Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board WPSMB Mexico Climbs In November...

Wow! Harvey thanks for the wonderful TR and all the appropriate quotes. Glad your fall up on the mountain was at a somewhat gentle spot on the slope. Your description of being tired and spent on the last bit to the hut reminded me of how I felt on my last day on Mt. Baker this past June. I did a 6 day course with Alpine Ascents. On the exit day after summiting it was such a laborious grind to get back to the trailhead. Granted, there was a bit of postholing on the way down, but I felt I should have more energy. Later it dawned on me that after spending five nights in a tent with two others I most likely didn't get quality sleep any of those five nights. I was just plain tired. How well did you guys sleep on the trip? I feel disturbed sleep must contribute in a negative way when people do big mountains or long trips.
Again, way to go to everyone.

John

Enjoyed the read... congratulations again Doc.

Hope you also had time to do Whitney #52 in one year

Great TR Doctor! Enjoyed that. Richard and the cheetos truck, classic. And the 99 bottles of beer. Cool trip everyone!

Thanks for that report Harvey, glad you and everybody else had a good time...Congratulations All

Richard congrats on another successful trip and summits..

mark

So, I wrote some long-winded comments regarding the trip, but it disappeared before I pressed the Submit button...

Here's a much shorter version:

- 3 Dead On Pico de Orizaba in the 2 weeks prior to us arriving... 1. A French woman could not self-arrest and died at the end of the slide on icy terrain... 2. A German team thought the answer was to head to the sunnier side of the mountain. Might of worked if one hadn't walked off of a cliff... 3. A Mexican may have decided he didn't want to live anymore and headed up "loaded" and died.

- Doug always WARNS about the STUPIDITY of separating... We did just that on Nevado de Toluca.

When I went into my tyraid about the weather at La Malinche, using lots of S-bombs and F-bombs, I also mentioned that we had done some STUPID Mountaineering on Toluca and we had better NOT separate on Orizaba.

- The proposed schedule turned out to be a CF... I was pretty pissed that Oso did not inform me in advance about the Government Red Tape involved in getting a permit for Sierra Negra. (Obviously, we didn't get one.)

- As much as I dislike Ixta, Ixta before Orizaba is the much smarter way to approach Orizaba. This was the second time I've spent 3 days at Piedra Grande. It still makes me cringe. Thank goodness, there weren't many people there!

It was, after-all, a fun trip!
Emilio is a good guide/cook/companion.
I can't tell you how really happy I am that Dr. Lankford had a successful return to Orizaba, or how disappointed I am that Abbas ran into mis-fortune for the second year in-a-row on the mountain.

I WILL be back down there again.

BTW: Emilio was carrying gear and could have roped up some of the group had they requested it...

BTW: here are the SpotWallas from the two climbs:

Nevado de Toluca: http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=5ad650a31b84eb118


Pico de Orizaba: http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=5ad750a31d8884885

Sunrise on the upper glacier nearing the top of Orizaba

On the way to the top
looking back down on the morning sunlit Sarcophagus

Emelio leading the way.
All that mattered was the next breath,
and the next step - well planted.

On the matter of early starts, there can be no other.
Sunrise shadow of the big mother herself.

Summit ridge around 7 hrs after our 1:20 am start

A bit closer. Gonna make it.

Richard taking pictures of course

Emelio on top

Time to go down. Quads okay at this point but tired later. Look closely and you can see the hut way down there - better on next picture.

Yep ,there is the hut, 4,000+ feet below with thick air. See it?
Richard knew he could be back there by 1:00pm but with my stumbling and weak quads it was 2:30pm. The ice ax and the help of everyone made it possible.
Four cups of tea and I was semi-revived.

Harvey, what a beautiful trip report!! What an incredible experience it must have been for all of you. Great pictures!

At one point I had considered joining this trip, but taking more time off after my long hike this last summer just wasn't going to happen. Even with the rough start, your trip sounds like a great adventure, and part of me wishes that I would have been able to join you all (albeit it looked very cold in some of the pics!).

I know I just missed meeting you last summer, Harvey, but hopefully I will one of these trips. Thanks for a wonderful trip report.

Rosie

I LOVE these photos. Simply fabulous.

OUTSTANDING!!! Congrats to the summiteers on the big O! And glad Abbas was o.k. I've never had a respiratory (your spelling was correct, Richard) issue on a mountain but as that can be fatal, he was wise not to make the attempt.

Beautiful photos Richard and Harvey. Knee willing, I will make the next one. Have a few climbing friends who want to join. And they are women, Richard.

Great work everyone!

mine was one year old titanium. i thought my performance on Whitney at 8 months in Aug 2012 was a good omen, but Orizaba is a lot harder. My quads are still weak from the Sloooowww postop recovery sometimes takes 12-18 months they say.

Coming down from say Trailcamp to WP is not quite 4000 ft, but 6 miles, isn't it? Coming down from Orizaba summit 18,000+ to hut 14,000 is a bit more than 4,000 ft but takes only 2.7 miles or so, not 6, so the steepness factor is what what wears out the 61 year old quads. That plus crampon-work half of that time. Just not the same as the Whitney superhighway.