Trip Report
Trip report from October 25 to 26, 2024
Pico de Orizaba, the highest peak in Mexico, is the only peak in Mexico to ever see skis. This is especially true recently since the other big volcano “Popo” has been erupting and even diverted our flight. Pico de Orizaba is also the highest volcano in North America and the 3rd highest peak in North America.
Photographer Matt Bansak, Elle Wang, and I (Ryan Turner) timed our trip precisely when Orizaba had been hit by two tropical storms the week before, one from the Gulf of Mexico, and the other from the Caribbean.
Orizaba has one large remaining glacier, the Jamapa, on the north side from its 18,500-foot summit to a bit below 17,000 feet. Typically, the only snow found on the mountain is on the Jamapa glacier; and even then, the glacier is now often down to bare ice.
Despite the storms we only expected to be able to ski the Jamapa. We didn’t even bring skins. We only planned to boot up on the steep Jamapa and hike in the volcanic rock below. But upon descending into the airport in Veracruz on the Gulf Coast, we could already see the volcano snow covered several thousand feet down to the cloud deck.
Most folks base their operations out of Tlachichuca, Mexico at the base. This small Mexican town gives a clear glimpse of the northwest side of the mountain and the steeper side of the Jamapa. From here one can appreciate it is the 7th most prominent peak in the world.
The road up to the trailhead and refugio, at nearly 14,000 feet, is rough. Most rental cars wouldn’t make it. So a variety of companies in Tlachichuca offer a shuttle service in old beater trucks to the refugio. We chose Summit Orizaba, which also has a hotel in Tlachichuca for before and after the expedition.
The operation is a bit confusing since it is run by a guy called Joaquin, but you might get shuttled up by him. Or his son Joaquin, or his grandson also Joaquin.
The prime season for snow cover from tropical storms tends to be at the end of October. This is also the week leading up to Día de los Muertos. This means getting sleep in town is a bit difficult due to the non-step firecrackers all night.
On the road up, we pass many local goat herders who run the area near the farms. Joaquin has tried to take a tractor up to patch the road, but the farmers always block him. Joaquin just calls them, “¡Estúpido! ¡Muy estúpido!”
After getting dropped at the refugio area, we set up our tents. We started on an acclimatization hike up to the snow line, which we found to be at a bit below 15,000 feet.
We planned on doing another acclimatization hike day, a rest day, and finally a summit day.
As we climbed to 15k we found the tropical storms had laid down a heavy (although maybe only 6 inch) layer of snow over the volcanic rocks. It had quickly turned to corn at the top under the powerful Mexican sun. The snowline also appeared like it would rapidly rise. We also found the tracks of the two Ecuadorians the locals were talking about who had just skied it from the summit down to the first high camp. It turned out one, Juliana Garcia, of them we had met before in Ecuador.
Tomorrow looked like it would be a stellar day, so we decided to go for it at 3 a.m. We thought camping up here would be quieter than town. But some of these firecrackers are near military ordinance level and create a boom even up at the 14,000-foot camp.
At camp, we could hear many of the local hiker parties leaving at around 12 a.m. or 1 a.m. They prefer to be off the glacier when it is still firm. We left around 4 a.m. as we preferred the glacier to soften up a bit. One of the main hazards of the Jamapa glacier is the icy steeps at the top.
We got back on the snow and stashed the approach shoes around 14,000 feet. We climbed the boot pack up to the labyrinth, typically a long scramble through loose volcanic rock. However, due to the tropical storms, this was all snow with a good boot pack. We could see the Ecuadorians had picked a descent line through the labyrinth near the boot pack. As sunset neared, we could still hear some booms from the celebrations up here at 16,000 feet too.
We reached the top of the labyrinth around sunrise. We had a smooth low-angle climb to the Jamapa. Here is where we would have saved some time if we had brought the skins, but had to follow the boot pack.
At the toe of the glacier, it gets steeper and the altitude gets real. The first half of the glacier is at a moderate angle and then gets steeper and higher. Lots of reports talk about icy steep 45-50 degree slope angles at the top of the glacier. I brought the pole inclinometer and found the 30-35 degree angles to be in line with Caltopo (despite claims the Mexican topos aren’t accurate). The final push beyond 18,000 feet is a real “take a few steps and take a breather” type of climb.
Once reaching the crater rim, we had to break for the awe of the crater and its depth and size. Other volcanoes like Rainier likely have craters just as vast, but with PNW’s much bigger snow totals, those craters are filled to the brim with snow hiding their vastness.
There is a final push to the true summit along the crater rim. We hit several false summits along the rim. The true summit at 18,500 feet is exhausting, but as skiers, the hard part was over.
Orizaba is a round enough summit that we were able to ski off the true summit, but had to traverse back into the main up route on the Jamapa. The first few turns and traverse are on the steep northwest aspect visible from Tlachichuca; it is a real no-fall zone into the rock field below. It is also icy given its northwest aspect. I radioed back to the rest of the team on the summit to ski the first pitch with an ice ax and their toe pieces locked.
The rest of the descent into Jamapa was about finding the sweet spot between the still icy slopes on the northwest face and the tiger stripes and rime from the wind on the northeast.
Below the toe of the glacier, the slope angle mellows out and the snow is in the full Mexican sun. The cover in some of the thin spots had already disappeared from our ascent in the morning. However, it was also some of the best snow of the day. Despite being October, it seemed like perfect spring snow.
Through the labyrinth, the snow was similar but created a fun maze of mini chutes to ski through. Below the labyrinth, things got interesting. It really became a puzzle to find the local aspects of the terrain to keep skiing. We finally hit our approach show cache at 15,000 feet. From here we could see some tempting cookies-and-cream slopes below to the refugio, but this was getting into the fantasy realm. However, Elle found another patch to get us down another 100 feet. At 14,900 feet, it was the end of the line for skiing. The last 1000 feet to the refugio was on approach shoes.
We had made it down 3,600 feet (more than the vertical drop of most American resorts) in Mexico! A real special occasion. Orizaba can be a real ski mountaineering experience, but the timing must be precise. The usual window around Día de los Muertos makes it an extra special experience.
Ryan Turner is a Tahoe-based backcountry skier and peak high pointer with a passion for exploring remote terrain and classic lines.
