July 15th, 2014: La Malinche

Against our normal nature, we get up at around 5 am to prepare for a very special challenge: Today we are going to climb La Malinche, or Malintzin as it is called in Nahuatl. With 4.462 m the highest peak we have ever been on top of.

We drive to Vucub Pev to meet our tour guide, Beto, who brings along two friends of his, and head out to Perote, then towards Puebla, to turn right to Huamantla, Tlaxcala. In the beginning, the skies are blue, we see the Pico de Orizaba in the distance. But the closer we get, the more the fog covers everything. We enter the Malintzin National Park and drive all the way to the “Albergue” (mountain camp or whatever) at about 2600 meters. We are greeted by about 5 dogs, which start to accompany us on our hike, at the end, only one dog stays with us and actually accompanies  us all the way up and back down!

The hike starts in a beautiful Alpine-like forest, gradually getting steeper and steeper. At approximately 3.500 m we take our first rest, in between tall grass and flowers. By now sweat is dripping off my nose at every step, even though it is actually surprisingly cold. The weather unfortunately starts changing now, and it looks like rain. We keep going, although the thinning air is causing at least me quite some problems. By now we are above the tree-line and on a mixture of ash and rock. Two steps up, one back, and stopping after 50 steps to try to breathe some oxygen. We reach the pass between the right peak and the left peak, and I am about to leave it at that.

The others seem rather undisturbed by the steep climb and the thin air, so I drag on. By the time we get to the end rise on larger rocks, the fog has become so strong that you cannot see the peak anymore. A bit further up and it actually starts ice-snowing. By now I have to rest after every other step and am just dragging myself on because I don´t want to be the only one not to make it to the peak.

Almost at the top the guide asks if we should turn around, but we decline and climb the remaining 10 or 15 minutes to the peak. Freezing cold by now, windy, and totally out of breath, with no sight to enjoy, we are just happy that we actually made it! A few quick peak photos and off we go back down.

As usual, the way down is easier than up. However, the length of the hike surprises us, and the steep grades down are quite troubling for the knees and thighs. It still seems to take forever to get down the steep ash/rock slope, the steep part of the forest and then the final descent towards the albergue. After all we are talking about approx. 24 km both ways, so it is not only steep and thin air, but also far. Finally, we reach the car, say goodbye to our guides (who continue to Pachuca to do some climbing there) and head back to Xalapa where we go have a medium-size Buffalo Burger and take a shower at home. We spent the night watching a movie, drinking some wine, and feeling very proud about what we had done!