Completely apart from and high above its popular beach destinations of Cabo, Cancun, and Cozumel, there is a side to Mexico that few foreigners experience. In the Central Highlands, south of Mexico City, excellent hiking and climbing opportunities may be found amidst the ice and snow of its volcanoes, including the 3rd highest peak in North America.
Our Hauser Exkursionen group consisted of nine German clients, a German leader, a handful of local guides, and The Vagabond Hiker. That alone provided quite a cultural experience. All were simpatico, however, and most all spoke excellent English, or at least vastly better English than my vague remembrances of schoolboy German.
We started out with the easy and accessible (and therefore popular) ascent of Volcan Ajusco, which at 12,900 ft. overlooks Mexico City from the south. While Ajusco gave some nice views of the city, our itinerary quickly became more interesting with the climb of Nevada Toluca (15,390 ft), Mexico’s 4th highest peak, which provided a great scramble along the crater ridge to the high point. Several German proved their mettle with this short but challenging climb. The next objective of our group was Mexico’s 3rd highest peak, Iztaccihuatl (17,260 ft), known locally as Ixta to facilitate pronunciation. This peak was the most difficult we attempted as it involved an alpine (pre-dawn) start, one mile of vertical ascent, high elevation, and some snow. Only four of us, myself included, reached the summit.
As a respite from the more challenging climbs, we next hiked up Mexico’s 5th highest peak, Malinche (14,640 ft), which featured masses of locals on their private version of the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. This pilgrimage, likely the largest in the western hemisphere, culminated the following day when millions converged for her feast day. Finally we tackled Mexico’s highest volcano, Pico de Orizaba, at 18,490 ft the 3rd highest peak in North America. We spent the pre-summit night at the high camp after more than an hour crawling along a rough 4wd drive road in our ancient Jeeps. With another alpine start at 2 AM, we climbed up to the 30-degree snow slope of the Glaciar de Jamapa and then traced a route up the glacier and around the crater rim to the actual summit. With better acclimatization, eight of us reached the top with its splendid early morning views across to the Gulf of Mexico.
Apart from the excellent hiking and climbing, a key attraction of this trip for me was all the extra time we had for exploration of Mexico’s cultural treasures in the Central Highlands, including the incredible pyramids at Teotihuacan and the attractive colonial cities of Taxco and Puebla. Part 2 of Another Side of Mexico will highlight two of these attractions…
Those Coachella Valley palm trees look a hell of a lot more inviting than the icy peaks of those Mexican mountains. But you’re still smiling up there!