CONTINUED FROM PART 1

After climbing Orizaba, we headed back to Tlachichuca and from there towards Mexico City and our hoped-for third summit, Iztaccihuatl, or Izta for short. Izta (17,159′) is Mexico’s third highest summit, behind Orizaba and Popocatepetl (17,802′). Popo, as it is commonly called, was a popular climb for many years but was quite active when we were there, and remains so today. Just weeks after we left, in fact, Popo had its largest eruption in 1200 years and forced the evacuation of many people living in the area.

Izta and Popo are forever intertwined in Aztec mythology. From Wikipedia: In Aztec mythology, Iztaccíhuatl was a princess who fell in love with Popocatépetl, one of her father’s warriors. The king sent Popocatépetl to war in Oaxaca, promising him Iztaccíhuatl as his wife when he would return (which Iztaccíhuatl’s father presumed he would not). Iztaccíhuatl was falsely told Popocatépetl had died in battle, and believing the news, she died of grief. When Popocatépetl returned to find his love dead, he took her body to a spot outside Tenochtitlan and kneeled by her grave. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains. Iztaccíhuatl’s mountain is called “White Woman” (from the nahuatl iztac “white” and cihuatl “woman”) because it resembles a woman sleeping on her back, and is often covered with snow. (The peak is sometimes nicknamed La Mujer Dormida (“The Sleeping Woman”).) He became the volcano Popocatépetl, raining fire on Earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved. This mythology is evident for climbers in the naming of prominent features and routes on Izta, such as the cabeza (head) and rodillas (knees).

We decided to spend some time enjoying the culture before attempting Izta. We spent some time in the large city of Puebla, but then headed to nearby Cholula, a smaller town nevertheless quite familiar to Americans thanks to the hot sauce of the same name which is made there. We spent one day touring this cathedral, which is actually placed directly on top of a pyramid (a common tactic of the Spanish conquistadors) which pre-dates the Aztec culture. We were also able to tour the ancient pyramid below:

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November in the Colorado High Country can be a little rough. A smattering of snow often shuts the bike season down, and yet all too often the skiing is marginal at best. Ten years ago, I traveled to Mexico with the aim of climbing Mexico’s high volcanoes, which includes North America’s third highest peak, Pico de Orizaba, at 18,490′. This remains one of the better November escapes I’ve done, so despite having only scanned photos and ten year old information, I decided a TR was in order anyway.

Scott Yost, Shelly Higgins and I flew in to Mexico City in the middle of the night and slept on the floor right there at the airport, not wanting to go out into the world’s 3rd largest city in the middle of the night. Many parties will choose to spend some time in the city acclimating, since Mexico City is at 7,350′, but we made our way straight to the town of Apizaco via bus since we were all coming from Crested Butte at roughly 9,000′. Throughout our travels, we took taxis and buses wherever we were going, which I would strongly recommend as it was quite easy, cheap, and safe. Apizaco is a really nice little town that is often used as a base for ascents of La Malinche (aka Matlalcueitl)(14,646′), which we were to use as a warm-up climb. Apizaco:

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