The mountain fartlek « www.arareko.net

I went back to Iztaccíhuatl 1 week after our hot adventure with the dogs. This time I came with Gil & Luis Arturo, we wanted to do a single day climb of the mountain via Ayoloco glacier.

My plan was a little bit more ambitious than theirs since I wanted to walk at my best pace as much as possible, I was more focused on training than on simply getting to the summit. So it was straightforward, I hiked the fastest possible to the next reunion point then ran down the trail till reaching the slowest of my friends, then hiked up again to the reunion point. The same exercise over and over for each of the reunion points.

This worked out really well until we got to Ayoloco hut, where Gil decided to get back to the car since he was getting altitude sickness. Luis was coming up with me but I had to guide him through the glacier since this was his 1st time climbing this route. That meant no more laps for the day.

We found wet snow all the way through the glacier, which became really exhausting since we had to stop every couple of steps to yank it out from under the crampons. After almost 2 hours of struggle, we arrived to Arista del Sol, which is an arete that connects to the base of the summit. Luis decided to stay there, he was really exhausted from fighting with the snow that no matter what words of encouragement I told him, he wasn’t going to move up any further.

So I followed my way to the summit while he started the descent via the normal route. I arrived there quickly and shot a couple of pictures, I was happy of all the training I was getting with both the laps done around my friends as well as walking up the nasty wet snow in the glacier.

I started the descent after eating a granola bar and met Luis along the way, we continued climbing down together and got to the car a couple of hours later. Gil was already there waiting for us so we changed clothes and drove our way back home not without stopping to enjoy some quesadillas. It was a good day for training!