Citlaltépetl, Pico de Orizaba 2026

After our June success at Mount Baker, we started discussing an alpine trek through the Alps, the details of which we are still finalizing. To maintain our roughly every 6 month schedule of projects nd to keep in shape for Europe, we decided to try Mexico's highest peak, Citlaltépetl, or Pico de Orizaba in January of 2026. Carlos and Miguel have both summited this mountain previously, as recently as 2021. This wouldn't be my first time in climbing in Mexico, but it would be the highest I'd ever attempt.

The first mountain I climbed in Mexico was Nevado de Toluca back in 2022. For that climb, Miguel and I were joined by Pachi, a guide he and Carlos had climbed with previously, and an incredible all around human, Check out advenculture.com for more on Pachi and his guiding services. For this trip, we teamed up with Pachi again to help us up this 18,497 foot beast.

We landed Sunday evening in Mexico City were picked up by Pachi at 6 AM Monday to drive 4+ hours out to the mountain. The ride was lovely went by quickly as we approached the mountain. We stopped in the town of Tlatlicchuca and visited a hostile run by the Conchola family. This operation has been in existence for over 60 years, bringing climbers from the town to the base of the mountain. We pulled into a small, gated house and were surrounded by lots of large 4 x 4 vehicles and paintings on the walls of surrounding mountains. We were led to a small dining area which featured, posters and paraphernalia from climbers that had been through the hostile over the decades, and a refrigerator covered with stickers. The coup de grace was the most delightful cooking of Maribel, who brought us a full plate of food: beans and rice and chicken and the an incredible house made green mole that was perfectly spicy. After resting up and getting our final gear ready, we loaded everything into the 4x4 and were on our way for a 2-hour drive from Tlatlicchuca to the Piedra Grande Refuge.

We arrived at roughly 2 in the afternoon. It was heavily overcast and misty, not too terribly cold and found a completely empty shelter, which we were thrilled about. Our plan was to establish a high camp as we had less days of acclimatization then we would have liked. We threw our gear in quickly and repacked anything heavy that we would stash at a high camp (tent, boots, etc.,) and scrambled for about an hour and a half to the first set of nests, which are right before the entrance to the labyrinth. We cached our stuff for the evening and scrambled back down to the refuge for dinner. We ate, drank, and rested for the evening. I didn’t sleep a wink.

The next morning, we woke to a crisp and clear skies with a light snow having fallen. We packed gear for the summit push and worked our way up to the high camp. Conditions were of favorable, a little muddy and icy in certain parts of the trail but generally very manageable. We arrived at the high camp, set up the tents, ate and rested. We went to sleep planning to wake at 12:30 for the summit push. At 12:30 that I heard Pachi calling from outside our tent: it was time to get going. We got up and went through the usual ritual of shaking off the cold and trying to get warmed and into our gear. Pachi whipped up a quick snack of some oatmeal and tea, and we were on our way with Pachi in the lead setting a very reasonable easy pace for us.

To be continued...