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I STILL have limited access to internet  It was a wonderful trip. Thank yous: Richard for organizing and allowing me to tag along Abraham and Abbas for your great company, friendship and stories Carole for sharing that delicious freeze dried food and nuts with me Ava for being such a good roommie Ryan and Brandon (the brawn of the group) for the beers and laughs Yeti for being such a good travel companion and hanging with me on Izta and the tourist thing in Puebla and Mexico... Most of all thanks to Oso for taking such good care of us. I like this pic from Izta controversial summit...... still trying to upload them all to my photo link.  It was a great trip! I did not break out the camera on Orizaba..too busy trying to pay attention to the task at hand. Tracie PS - Stacy - the feet were numb from around 16,000ft on Orizaba. by the time I reached the summit, I couldn't feel my legs, either. 
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CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! 
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Tracie, you better have insulated boots at the top of your Christmas list this year!! You might need both legs and feet for hiking in the future... Just sayin
Glad everyone had a successful trip and you all made it back safe and sound! Now if we'd just get a "bowl full" on Baldy, we'll be ready to rock!
Moved to Bishop in 2012 and haven't looked back since...
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 Congratulations amigos! Looked like a fun, challenging adventure. Welcome home.
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GREAT photos Richard. Congrats all!
Ron
harvest.org
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Richard,
I checked out those peaks on Ixtacchiuatl (pronounced ish-tak-si-wattle). Wow, I can see why they are so controversial.
I think your conclusion and Kurt's may be correct--the "cross" marks the spot. At least your reasoning makes sense to me. However, that being said, according to your photo of the "cross", it appears to be on the east side of the summit on the summit's southern end, which is a bit problematic.
I ran my mouse over the entire summit of Ixta in Google Earth for all the elevations. The highest in Google Earth was only 17,108 feet (5214 meters), which is too low compared to the offical height of 17,159 feet (5230 meters). So, the elevations in Google Earth are wrong for Ixta, but they allow, I think, for precisely measureable elevation changes on the summit.
The "official" summit is shown at 19.17889 degrees north latitude and 98.64167 west longitude at 17,159 feet, or 5230 meters. However, to the west, which is not where the "cross" is located, the elevation is 26 feet higher according to Google Earth, with an adjusted elevation of 17,185 feet or 5238 meters (at 19.17868 degrees north latitude and 98.64283 west longitude). The "adjustment" comes from adding 26 feet to 17,159 feet, making 17,185 feet (5238 meters).
I think a little handheld level, like an Abbey Level, could settle the dispute. The human eye needs help when trying to determine heights on a summit, and an Abbey Level could do the trick. Also, comparing GPS elevations or altimeter readings at the different locations, understanding that the GPS/altimeters might not give the precise above-sea-level readings (because of not being previously adjusted to a nearby known elevation), but they could show the differences in the peak elevations on the summit.
Hope this is not too confusing, but Ixtaccihatl is a challenge.
Congratulations to you and everyone else in the group for a fine accomplishment topping Ixta!
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Thanks Wayne... Knew you'd be able to come up with The Answer... Appreciate all the interesting work over the years..... just wish you'd come to a different conclusion RE: Barnard as the 16th 14er.
Which brings me to: it's been a pleasure having Mike along for a couple of "... the harder way, but way more interesting" trips this past summer. I'm working on dragging him down to Mexico next November for Round 4. We'll skip Ixta though.
I hear Scully is already planning for a Make-Up Climb of Ixta in '13.....
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hahahaha Richard....No I'm happy and confident with our Ixta Summit! You should say 2013 we're doing Ixta again becuase I really REALLY enjoyed that mountain. I still stand by saying I think Ixta is a freaking fun awesome climb with lot's of ups and downs... Maybe I'm wierd but like Bear Canyon ups and downs and ridges with some exposure is what makes climbing mountains fun...
But you can say Orizaba is a make up climb......Still looking at my notes that say buy Nepals before Mexico trip thinking would have been on the Big O with you guys.......LOL Instead the Gypsies got the Big O!
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It's hardly been a week since the trip...
... and there's already been interest expressed by nine people in next year's trip.....
So, with the six reserved spots I'm holding for people I really want to convince to go, we're in "hope for a substitiution" mode...
Here's a quick run-down of the itinerary (subject to change)...
- Fly down 11/03/12. Fly home 11/12/12. (Those of us who work for the government get 11/12 as Veteran's Day. If you need to fly home on 11/11, we'll arrange to get you back to Mexico City the day earlier.)
- 2 nights at La Malinche (the dorm rooms at the training center up there are quite nice).
- 2 nights at the "palace" near Nevado de Toluca. (I really want to do the traverse of the mountain. This is a really nice place where we can spend time high - 12K at the house - and have easy climbing to 15K+.)
- Sierra Negra. A drive-up to 15K+. I want to see if I can get Oso to get us a tour of the Astronomical Observatory up on top. (And, yes, I'll count this as a new summit.)
- Orizaba. We'll keep it to one night in the Piedra Grande Hut (hopefully).
- The extra day will probably be used to tag a new volcano somewhere near Mexico City. There is nothing on the list that is higher than Whitney, so we'll have to settle for less...
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BTW, I changed my mind about "lessons learned." I would hope Ava will spend some time talking about her struggles with altitude and what could have been done differently.
BTW 2: I'll put in a plug for my good friend Kurt Wedberg. As I've stated before, his "batting average" is pretty dang good... we had 60% success on Orizaba... he had 100% again.
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My pics are up. Richard thanks for putting this trip together and showing us this part of the world. I'm hooked. I'll be going every other year now. We had a super time and it was truly a special group. Thanks to Ryan for putting up with my crazy Yeti wayz and RP for being a tour guide at times and putting this whole crazy thing together....Also thanks for allot of the pics RP! http://sangorgonioyeti.smugmug.com/Inter...5786590_6TMkZ7B
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TOTALLY AMAZING PICTURES, EVERYONE!!!
The reports and pictures are incredible... congrats to all! What a great trip! Thanks to all of you for sharing.
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." Albert Pike
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Hi Looks like a great trip for everyone . Thanks Doug
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Congratulation to all on the summit, great pictures
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Great pictures Kurt, congrats on another successful trip to the Mexico Volcanoes - looks like everyone surely had a great time - maybe in the future I can join the group
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Great pictures Kurt, congrats on another successful trip to the Mexico Volcanoes - looks like everyone surely had a great time - maybe in the future I can join the group I counted you among the 9 that have expressed interest. I took your earlier post to mean that you want in in '12. We're skipping Ixta though, so if that's on your list, you might want to wait until '13. (That is if the recent Popo activity doesn't cause Ixta to close "permanently.") Nice photos Kurt and Jeff! Enjoyed them! I still haven't finished the captions for my album.
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VERY nice article Kurt. I have been on the receiving end of a few of those "pick up the pace, keep hiking and breath harder" talks from you :-)
Last edited by Jackalopes; 11/22/11 06:46 PM.
Ron
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VERY nice article Kurt. I have been on the receiving end of a few of those "pick up the pace, keep hiking and breath harder" talks from you :-) You ever hiked with Richard P or the new GigaMike Ryan. That's all you hear is hurry up, pick up the pace!!!! BTW ROn when you going to come out and hike with us? Yeti
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You just need to work out harder.....
Two comments RE: the article:
1. I like the caption that states that Lloyd is leading the team. I thought that was Kurt at the front of the SMI group.
2. I'm wondering whether Tracie recalls that I called her a dog... No not regarding looks...
I came up to to the group on one of the breaks at somewhere around 15K+ and stated that someone needed to "Control Their Breathing." Someone said "What?" and I said "Someone sounds like a panting dog." Tracie said "Oh, that's me."
Pressure Breathing is a controversial topic, but one thing is for sure: if you focus on the hard inhale/exhale, you will Control Your Breathing. And, that's critical at altitude.
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