Volcanoes in Mexico

I got a couple of requests to write about my time in Mexico in February, so here it is!

Last fall, I was invited to join a small group climbing volcanoes in Ecuador and was determined to make it work, but the price was more than I could come up with on two month's notice.  I had gotten my hopes up and then back down about getting to travel and climb something big again, but my friend James also had plans to climb Pico de Orizaba in February, which had been on my radar for a few years as a very doable big mountain that was on my list.  When looking at the timing and price, it was astoundingly cheaper than I thought, and I was so excited to have a Plan B work out!  Fast forward, and I casually brought it up to my best friend Rachael, who without hesitation asked to join on the trip as well!  James was a great trip leader who had done all the communications and logistics planning for us with the travel company Nomada, we did a couple of Quandary climbs for training, and over the years I had accumulated the majority of the gear I would need to be successful and comfortable for the trip... so we were ready!

Our itinerary included three climbs: Malinche, Iztaccihuatl, and ultimately Pico de Orizaba (also known by its Aztec name Citlaltépetl).  I had gotten to go to Mexico City when I was 16 with our Spanish class and we'd gotten to visit the ancient Aztec ruins, and I didn't remember how almost all the names of places and streets etc. were named Aztec names (it took me days to figure out how to pronounce Izta, and I never once got Orizaba's given name).

A glimpse of Pico de Orizaba.  More to come!

Our first night in Mexico City was short, we were all exhausted from traveling (and Rach and I stayed up all night "packing" ... aka painting our nails and drinking wine), but we ended up having a super awesome taxi driver Roberto that ended up being our tour guide for the evening.  He helped us take care of finding an ATM to get money for the week, and convinced us all to try these fantastic street tacos made from literally every part of the animal you could think of.  I think James opted for tongue and other things, and I got one brain, one eyeball, and one "mixed" meat taco.  The ojos were chewy, and the sesos ended up being pretty soft and good (once I got my gag reflex to calm down and just objectively enjoy my street tacos!)

We all slept good, and were up around 5 the next morning to get picked up by Nomada, and we drove to hike Malinche.  It was a Sunday and the trail was moderately busy, much like the trails in Colorado would be on the weekend, too.  Malinche was roughly 14,600 feet, and the highest both Rachael and James had ever been (so far!).

It felt good to escape winter for a little bit and hike in "summer weather"

The trails were very dusty, and for the first of many times, we realized just how dusty, sandy, gravely, and scree-y the volcanoes were going to be.  We would have sections that were like climbing sand dunes.  You'd be to your ankles in sand.

The trail above treeline heading up, at about 13k

In the distance, we could see our next objective Izta sticking out above the clouds.  We had a moment of awe looking at it realizing that in two days, we'd be 3000 feet higher than we already were.

Photo taken by James, Rach and I celebrating a successful first summit!

Rachael and Bryce conspired to surprise me with summit Reese's on each of our three climbs, which just made me all mushy gushy and made me miss him that week even more!

Our whole group on the summit of Malinche.  Even though James, Rachael, and I opted out of being guided on the first two climbs, we ended up sticking together on the climbs and grew quite close!  Danny was from the UK, and Ben from Holland.  Our amazing guide Ana is on the far left.

Everyone felt great after day one, and we ended up staying that night in the lodging at the base of Malinche which felt a lot like a summer camp.  There were multiple bunk houses with rooms, a shower, and kitchenette.  It might have been my favorite of all the places we stayed, because Rach and I weren't going to get our hopes up to have hot showers that week, but we had hot showers at all the places we stayed.  The next morning we packed up and were en route to the visitor center at the base of Izta and Popo.  Popocatepetl (again, Popo for short because Aztec language is tricky!) is a very active cinder cone volcano that we got to see gasses spew from almost every day!  I'm a huge earth science and plate tectonic nerd and that was definitely a highlight for me.

That night we arrived at the visitor center at about 13,000 feet, which would be one of the highest sleeps I've had.  Sleeping at elevation is hard, and it's difficult to get a good nights rest.

Outside the visitor center was a sweet stray mama.  We worked through my trail mix together.

View of our objective, Izta, from the base.  I should have realized here just how many false summits we'd be climbing over.

View of Popo from the base.

We camped on our pads and sleeping bags on the floor of the visitor center, but hardly anyone slept.  Not only was the altitude against us, there was a group of people that worked at the visitor center that were watching TV loudly, and the center was one giant echoing building.  I eventually did get up and politely asked them to turn the TV down, but once I fell asleep, I was woken up a few times by eerie sounds.  I had to get up to use the bathroom once, but when trying to fall back asleep, I was jolted awake by what I swore was a woman screaming (HP reference anyone?) as if she were waking from a bad dream.  I never could fall back asleep after that and midnight came before we knew it.  We packed up, ate breakfast, and headed down the road to the trailhead.

Our first glimpses of the sunrise and a little hiccup from Popo.  This was several hours up the trail and I think we were about at 15k here.  We had just climbed up the loosest part of the climb out of a gully.

You can see Danny and Ana on the bump on the left: the first of the ups and downs that day.  We were at 16k here, which meant only 1000 feet to go, but we gained and lost that about three more times before the actual summit.

One of the glaciers, which we only needed microspikes for because it was in a flat crater.  Our route goes up that steep bank and up to the left toward to eventual summit.

Looking down the trail at a neat feature; it smelled strongly of sulfur here and I was reminded we were on a dormant volcano!

On the summit above the clouds!

Our group minus Ana and Danny; he made it to 16k and had started to not feel well.  The rest of us were pretty jazzed again to have reached a new high point!  It was so much warmer than I had prepared for; I was in my puffy but I was warm, and just in summer hiking pants.  The summit this day was 17,100!

View of the high glacier from the summit.  It was so spectacular to see!

On our descent, we ran into a Mexican army group that was also training on the mountain.  The guns were only a tad intimidating at first, but this group made us laugh a ton, and they loved having their picture taken with us!

Even though the hike was only about 9 miles round trip, we hiked about 13 hours and were so exhausted.  Our feet ached and we were ready to get on solid non-scree ground.

Another photo from James.  This was a view from the second of 4 passes we hiked over; we had hiked this in the dark so it was amazing to see the volcanic features and landscapes on the way back down.

I had felt pretty great the entire day, other than being a little sleepy from lack of a good nights rest.  This was the highest Rachael and James had been and Rach had started to feel a little a little crappy with the combination of her asthma and the altitude.  She trudged on and made it, I was proud!  We drove late that night to a hostel, and woke up fairly early to drive to the basecamp of our next and final objective: Pico!  Basecamp for Pico sat at 14k.  I was surprised with as popular as this mountain was that there was NO formal regulations for the bathroom.  You literally would just find a rock or ditch and go.  Think of the hundreds or thousands of people that ended up being?!  The first big rock of course you go behind was just littered with human waste and the further away you ventured the easier it would be to find a spot where you wouldn't accidentally step in anyone's poop.  I really really hope that eventually there is some kind of solution up there with a designated privy or pack-it-out system.

This was the view from our top bunk looking down to our guides and cook help.  We had a delicious dinner of bean and cheese burritos, avocado, salad, and spaghetti.

Our goal was to get up by 11 pm to get ready for the climb.  That photo was taken around 5 pm, which meant we would be lucky to get a nap in before the climb.  The bean and cheese burritos were FABULOUS, except for when they kept us all up flatulating profusely all. night. long.  Literally, every 5 minutes, my belly just felt so full of air constantly.  On top of that, I was very well hydrated and had to climb down from my third story bunk every HOUR to go outside and pee during the night.  I did not even fall asleep for five minutes that night, and when the alarms went off at 11 to get up, I was dreading how terrible I might feel climbing for another 13 hours on NO sleep.

We started hiking around midnight and Danny didn't last long into the hike.  He ended up getting a much worse upset stomach and turned around to stay at the basecamp that day.  We hiked for so many hours in the dark.  At one point Ana asked us if we were up for taking a short cut, since as a group we were pretty strong.  We happily agreed since it would cut off quite a bit of distance.  What this ended up meaning was that we would be basically ice climbing up icy rock with scary drop off's in the dark.

Climbing on icy rock was scary.  I was also worried for Rachael doing something like this when this was her first time in crampons and she was getting a crash course in real mountaineering.

If you're facebook friends with Rach, click here to watch a video she took of me while making my way up one of the ice walls.  It was a full body effort and I was so exhausted.  In all this heavy crampon use, Ben was wearing rented crampons that weren't fitted well to his boots and about 3-4 times we had to stop for what felt like 15 minutes or more while Ana helped him get them back on and secured, but they would keep falling off.  The three of us would have to wait with them, and I started to get miserable in the cold waiting.  The best way I can stay warm is just to keep moving, but we couldn't, we had to wait for our teammate.  Eventually he traded crampons with the other guide and they finally stayed on and we were able to continue.  It kinda reminded me of people that have to wait in line on Everest and it gave me a new appreciation for how long those wait times must be.  I ended up putting on every layer I had and started to worry that if my core temperature got too cold that my hands and feet would get too cold too.  I was trying hard not to get cranky because I knew this wasn't Ben's fault and I could also imagine how terrified he felt when he couldn't trust his crampons.  I ended up being in both my puffies the rest of the climb up.

We finally got off the icy rock and onto the glacier, which made the crampon climbing much easier.  But, at this point, it was a straight up and sustained steep climb with no opportunities to rest comfortably.  I had been praying and praying for the sunrise to finally come, because 7 hours hiking in the dark was starting to feel really defeating.  I had been able to use my camelback up until this point as well, but now it had frozen, so if I needed a drink, I would have to take my pack off to get my bottle out of my bag.  I was surprised no one else in the group needed a drink yet, so I just kept following, but I felt like I was falling further and further behind because I was starting to tank after having nothing to eat or drink for a few hours.  At one point I broke down and I had to stop to get a drink of my gatorade and electrolyte mix and eat a bite or two of a bar.  Rach had also stopped just above me and offered words of encouragement, and after I shed a tear of frustration and drank my electrolytes, I got my second wind.  We were around 500 feet from reaching the crater rim... we could do it!

The top was SO CLOSE!

Five minutes continuing to the right and we would be there.  Our first glimpse of the huge crater.

The hardest part was over and we had had such a great trip together already and this was the cherry on top -- to get to celebrate this accomplishment with my best friend.  

It was impossible to capture the whole crater.  Looking down over the edge into its depths and imagining 400 years ago what its last eruption looked like.

Summit hugs

So proud of our group!  The highest people in Mexico!!

Our way back down was not easy at all.  We were roped together, thankfully because Rach caught a crampon and tripped, and I felt like I was literally falling asleep while standing and I knew this was not the time to not be fully aware of myself and movements.  I needed to be completely careful of my steps because a fall would be a long slide down.  The rocky ice on the way down ended up being the worst part of the climb.  Walking on rocks and impenetrable ice in crampons is pure misery.

Looking down at the groups that were coming up.  I was thankful we had an early start.  The long train of people further down were our army friends again, also training on Pico!

The basecamp hut.  A welcomed sight after 13 hours.  I just wanted to sit so badly.

Looking back up at the route from basecamp.  If you look closely, right in the middle is a sliver of white on the left of the rocky/icy mountain.  That's the glacier and the direct route up.  You can basically see all the way to the top.

Screenshot of my Strava, which sadly glitched on the summit when I was taking pictures.  So, it at least got the climb up recorded and oddly enough the total time of the hike.  I like the satellite view where you can see the crater!

We had successfully completed all three of our goals on this trip!  Now it was time to take a day to sleep in, relax, and have a glass of wine in Roma Norte, Mexico City!

And that's a wrap!  We flew home the next day!  And that, friends, is an ENTIRE other story... :)

Thanks James for sharing all your beautiful photos.  To see them all, go take a look here!

Year 3, Day 1.5: The Maiden Voyage

Like I've shared in my previous posts, I've had anxiety around learning to ski.  My first year was not so encouraging... in year two, I made a little progress... so for year three, I was hoping it would really start to feel more comfortable.  (check this past blog post: http://adventuresoftaradactyl.blogspot.com/2015/04/year-2-wrap-up-this-might-be-it.html )

Captain Obvious Observations of skiing:  1) It's difficult to catch on to;  2) It's expensive.

I had borrowed my friend Anna's skis my first year, and I had rented a pair last year.  On a teacher's salary the last few years, I couldn't afford my own gear.  This past spring, I picked out a good pair of skis that I knew I could "grow into," so to speak, and put them on layaway.  They would be longer and wider than anything I had struggled with the past two years, but I knew that in the winters to come that I wanted to be able to ski both in and out of bounds, on groomers or back country powder.  I put the final balance on my credit card, and picked them up last week.

All this past week, I just admired them sitting in the corner of my room.  I actually owned them this time!  I was excited to finally have a pair to call my own that I could learn on, but even more nervous because I didn't want to have just invested so much money into something too advanced for me.  Last week there wasn't enough snow up near Long's (my close weekend go-to hiking area) to even think about skiing, but I was determined to keep advancing and excited just to carry them on my back while I hiked up for the added weight.

In the back of my mind I was still nervous to click in for real and take a run.  Yesterday was the day to finally face any fears I was having.  Not only was I going to test them out, but I was giving skinning a go as well.

I have had many issues with my glutes and psoas muscles the last couple of years and certain exercises aggravate my muscles.  I can't work out on elliptical machines and I can't snow shoe.  I wondered if skinning would also trigger my muscles to hurt, and I was unfortunately right.  If I keep up on my chiropractic care and do dry needling to keep my muscles from seizing up, I can manage it.  I suffered through the pain to get to the top and called my doctor right away to schedule the dry needling.  After changing into dry clothes and eating a snack, I nervously clicked in and took my first run...  My "maiden voyage" if you will.

The night before it had snowed about 3 inches, so there was a beautiful layer of fluffy snow on top of the groomed run.  It was as smooth as butter.  I turned with ease and just floated down my first run.  I was so relieved.  I went down more runs.  I was in love with my new skis.  It made me so hopeful for this upcoming season.  The learning and improvements will never end, but the first day in my own set-up was a pretty good one.

(Accidental) product review: brownie batter approved.

Just because it's a pretty funny story, too.

Last year I joined the Enerplex family as a brand ambassador -- I love representing a great company that I believe makes a good and trustworthy product.

Representing on a summit nap on San Luis Peak.  

The product that I get asked about quite a bit is my solar phone case.  The extra emergency battery pack comes in handy almost every other day.  It charges with a wall plug-in, or I'll sit the solar panel in the sun while I'm driving in the car or sitting on a mountain taking in the views.

So here's where my accidental product testing comes in.  I would say my biggest weakness in this world is my sweet tooth.  I frequently make single serving brownie batter bowls, or cookie dough, or ice cream... I'll quit listing.  The other night was like any other.  I had finished my homework, eaten dinner, and had sat down to catch up on some favorite shows with a small bowl of personal brownie batter as a treat.  My message tone goes off, I reach over to the coffee table to answer a friend, and plop...

 Embarrassingly often I just drop things.  Ask any of my former students how often the dry erase markers just jumped out of my hands for no reason while I was teaching.  I had dropped my phone right into my bowl of brownie batter.  I didn't curse, I didn't yell, I just froze for a second and giggled at how that had just happened.  It was even the second phone case I've gone through.  My first still worked fine, but suffered some cosmetic damages.  I thought, worst case scenario, my case might die but it would have protected my phone in sacrifice.  I take the case off quickly to make sure my phone was fine, and then decide what to do with the case.  If I had just dropped it into the toilet like everyone else, I could put it in rice and it would probably be fine... right?  The batter was clogged into the speaker pores, and into the charger port.  You can't just wipe it off.  If I left it, it would be ruined.  If I washed it out, I might ruin it either way.  So I decided to take the kitchen sprayer and pressure wash out the batter from the speakers and charging port.  I was still annoyed and laughing at my ridiculous mistake and crossed my fingers if it worked out.  After running it under water for a few minutes, I got it all out.  I dried it off, turned it over, and realized there was water under the solar screen on the back.  I figured after its swim there was no way it could have survived.  I was feeling remorse after having lost it so carelessly.  Just for the heck of it, I put it in a bag a rice overnight.

I nervously tested it out the next day, hoping I wouldn't electrocute myself when I plugged it back in or get no reaction if it were dead.  I tested it first without my phone in it, and the blue lights on the battery pack started blinking!  It had survived a smothering in brownie batter and a soaking bath under the faucet, and is currently sitting in the sun charging on my coffee table as I speak.  It's definitely not a traditional product testing and review, but Enerplex, you made one good and tough phone case :)

For anyone interested in anything for themselves or for a holiday gift idea, please take advantage of 20% anything at goenerplex with the code "tnichols" at checkout.  I love my phone case even more now, and they also have various other panels and battery packs.  Go check it out! www.goenerplex.com 

Earlier this summer taking an afternoon to do some summer class homework.  My first case took quite the beating too.  The poor thing suffered many cosmetic damages.

I'm not looking forward to winter.

This has been on my mind for months.  

Confession... Reflection.  Either or. 

It's officially winter in the high peaks.  Late summer and fall really held on as long as they could, and even on a nice walk to Ouzel Falls today, there was a little snow and ice to walk on after the first dumping but it was warm enough to wear just long sleeves.  When the wind picked up and the sun went down, I inevitably thought about how much I miss warm weather when it leaves each time.

I'm not looking forward to winter.  Many of my friends are posting skiing photos this week captioned with excitement about the upcoming winter season.  My ideal mountain season is anytime I feel the warm sun on my skin, and a breeze that cools me off as I walk with ease UP the peak with the power of my own two legs.  Come winter if the snowpack is hard enough, I can walk right on top of the crusty layer, but then falling through waist deep snow is inevitable.  Snow up high is supposed to mean skiing down the big peaks, not constantly sinking in trying to go up them.  So, my kind of mountain conditions are over until June.  Winter means my anxiety, nerves, and insecurities come back as I try to learn to make it down the mountain on skis for another winter.

It's really hard when the people you love to spend your time with are near expert skiers and you (let's just put it bluntly out there) suck at it.  I know it isn't my fault that I didn't grow up on ski hills in Iowa, but it's really hard to not let it bring me down each year when winter comes around.  I know that I have the determination and ability to eventually figure it out, but while I'm still learning -- throughout the massive learning curve that it is --  I let my insecurities get the best of me.  I don't want to be good at everything, that's not what I'm wishing for here; I already pretty much gave up on distance trail running because I know my body just doesn't feel the best when I do it.  But I see the disappointment in my friends' eyes when they start talking about big ski endeavors planned for this winter, and they realize afterwards that I'm in that conversation too and won't be able to join them or be excited about it the way they are.  I can't share in this part of my friends' lives that they love so much, and that's what hurts and brings me down.  Most things in life you can just learn about and be enthused about alongside your friends (like watching football on TV), but skiing takes actual SKILL and you have to do it, not just watch it or talk about it.  I just want to be able to ski down the terrain with my friends without the mental pep talk of "just don't cry, just don't cry," every time, or hold them back from the blacks they crave because I can just hardly handle the blues.  I have to try so hard every single time I make it down a run, and think about every single move and stance I have to do -- just so I don't look like an awkward starfish trying not to die.  I've appreciated the kind words of support and encouragement from those who've witnessed any part of my journey, but I'm a summer girl through and through, and I'm super super sad my season is over.  So... I'm not looking forward to winter.

This might be the last day hike I take without full on snow boots and gaiters on.  So I had to do one last thing that I can claim being good at while I still could.  And that's plank.

Ch-ch-ch-changes (good ones!)

Before summer, I had found out that I wouldn't be returning to teach again in the fall for the next school year.  Spring was very rough, and transitioning into summer was all about figuring out the "what's next."  I had a pretty enjoyable summer with a few summer classes mixed in with camping and climbing.  Despite the curve ball my life was thrown in the spring, it was a very easy decision for me to make the choice to return to school as a student again, this time working toward an accounting degree and eventually a masters.  I have always enjoyed school and learning, as a student and as a teacher.  Working with kids has always been my first love, and part of me still doesn't think I was ready to put that hat away and try something new this soon in my career, but I've been so excited and happy with where my new path is taking me!  I have had nothing but positive and unconditional support from friends and family with this new change, and I'm so thankful for it all.  My new routine has settled in and life is (as always) good.

This is my 4am excited ready for work face

I'm picking up my AAS in accounting from Front Range, and then on to a masters.  My fall class schedule is (dare I say?) fun!  The prospects are good, and I'm thankful for my nerdy number-oriented organized brain because I feel like after teaching, this is what I am meant to do.  Always a reassuring feeling right?  I picked up a part time job working as a breakfast cook at Embassy Suites.  This company is great, and even though my alarm goes off at 3:45am and I work up until I go to class for the rest of the day, my jam-packed schedule is manageable and enjoyable.  Instead of coming home from work with pen and marker ink all over my hands, I now go to school with pancake batter on my hands.  I get to flip made-to-order omelets for the guests right in front of them; I get to go out to the hotel garden and pick fresh herbs when we are out.  I am busy, but it is a blast.  I have also joined the mentoring program our church has with one local school in town so that I can still meet once a week to help a kiddo in need with school work and life.  The best news of all is that I only work weekdays along with school, so I still have my weekends to go escape to the mountains and play :)

This month, I also got to take my childhood best friend up a mountain!  I love having family and friends visit me from back in Iowa, especially when they say, "can we go to a big hike?!"  It's never an easy feat to come from lower elevation and hike a big mountain, but we had amazing weather, and Karla is a marathon runner back home, so we made it up without any major problems.  Anyone else want to come join next time?!

Excited to check back in later in the fall with the coming of winter.  It'll be another big learning curve with skiing on a new pair of my own skis.  I'm still the most comfortable on my own two feet, and can't wait for the snow to hit the high peaks for those crisp post card views again.  Keep an eye on my instagram @taradactyl02 where I share my favorite pictures at least weekly.  Have a great fall!