I apologize for the entry delay. Mexican internet is not great and there was none available in Tlachichuca and in other places it was very slow.
Day 4
Mark and I reached Tlachichuca easily and were met by Señor Gerrardo owner of the Hotel Gerar, a humble little place and we were the only ones there. We had stayed with him before 15 years earlier and he treated us like family. He even asked us to find our entry in his guest book and read it to him in Spanish so he could know what we wrote from our stay with him then. He is one of three companies in Tlachichuca that caters to climbers. He provided us with a room the night before we go and one for when we come down, white gas for our stove, 5 gallons of water (there is no water source on the mountain anymore) and the 2 hour 4×4 ride up a most horrible road to the base camp at 14,000 feet and back all for $2400 pesos or about $200 US dollars.
We reached base camp and it was packed with people. Piedra Grande proper sleeps 60 people and is NOT a restful place and is literally full of mice and rats. Mark raced out of the Jeep and up to the small Augusto Pellet hut and it was empty. It sleeps 6-8 people and we had it all to ourselves with fewer rats and mice, whew! All in all there were about 60 people in camp. It was crazy. 
However people started to slowly head out. We met people coming off the summit and gathered route information from many of them. There were people from all over the world and many from the Pacific Northwest.
We went for a small hike up about 500 feet to acclimate and after that we settled in to the hut and laid around in our bunks. There is nothing to do there, and I mean nothing except allow our body’s to adjust to the altitude. We had to be patient.
See Piedra Grande here:
Day 5
I did not sleep at all. Marked “claimed” he didn’t sleep either. If not then he snores like a bear when he is awake. I had strange thoughts (I would say dreams but I was not asleep) extremely random, non-connected images and stories. Mark would share with me a few days later he had the same experience. It was an altitude thing. When you get above a certain altitude your body starts to slow down and die off cell by cell. It is interesting to feel this and this is the first time I have really connected the dots to what is really going on with our bodies. The good news is we begin to somewhat compensate for the difference. We may not be at our peak performance like we would be in the valley where the green forest, grass, and animals, and humans thrive, but we begin to acclimate to our environment. There is no more proof needed than this to prove we, animals, plants, and environment, are all connected.
The night sky here is vast and it envelopes you. It was as if there was no separation between you and the stars and I understood in that moment why the Nahuatl Indians called this Citlaltépetl, meaning star mountain. It has been said the Earth has a sound. A low humming sound that is the energy of the Earth, like a life sustaining engine. One morning I was sitting outside the hut and I heard this. It was amazing. It ebbed and flowed and came from the valley to the right of the hut and I sat there for an hour and just listened to Mother Earth sing. It was a special moment for me and one of the personal highlights of the trip and one I will never forget.
Sometime during the night we had another climber join us in the hut. He was from Veracruz and was climbing alone. There was no room in the large hut so we welcomed him. Around 6:30 AM he headed up the mountain. More about him later.
Day 6
We had some food around 9:00 AM and sorted gear. Today we would continue our acclimation by packing gear to our high camp at 15,500 ft. This is where the work would really begin and all the physical fitness would pay off. At this point I was feeling great with no symptoms of altitude illness and neither was Mark with the exception of having a headache for awhile which he knocked down with an Aleve tablet. Oh, and of course we had very little appetite which is normal.
We put on our backpacks and headed up the trail. It was very slow going. It is really important to monitor your pace, at least for me, since I tend to be a fast hiker. I knew I need to conserve energy at every opportunity. The packs were heavy with our tent, ice axes, crampons, rope, and harnesses etc. At 15,000 feet I suddenly, and I mean really suddenly, violently vomited. I cannot remember anything taking me to my knees in my lifetime but this took me down. I had felt great and was feeling no affects from the climb. It just decided to happen for whatever reason. Ironically, it was this same altitude where I began to get sick the last two times I was here years ago. I think it was a subconscious gut check. A message “Hey remember this is your ceiling, let’s get this party started!” Mark was kind enough to capture the moment with his camera I sat there for ten minutes got up and kept going.
I felt fine. It was very weird and I had no other sickness feelings at all after that. Mark noted that I was better than any altimeter on the market when it came to marking the 15,000 altitude level. We nicknamed the spot the “breakfast bar.”
It took us an hour and a half to reach the spot where we would set up camp and spoke to some more folks and Mark spied the route. I had never been much further than this on the mountain. We got reports the “labyrinth” was very icy and one climber said he watched several people fall throughout the day. He pointed out a better route he had used and we decided that was for us! We set up our tent, stashed our gear inside and headed back down to the hut. Climb high, sleep low. That’s how you get your body used to altitude.
Once back down we met 34 year old Oral from Turkey. He was travelling the world and decided he had to climb this while he was here. He moved in with us and it turned out he works as a chef. So here we are three chef/climbers having a good conversation and making plans for our summit. He asked to join us, and after grilling him on cramponing, rope work, and self arrest techniques we felt he had enough experience that we would be ok roping up with us. Then he told us he had no harness because the company he used to get him to base camp told him he would not need a rope. Wow bad idea. Since he was a day later than we were it was decided that he would meet us at our high camp at 1:00 AM the following day giving him another day at the lower camp and join us at high camp as we started for the summit. We would fashion a swami belt with webbing for a harness or he would try and borrow one from another climber.
While having another nap session (I told you there was nothing to do there) I went outside around 6:30 PM or so and saw the Veracruz guy come stumbling in. He was wiped out! because we had been in our racks the night before we really never were able to see him or his gear. He was wearing jeans a hoody style sweatshirt light-weight trail hiking boots and carrying a small day pack with an ice axe and crampons strapped to it. He had climbed and summited the 8th highest peak in the world wearing street clothes!
I had been worried about him and told him so. He said he ran into problems on the route through the labyrinth. The labyrinth is a rocky ridge with ice and snow chutes with constant falling rock in certain areas and very steep. You can see the best route from a distance but once you are up close and on it you can very easily get into serious trouble. He went on to say, in his broken English, that he had suffered some “psychological problems” and decided to turn back but before he knew it he was going up instead of down. I think he suffered some mild hypoxia and was a bit delusional as I have had a similar experience before on this mountain. Fortunately for me I was in high camp not climbing alone when it hit me several years ago. I am still unsure how he kept crampons on those flimsy day hiking boots. He had been on the mountain for 12 1/2 hours.
He packed up His 4 wool blankets he had left the hut (he explained his sleeping bag was wet because his mother had washed it and it had not dried in time) left us some oranges and bananas and went to his truck to make the 2 hour drive home to Veracruz.
I finally got a really good nights sleep. I know this because my hut mates Mark and Oral made it very clear since my snoring, and I am not normally a snorer, kept them from sleeping. I have been traveling and climbing with Mark for 25 years and I have never met anyone who could sleep anytime, anywhere and he has always kept me awake with his snoring. Score one for Sadler!
Day 7
Around 12:00 PM we packed food, water and clothes and started again for high camp. We would sleep there that night and head for the summit at 1:00 AM the next morning with Oral. From this camp it is around 6-7 hours to the summit and then the return trip from the summit all the way down to Piedra Grande would be about another 5-6 hours for a total or 11-13 hours total.
We arrived in our camp around 2:30 a midst a few snow flurries. We were the only ones there at around 15,500 feet and right below the labyrinth ridge. The ceiling was closing but we had no real concerns. We sorted gear, set up our sleeping bags and pads and then, yep you guessed it, crawled into them. It may sound crazy, but resting is the key to allow your body time to acclimate. Anything you do at high elevations, and it can be the smallest thing like walking 20 feet to pee, will make you winded. Slow is the way to go and we took that very seriously. As we laid there and the time ticked by the wind picked up.
There had been no precipitation here on the peak since November and it was only a token amount. Winds come every day in the morning and in the evening. It is a Natural occurrence as the warmer air pushes the colder air out, but this was in the late afternoon, too early for this wind. As the wind continued to build the tent was pushing in on Mark’s face as he laid in his sleeping bag (hey, he wanted the right side!) we estimated sustained 25-30 mph and gusts to 40-45. I elected to get out and check our tent anchors and guy-lines. Snow was now starting to accumulate as I was shoring up our shelter I started shooting the video below.
These two figures appeared from the now much lower clouds. The climbers approached me and they told me they got to within 100 meters from the summit and were forced down by the weather. Now keep in mind where our camp was is in a circue or a bowl which is an area surrounded on three sides or more by rock walls and is somewhat protected. They were exposed up on the glacier to winds that may have been double what we were currently experiencing! One was a local guide and the other the client. He was a Mexican National now living in New York. He told me they had gotten lost trying to find the entry into the labyrinth from the glacier coming down. They had wandered for an hour and a half searching for their entry point but it was covered in snow and blown out. They finally decided to pick a spot to descend and get the hell out of there. He pointed to the spot they had used as an escape route and it looked very scary to me! He wished us well and off they went but not before I asked him the to tell Oral not to come up as we had planned.
I briefed Mark on the conversation and we knew it would be a last minute decision based on the weather conditions to stick to the original plan. We knew a few things:
1) We had to be back to Piedra Grande close to 4:00 PM to meet Señor Gerrardo for a ride out.
2) We had built in extra time into the climb and would be able to leave at the very latest 3:00 AM and still meet the Señor.
3) It would not be up to us. The conditions would either improve or not. We had no control.
We tried to sleep but the wind and the snow kept increasing. We yelled a lot of swear words about the situation, tried to be hopeful and laughed at our bad timing. Fifteen years ago I was right here sicker than I may have ever been, weak from constant vomiting and now I was stronger than I have ever been and possibly not able to play on. Shit! I had been working out, studying routes, and reading up on altitude illness and prevention and eating right. We had planned it right this time and we were only 2500 feet from the summit and now it looked as if it may not happen. So I did what I knew would be best for me. I put my ear plugs in and went to sleep.
I woke up around 11:00 PM and it was still snowing and blowing. There was now about 3 inches on the ground, no biggie, but the ceiling had come down and my barometer was lower than had ever seen it. Visibility was low, maybe 150 feet or so. We were toast. We could not take a chance on having route finding issues and the storm seemed to be growing which meant being on an exposed glacier at 16,000 feet.
We simply waited for daylight now. We got up and we began to dismantle everything we had put together the day, days, weeks and months before to carry off the mountain. Our packs were heavy as we had to carry all the gear down in one trip that had taken two trips before. We packed our backpacks with as much as we could from within the tent. The tent itself was a frozen mass and difficult to get back into its stuff sack.
There was now 4-5 inches of snow on the ground making route finding difficult and the visibility was around 50-75 feet. The “trail” is a rock and boulder field.
Now it was just waiting for one of us to snap an ankle or do a header into the icy rocks. The was very little to indicate which was the proper route to Piedra Grande. Route finding is a strength for both Mark and I. It takes good communication and team work and we flow really well. It was slow going and as we crested the lower ridge an hour later where we should normally be able to see Piedra Grande in the distance the clouds lifted we wanted.
45 minutes later we rolled into camp to a smiling Oral who came out to greet us after he spied us with his binoculars coming down. We moved our gear to the big hut and met four other climbers who had just arrived that day. They were from Seattle and two of them were not handling the altitude well. They still needed a few days. They offered us pancakes which we gratefully devoured and we began sorting gear, and preparing for a long day of waiting for our ride to come at 4:00 as it was now 10:00 AM and 20 minutes later the visibility in camp was only a few yards. We had beat the weather down the hill by about 40 minutes.
Around 11:30 another set of climbers arrived and the animated driver came into the hut and started talking to everyone like they were old friends. He asked us who we were waiting for and when we told him he boasted, “He is a horrible driver, you will come with me!” We are loyal to Señor Gerrardo but we wanted to get the hell out of there, and have a shower, beer and tacos. He grabbed not one, but two of our gear bags! These each weighed over 50 pounds and he scampered the 200 yards to the Jeep Wagoneer.
Our new friend was 68 year old Señor Conchola who has been catering to climbers for 45 years and he entertained us for the two hour drive with stories of his summits up Pico (27) and his rescues of other climbers (10) and how his sons are in the business now with him providing his home, meals, supplies and 4×4 taxi service to Piedra Grande for climbers from all over the world. When he learned we were from the Pacific Northwest he was very proud to tell us about being featured by Fred Becky who is well known for the go to Becky Guides for climbers.
The snow had reached all the way down to the 9,800 foot elevation. As we got some distance from the Mountain we could see how big this storm really was. It was a major front that most likely stretched for a few hundred miles.
Not much more to say really. We got back to the Hotel Gerar sorted gear to dry, showered, ate, got bus tickets, said our goodbyes to Señor Gerrardo, and got on the 3:00 bus to Puebla for a couple of days. This was my third visit to Puebla and if you have never been it is a must. Mark and I love Mexican street food and we put Pico behind us by focusing on tacos pastor, mushroom quesadillas, tres leches cakes, hot dogs, steak, mole, crepes suzette, chile quilles, and of course cervaza.
I want to take a minute to thank my long time friend and climb partner Mark Rosenfield. We celebrate 25 years of climbing together this year. Mark and I have been there for each other over the years through all of the ups and downs life brings. He is a brother to me and words cannot express how influential he has been in my life. It helps that he is a smart-ass as like me, because we always are laughing when we get together. Life is too short to not spend it with people you care about. Make the time.
We are already talking about returning next year. We shall see. Mother Nature had a reason to keep us from the summit this year. Maybe next year Her and I will be in alignment on this quest and I can stand on top of Mexico and the 3rd highest peak in the North America. If not then I know I will still enjoy the journey, as I always do.
