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Our original plan was to climb Iztaccíhuatl at a moderate pace during Saturday, get to the summit in the afternoon and spend the night camping there. Of course it didn’t happen that way…

We started walking around 1 p.m. and by the 3-hour mark we had only got to the ridge before Cruz de Rosas, friends were walking slowly due to heavy packs and they started to feel really tired. At such pace it was obvious that getting to the summit around sunset was impossible. We changed plans and climbed the ridge towards Grupo de los Cien hut, we arrived there after sunset and quickly set up the camp.

While a small group crawled into a small tent to suffer of altitude sickness, the rest of us spent the night partying inside the big tent: eating, drinking, joking and having lots of fun as usual. I think other climbers around camp couldn’t catch the best of rests due to the mess we had…

At 2 a.m., two insomniacs from our team geared up and attempted to climb the rest of the mountain. They were only able to reach the 1st Rodilla due to the really strong winds.

By 9 a.m. we were dismantling camp and headed down the mountain towards the cars, where we had lunch around noon. We drove back home with a smile on our faces despite the not-so-good result of the trip, at least we were able to have a great time together. The lesson my friends: train, please

Rest of the pictures are here.

I’m already looking forward to some relaxing time in the altitude, even though it always requires a bit of suffering…

After a couple of tries, Mokka was finally brave enough to jump into the cold water and swim the 20-meter roundtrip for retrieving the wooden logs we were throwing. Pikola stayed in the shores since she’s a bit younger and not yet braver.

They continued to play until we decided to head back home. Exhaustion caught them in the truck so they slept on my legs for all the way back. It was a day full of excitement!

Pictures are here.

Super-sized amoebas lumbering along the ocean floor at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea may shake up a long-standing debate on the timing of animal evolution, according to a paper published in today’s issue of Current Biology.

“There is nothing paleontologists like more than a controversy,” said Mikhail Matz, a University of Texas integrative biologist and the main author on the study. “I’m looking forward to this. It’s going to be fun.”…

The Scientist: Amoeba tracks trump trace fossils?

By noon we left Mokka at home and picked up Gina and my father to drive towards Huatusco. We did a short visit to Las Cañadas, Bosque de Niebla, which is an educational center for sustainable life, in the middle of one of the most beautiful misty forest areas in Veracruz.

It’s a place really worth a visit and even better, to take any of the courses they teach there. Your mindset about our modern way of life will be cracked and your environmental consciousness expanded. I really recommend it.

Yesterday I gave a talk to my brother’s students at Universidad Anáhuac Xalapa, the topic was: Myths and realities of Software Development. At the talk I exposed the differences between developing software in a corporate environment such as Yahoo! and an Open Source project like BioPerl.

I described the pros and cons of both environments and so far I got a lot of attention from the students, which were full of questions. It was really entertaining and we had really good interaction overall

I’m caught at home having pity of myself

After more 2 nights, I’ve logged a total of 4 holes in the backyard grass. Dogs, dogs…

Nevertheless, my desire for cutting down more minutes to the climb via Ayoloco glacier has always been present and has grown with time as well, just like Mokka, who now is able to go out trail running with me. Some things just require patience and building a solid background.

Today I logged a great time of 3:56:00 from my car to Iztaccíhuatl’s summit, shaving 9 minutes from my previous record from April. During the last month I lost that extra weight and got back into mountaineering and running, that’s how I was able to shorten the time of my climb.

Of course I arrived really exhausted to the summit, after all this was my first serious climb of the season so I didn’t had the best possible acclimatization to altitude. Despite that, I was really motivated and felt extremely great. I spent 20 minutes at the summit, praying, eating a snack and enjoying the view while the clouds passed by.

On the descent I soloed a short section of mixed climbing in Peña Aguilera to visit my friend Ricardo’s cross at its summit, then came down to Grupo de los Cien hut to meet Gil, Sergio & Arturo, who climbed the normal route.

It was a great day in my beloved mountain!