From
the top of Citlal into the Blue Hole !
Before we hit Belize and the Blue Hole, we
had enjoyed 2 ½
happy months
in Mexico.
Lentamente, señor!
Rápidamente arriba, señora!
ALL RIGHT!
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In Mexico, one of the many
highlights were the 4 highest volcanoes:
Nevado de Toluca,
Iztaccíhuatl,
Popocatépetl and
Citlaltépetl.
All of them are huge
monsters and each of them has its own beauty.
Nevado
de Toluca is the easiest of those 4 mountains
to climb. A dirty road leads up to 1 mile below the summit. Then you continue on your own.
You hike 1 mile and you can reach the top in an hour. The summit is a huge crater with
the lake in it.
We didn't climb
Iztaccíhuatl
and Popocatépetl. We wanted to save our
strength for the biggest of them all.
We just visited the Tlamaca observation station at the foot of
Popo. Nobody can trespass
that point anyway. Popo has been closed for the last 4 years, it's active, smoking and
emitting dangerous gases. |
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Citlaltépetl
(Pico
the Orizaba - "mountain of the star")
is a horse of a different color!
Its superior height - 5,747m (18,856 feet) makes this magnificent glaciated volcano the
most challenging and attractive of them all.
From the very first moment we saw it, we wanted to
reach the summit of this monster. |
At first we were a bit naive,
thinking we could ascend
without climbing equipment.
Soon we had realized we had to return to the nearest village
Tlachichuca, to rent ice axes, crampons, rope, boots and other necessities. In Tlachichuca
we've met Rob, who came
to climb Citlal too and decided to climb
with us. All 3 of us
motored in our car 'Milos' on dirty roads through the steep hills to
Indian
colony - Hidalgo
(elev. 3,000m). We had spent a night in
Hidalgo the day before, that's why we've
already had two friends over there -
Carlos & Olga, who
kept an eye on our 'Milos'
and the biggest adventure of our life
have begun.
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Citlal, as
we've seen it on the way up from
Hidalgo
to the base camp Piedra Grande
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We had started hiking from
Hidalgo
(3,000m) to the
base camp Piedra Grande
(4,260m) pretty late. Our backpacks were heavy, it was crazy and took
longer than we thought. We got lost and long after dark, around 10PM
- after 6 hours of exhausting
hiking, we finally found and reached Piedra Grande.
At the small cabin we met 2 cool guys from Greece -
Katerine & Vasily,
who didn't reach the summit, they
were frozen to the bones and eager for a cigarette. We've
got an idea what is
waiting for us. |
Here are some notes from our journal:
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Monday, July 20,
1998 - |
We spent a whole day in Piedra Grande,
resting, sleeping and preparing ourselves for tomorrow's climb. Paja was looking for his
lost ice axe.
It was hard to fall
asleep at night; it was freezing!!!
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Tuesday, July
21, 1998 - |
We got up at 00.30 AM. It was really cold. We
packed, drank hot tea and
at 1:30 AM started to climb. On the way up, climbing was harder
and harder. We wanted to reach summit, but it was so cold and also it was harder and
harder to find any rational reason to torture ourselves so much.
Rob could climb up faster, so he did go ahead. The distance between us was
increasing,
we could see his flashlight from time to time.
We prayed for the sun to rise. It was endless.
Zdenka lost one of her
crampons, Paja
was using his fingers in place of his ice axe. We didn't have proper
clothing (socks instead of gloves).
It was 14° F (-10°C).
We could see the summit, but there was no oxygen or strength to
carry through.
Finally the sun
rolled out. It was a
shot in the arm and we didn't give up!
We ascended slowly until we reached the summit at 8:30 AM.
We stood at the
top of Citlaltépetl
(Pico de Orizaba),
the highest mountain in
Mexico - 5,747 m
(18,856
feet).
The wind was kicking!
The wind was fuckin' kicking, we could hardly stand up!
We couldn't believe what was happening; we had teardrops in our eyes.
We did it! Nothing else matters. |
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