoid the rope teams that were moving pretty slowly. Even if they weren’t moving any faster than me, I didn’t want to be stuck behind them when they stopped. At one point I found a glove that a guy who was descending had dropped and traversed further over to the left to give it to him.
I had heard that I should go left to get directly to the summit, but this was in fact the opposite of how the mountain worked. I went left, reached the crater rim, and then traversed right just downhill of the rim to reach the summit at about 7:30am.
Unsurprisingly for a mountain like this, the summit was packed. I took a few photos and shot a couple of selfies, but was pretty desperate to get to a place where I could eat and drink out of the wind. I descended to some rocks below the summit where I took a break. I had also started to develop some shortness of breath on the final push and took my inhaler during that break.
Descending Pico de Orizaba in Warm Sunshine
I followed the main ascent path (to skier’s right), around the summit cone and then pretty much straight down to a flat section at the top of the Labyrinth. At that flat section I finally started to warm up.
The rest of the descent was fairly uneventful. I probably took off my crampons too early, at the end of the Labyrinth/beginning of the scree section. So I slipped a little on the way down, but nothing too bad. Even though I carried my trail runners, I wore my mountaineering boots the whole time. The snow did make the trail much easier to follow through the Labyrinth, which I was thankful for.
My lungs continued to be congested for a few days after the climb. Not as bad as after Margherita Peak, where my lungs were congested for two weeks, but still not great. I’m not sure why the lung congestion happened on Orizaba and not on Izta. Maybe I pushed harder, or maybe that extra ~1400 feet of elevation made a big difference. In any event, it does have me more seriously considering taking diamox during high-altitude climbs in the future.
