"Super cold and windy up top. The Jamapa Glacier had a lovely, but steep path of zigzags to climb on. There were a few mini-crevasses open that could probably swallow up a pair of sunglasses, but not much else. The hired drive into and out of Refugio Piedra Grande was WILD! " — wacbravo • Feb 19, 2026

"Came up a bit short on a summit bid of Iztaccihuatl, Mexico’s third highest peak. Reached the cirque above the Glaciar del Ventre at 16,760 ft only to find the descent into it a bulletproof sheet of ice well beyond the bite capability of my piolet and walking crampons. Bummer. I had made great time up until this point, though, and felt strong despite the altitude, so no hard feelings at coming up less than 400 ft of uphill shy from the true summit. Pic is from the descent after bailing. I’d been in the dark for the entire uphill (maybe I should’ve slept in a few extra hours and let the sun goop up the glacier a bit 🤔), so it was nice to get some views of Volcan Popocatepetl and the many false summits of Izta on the return trip." — wacbravo • Feb 16, 2026

"Came up a bit short on a summit bid of Iztaccihuatl, Mexico’s third highest peak. Reached the cirque above the Glaciar del Ventre at 16,760 ft only to find the descent into it a bulletproof sheet of ice well beyond the bite capability of my piolet and walking crampons. Bummer. I had made great time up until this point, though, and felt strong despite the altitude, so no hard feelings at coming up less than 400 ft of uphill shy from the true summit. Pic is from the descent after bailing. I’d been in the dark for the entire uphill (maybe I should’ve slept in a few extra hours and let the sun goop up the glacier a bit 🤔), so it was nice to get some views of Volcan Popocatepetl and the many false summits of Izta on the return trip." — wacbravo • Feb 16, 2026

"Came up a bit short on a summit bid of Iztaccihuatl, Mexico’s third highest peak. Reached the cirque above the Glaciar del Ventre at 16,760 ft only to find the descent into it a bulletproof sheet of ice well beyond the bite capability of my piolet and walking crampons. Bummer. I had made great time up until this point, though, and felt strong despite the altitude, so no hard feelings at coming up less than 400 ft of uphill shy from the true summit. Pic is from the descent after bailing. I’d been in the dark for the entire uphill (maybe I should’ve slept in a few extra hours and let the sun goop up the glacier a bit 🤔), so it was nice to get some views of Volcan Popocatepetl and the many false summits of Izta on the return trip." — wacbravo • Feb 16, 2026

"2/16/26: Made the 2.5hr drive from Atlixco and up through the rural mountain villages of Atzitzintla and the lovely “Old-Mexico” Santa Cruz Texmalaquilla. Just past the latter the road turns to a mix of mostly well graded dirt and brick paver, generally passable with any passenger vehicle. The trailhead is obvious on the left just before a fork in the road of the gated entrance to the Gran Telescopio access road and a road to the right that presumably goes farther up the saddle on the flanks of Orizaba. The first few minutes were a slight gut punch as I got my breathing in a rhythm from starting out at 13K+. The “trail” is mostly obvious following a direct path straight up through the forest and quickly passing over the Telescope road. The forest clears pretty quickly here and you find yourself on the left flanks of the east ridge following any number of social trails but there is generally always a most obvious one. As far as trail conditions, the area hadn’t seen precipitation in over a month and the track was super dry and dusty even by ancient tephra soil standards. Thankfully the loose volcanic dirt was merely a slightly annoying “one step forward and a quarter step back” a..." — LoneWolf • Feb 16, 2026