Weather conditions on Pico de Orizaba / Citlaltéptl 2015

[antivoyage]

It's not possible to enter peaks outside the drop down list for Condition Reports, so I figured I'd start a thread. If this should be relocated please LMK.

There are news reports from a rural news outlet in Puebla of heavy rains above 4,000 m that is contributing to erosion of the glacier. The article is written from the perspective of endangering the water supply 20 years on, but this news should also be of concern to climbers as there is a strong correlation between 1) warm weather and 2) extremes of precipitation on Orizaba with accidents on the mountain.

Here is the original article:
http://municipiospuebla.com.mx/nota/201 ... -a%C3%B1os

...and this is a link to a google translation:
https://translate.google.com/translate? ... edit-text=

In my research of accident reports, October of 2012 was a banner year for trouble on the mountain because of drought. Currently there are road and school closures as well as landslides in the north of Puebla because of the heavy rains. Typically, these effects are short lived for people climbing the mountain once the weather lets up.

Currently, there's rain forecast straight across the 10 day forecast with several days expected to receive 4cm or more of rain see: http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Pico-de-Orizaba. What's unusual is ordinarily precipitation comes in the form of snow that high up.

Keep an eye on the conditions and please post on-the-ground reports here. I am harvesting news from twitter on @antivoyages among other sources and will be cross-posting info as it comes in on that feed as well.

[antivoyage]

Heavy rains and unseasonably warm temperatures are continuing in the region around Orizaba. Two Mexican mountaineers from Veracruz were rescued early this Sunday morning on the south route of the peak. The linked news story describes a rescue of a male and female climber who became stuck in their their Jeep in an area called the "Cargadero". The two were pulled out in stable health suffering only from a touch of altitude illness.

http://www.versiones.com.mx/rescata-pc- ... e-orizaba/

[antivoyage]

This weekend, a rag-tag collection of Mexican alpine enthusiast groups are congregating at the Pico de Orizaba / Citlaltepetl for their annual conference in Ciudad Serdan. The location is 30 minutes from Tlachichuca among the folds of Citlaltepetl's skirt. The leading club based in Mexico City published the roster from last year here: http://www.clubalpinomexicano.com.mx/convivencia.html and the number of the different clubs is amusingly diverse.



There's a short write up in a local Puebla-based paper, e-Consulta, https://translate.google.com/translate? ... ages-19910 (via google translate) that suggests this marks the beginning of the winter climbing season.

Indeed, things do look like they're cooling down... sort of. At the hut, the 10 day forecast currently reported by Mountain Forecast has highs ranging between 3-8° C (37-46°F). Rain appears to be tapering, but is continuing well into November. My sense is that all it will take to put the mountain in good shape is a week of lower temperatures so that precipitation produces the powdery snow that Orizaba is known for in November. A key metric to keep an eye on on the Mountain Forecast site is the "Freezing Level". The climb up to 4,700 m is over scree and rock mostly. Above that, it's pretty important that the glacier is getting and staying frozen. I will monitor condition reports from the Mexican Alpine Club and other sources and report back here. If you're climbing in the coming weeks, please let us know about the conditions you encountered.

http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/ ... casts/4000

[antivoyage]

About an hour and a half ago at 4:00 P.M. CST, the Mayor's Office of Chalchicomula de Sesma reports four climbers participating in the Mexican Alpine Club's annual conference held there have been treated for minor injuries caused by rock fall by the local Civil Protection force.

The unstable conditions are attributed the dearth of snowfall in what has been an unseasonably warm and rainy November in the region. The mayor's office recognizes the climber's skill and professionalism in their handling of the situation for their ability to descend to the huts on their own accord for treatment as key factor limiting the severity of the incident.

No other incidents have been reported from this weekend's group climb as part of the annual conference of the Club Alpino Mexicano usually attended by approximately 60 climbers.

[Edit:] It is important to note that the club is climbing the southern route, that is mostly dusty volcanic ash and rock rather than the glaciated northern route that is substantially more popular and reached through Tlachichuca.

See link below (in Spanish)
https://www.facebook.com/H.Ayuntamiento ... 7672098765

[antivoyage]

Hello and happy Thanksgiving! I thought I’d take a moment to digest after dinner and post some updates on the guidebook project and conditions on Citlaltépetl.

I’ve been seeing summit photos on Twitter and Instagram over the last week and conditions look like they’re shaping up. I reached out to guide Salvador Delgadillo (@MAdventures_biz) who summited on November 17th and he gave a pretty typical response:

“We found the glacier in excellent conditions for the climb. We found the peak a little dry, but this varies according to the climate” [translation mine]. They followed up, “[The] conditions are variable day by day. Sometimes with snow and sometimes not. That's why we must check before […] climbing.”

That’s sound advice.

Weather-wise, mountain-forecast.com’s ten-day forecast is showing a pretty typical mix of clouds and showers, but if you look at the precipitation, it’s never more than half a centimeter (1/4”). The freezing level is about where it should be for safe ascents. There’s a day or two where it ascends above the level of the glacier at around 4,850 m (15,912’), but the freezing level is generally hovering between 4,600 m and 4,800 m (15,100’--15,750’). I have to say, conditions look pretty good for this time of year.

In terms of any further accidents or rescue, I haven’t seen or heard a peep out of the local Protección Civil channels and no news is great news. I’ve seen no further reports about rockfall, so hopefully that will be the last we hear of that hazard as colder conditions set in.

===

In a previous forum post, I raised the idea of posting a Kickstarter to help fund and guestimate how-large a print run of Climbing Citlaltépetl I should produce. I’ve had several of you reach out about print copies and I had always envisioned this as print book too.

Forgive me, it’s my own wacky politics, but Kickstarter requires a scan of your passport or driver’s license and that just makes my skin crawl. We’ve all heard the anecdotes about kickstarters running off with the funds and I get why they do it, but anyway, it’s not for me.

The good news is that this should have a negligible effect on the production schedule. I’ve blocked out the rest of the long holiday weekend to finalize my print layouts after having royally messed everything up to get it into kindle format. If the proof comes back OK (hopefully by end of week 12/4) I’ll jump into production and have print copies available the following week.

===

Meanwhile, I just posted a map set with 1:25,000 coverage of the routes from the book 1B (Hidalgo-Piedra Grande), 2 (Piedra Grande-Peak) and 3a (Piedra Grande-Nuevo Jacal), which are the unpaved wilderness parts of the travel which you can complete by 4x4 or, of course walking if you pack sensibly.

INEGI, the Mexican geological survey institute also publishes quads that can be picked up in Mexico City or other map stores, but I figure these are better since I took the time to frame each section of the route and include the navigational narrative from the text of the book along with GPS coordinates, yada yada on the back face of the maps.

I figure these will be pretty useful, and hope this solves some concerns people might have about doing the walk up from Hidalgo if you go the unsupported route. I appreciate any feedback you all may have! Here’s an image and a link to the product:

http://www.amazon.com/Antivoyage-Climbi ... B018J8SHD6

New mapset for the Pico de Orizaba posted for purchase.

RouteGuideSide02.jpg (75.08 KiB) Viewed 2878 times

Have a fabulous Thanksgiving and hope to see you on the mountain!

-A

[antivoyage]

Four young Mexican men lost on ascent; rescued by Proteccíon Civil.
http://municipiospuebla.com.mx/nota/201 ... de-orizaba

Details are sparse, but the local press' habit of turning actual accidents into moral plays to encourage preparedness leads me to handicap the claim in a recent article describing a group of young climbers as unprepared because they neglected to bring rope. In my exhaustive study of over 100 trip reports on sites such as this one, just 20% of climbers indicate that they use rope on the Pico de Orizaba.

I've seen locals motorcycle up with nothing more than a coat and leather dress shoes and I've summited with serious Mexican mountaineers on Citlaltépetl. The Proteccíon Civil may be grousing about a group of underprepared young people, but the fact that the group organized from several cities relatively distant from the mountain suggests a certain level of premeditation on the climbers part.

Whatever the case, this story illustrates the number one reason people get into trouble on Citlaltépetl: they get lost. All too frequently they end up with an injury of some sort or worse, so it is fortunate that the climbers had the presence of mind to dial the local emergency number (066) and luckier still they had mobile reception on the mountain which allowed them to make contact with authorities who lead them to safety.

I've read articles excoriating a group of Canadians that I personally met while sharing the Octavio Alvarez hut at Piedra Grande for a night before we began our respective summit bids. The Canadians became lost climbing through the Labyrinth during a nighttime snow storm and one of their party eventually made a misstep, which is all too easy under mental strain of trying to become found again. Have you been in that head space? I certainly have.

The Canadians I met were extremely well equipped and knew what they were doing, they even called in their own rescue on a satellite phone they carried. Hey man, s**t happens. The press called them irresponsible (and got half of the details wrong). As is all too often the press parrots the official line: register with the authorities before you climb or go with a guide. That's fine and good, but the Canadians rode up in one of the Canchola's 4×4s. People were aware of where these guys were. Further, no contact info is ever provided to register and the authorities do not maintain a log at the hut.

http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/estad ... 66988.html

I personally have been hassled by the army at gunpoint for “un permiso”, though in their defense, they dropped the matter when I explained that my driver told me none was necessary—turns out they were chasing a convict on the lam, though somehow as a gringo in a mountain hut, I became a person of interest. Though all of my interactions with the police in Mexico have been professional and courteous, both there and in the U.S., if you get the wrong guy on the wrong day you might be met with brutality and / or bureaucracy. I personally wouldn't kick that wasps nest if I didn't have to.

But, back to the rope—this strikes me as a golden opportunity to engage the Club Alpino Mexicano, the Proteccíon Civil as well as the American Alpine Club to develop best practices for Citlaltepetl and walk the talk. You'll never see a P.C. / Red Cross / Socorro Alpino in a rescue photo roped up, so why vilify climbers who take the same considered risk?

That model out in the Cascades where if you call in a rescue without having the “10 essentials” in your pack nets you a $500 fine is an interesting start, but I can see arguments for fringe cases that work within the nuance of being completely prepared while leaving out items on a list that sometimes swells to 14 or the classic 10 plus new improved 6 equals 16. What would you include on a recommended list for your summit bag?