first ascent to Pico de Orizaba - sunday April 2011
Despite having reached the top of Iztaccihuatl (5250 m) a few months before, was not my imagination to guess what would be most difficult to reach a summit of 5700 m: the difficulty and risks of walking with crampons on ice and rocks with a steep slope, the wind chill and humidity would seek to squeeze the slightest slip my feet, hands, torso, muscle pain in legs and back (pride not have allowed me to hire a person to carry on my team), the lack of air becomes noticeable from 5000 meters and is involved: suffocation, headache, dizziness, weakness, or simply a poor physical condition (more than twelve hours of exercise in less than two days are not part of any of my routines).
For these reasons, I do not have prepared me for so long with no other event like I did for promotion to the Pico de Orizaba, from the choice of thermal boots, crampons, ice ax, running and swimming routines of varying distances and paces, until the election of mountain guide, acclimatization measures and medication to reduce altitude sickness.
From City Serdán, the volcano looks huge, impressive. Almost completely snow-covered top deck clouds. A two-hour trip in a 4x4 leads to base camp (4240 meters), where the outlook is much more abstract: the top is not only a steep slope, the first stone, lots of snow later.
Getting to where we will spend the second night is difficult and painful because you have to carry all the equipment on the back and sometimes the trail is a steep slope with stones that move unexpectedly. Although the last part of this route is on snow, you can still walk without crampons. Mounted
camp, still take a long tea, eat lots of pasta and sandwiches and cookies prepared to wake up at 4:00 AM and attempt the summit. The body is removed wave, and in addition to stress that something can go wrong the next day, you can only sleep at times. Continuous hydration makes necessary several times sleeping bag for discharging liquids in the snow, under the starlight.
First steps with crampons are fun, despite the fear of giving a false step and end with a spike embedded in the opposite leg. Walking string wonder, then more difficult to pass the pace slows and then accelerates again. This is puzzling because a tug of rope destabilizes the two, and very loose, tangled between his feet. After half an hour each person finds a way around the rope to be a distraction.
The last 500 meters are continuous slope. No way to sit and relax. The wind, growing stronger, as communication becomes impossible to walk. The mouth and nose (accidentally, only parts of my body not covered by thermal clothing), I was freezing and I can hardly articulate the words easier. The cold did manage to get to my feet and stop feeling my fingers. My knees start to hurt, just where ever I had a meniscus operation.
Arriving at his lower lip, the gusts make each step more difficult. The last 15 minutes before the summit is going to travel 100 meters, with the mouth of the crater to the left and right side slippery slope.
only a few minutes to give a hug of joy, contemplate the landscape in all directions, not finding the sea that someone mentioned that sometimes is hard to see some photos trembling hand and start the descent with some apprehension: 70 % of fatal crashes in the mountains are on the way down, because of tiredness and loss of concentration.
All the aches go bump in the middle of fall, dizziness, pain in all muscles used, intense cold, loss of balance. No matter, what counts is being up there. Simply incident makes me lose my plane the next day to the beaches of the Caribbean, where the sun is responsible for my recovery!
photos here: http://tinyurl.com/3cbq64s
