Your Ultimate Guide to Successfully Climbing Pico De Orizaba.

Everything you need to know about climbing Pico De Orizaba

Elevation – 5636 meters
Distance – 3.5kms one way. 7kms return.
Elevation gain – 1397 meters
Hiking time – 6 to 10 hours up, about half that down.

Climbing Pico de Orizaba was probably the most incredible things we did in Mexico during our entire 8 months. It was also by far the hardest. The hike itself is fairly straight forward but with Pico de Orizaba’s altitude being 5636 meters or 18,491 feet, even after having hiked almost every other mountain we could find in Mexico (actually only 6 others) including Iztaccihuatl which itself sits at 5230 meters the altitude still smashed us.

Our post about Climbing Iztaccihuatl without a guide is over here.

El Pico de Orizaba or Citlaltepetl as it is also know meaning Star Mountain is an incredible site, the peaks itself is so imposing you can see it from both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean (so I’ve been told, we didn’t actually have clear enough weather to see either) and as the sun rises it throws a mind-blowing shadow over the plains to the west. El Pico de Orizaba sits, snow-capped or at different times of year topped with just an icy glacier, towering over the small village of Tlachichuca and is Mexicos highest peak and the third highest peak in North America, Denali being number one and Mount Logan holding the second spot. The glacier begins at about 4900 to 5000 meters and depending on the time of year can be incredibly icy or have a nice little covering of snow.

When to climb Pico de Orizaba.

We climbed it on the 12th of September in 2018, this is about 2 months before the start of the popular season and snow and storms can still be common. We did get perfect weather until the afternoon thunderstorm rolled in, which I will add was incredibly brutal. However, the general climbing season for Pico de Orizaba is around Christmas, after speaking to some guides back in town they said this was when the weather is consistently the best, which makes sense. The dry season begins in November and ends in March. One other thing about the time of year we climbed Pico de Orizaba was the fact that there was not a single person on the mountain the day we climbed and there was also no one else staying in the hut beside a few small mice, this made sleeping much easier. I will just add though that having no one else around was great for us but only because we had spent a lot of time studying the route up and down and had the most detailed maps we could have over several tracking apps just in case something went wrong. If you have enough experience you should be fine but if you don’t it is something to think about. We did end up getting lost on the way down after a massive dump of snow completely destroyed any signs of anything that resembled a trail. We eventually made it down but it added a few hours extra to our day and it could have been far worse if we had have not been so prepared. Coming back to my point about no people, what I’m trying to say is that having the third highest mountain in North America to yourself is something pretty special, but, if something does go wrong you have nothing to rely on except your own preparation and experience. I will take this moment to mention that although the hike is fairly straight forward people do die there yearly and if you’re not that comfortable or experienced then a guide might be a great option. I added the number for one we stayed with in the where to stay in Tlachichuca section.
Also, an alpine start is highly recommended, you will want to leave the hut somewhere between midnight and 3 am at the latest as clouds tend to roll in in the afternoon. On our way down we got caught in a crazy thunderstorm but more on that later.

Getting to Pico de Orizaba.

You are going to want to fly to Mexico City first, the town of Puebla is another option which is about 2 hours closer but you flight options will be far more limited and it’s likely to cost more to get there. Veracruz is also another option.

From Mexico city you need to take a bus to Puebla, if you’re super keen to get out of the city straight away you can take a bus from the airport. The journey as stated previously will take about 2 hours and will cost you about 150 pesos. If you wanted to spend a day or two in Mexico city you will have to make your way to the TAPO station when you’re ready to leave.

Once in Puebla, you will need to go to the CAPU bus station and take the Valles bus to Tlachichuca. This will again take about 2 hours. Buses leave every hour.

I did read about a few people taking private drivers from Mexico city all the way to Tlachichuca, the price they quoted was about 100 USD per person. If this is in your budget it might be a far more comfortable option and worth considering if you have the money.

Quick recap:
Home > Mexico City, however long that takes, Mexico City > Puebla, 2 hours, Puebla > Tlachichuca, 2 hours also, and you’re there. This should be pretty quick no matter what level your Spanish is at.

At no extra cost to you, some of the links in this article are affiliate links and by using them Sara and I receive a small commission. This goes towards helping us continue to explore and write articles like this. 😁

Where to stay in Tlachichuca.

We looked at a couple of options in Tlachichuca but eventually decided on a beautiful little hotel simply called Orizaba Mountian Guides in the small town of San Miguel Zopan which is a 2 dollar cab ride and about 10 minutes outside of Tlachichuca and is actually the closest village to the volcano. We chose this place for a few reasons, 1, it was the prettiest, 2, it was closer to the mountain, 3 it was the cheapest in terms of transport up the mountain and 4, the owner Roberto was the most forthcoming with information to the questions we were asking about the mountain. The other owners didn’t seem to want to answer any questions until we had paid. So we went with this place. Not only that, Roberto has been doing guided tours up Orizaba for over 25 years. He also leads expeditions to Peru, Ecuador and Aconcagua.

To make a booking here you can get in touch with him here: Roberto Flored Rodriguez.
No: 52-1-222 632 5881

If you do decide you want to stay in Tlachichuca though here are the two best options we looked at. The first one we looked at and the one I would actually recommend was Servimont(click the text to check it out and make a booking), which was in an incredible building that decades ago used to be some kind of factory, it was quirky and interesting and the owner Mr. Reyes is a climber also and seemed like he knew exactly what he was talking about from the little I could pry out of him. The other place we looked at was Cancholas. It was friendly and looked nice but it was also the most expensive of all the places we looked at.

Getting to Piedra Grande Hut

Getting to Piedra Grande Hut takes about 2 hours and a 4×4 is required, the road is terrible and the ride is slow but the countryside you’re driving through is beautiful. If you plan on renting a vehicle and driving there yourself make sure it’s a 4wd, otherwise your organized hotel if you chose one of the three mentioned here will have a lift service and be able to take you up the mountain or your guide if you chose to use one will have the ride up organized.

The hut sits at 4,230 meters and has incredible views but it is very basic.

Camping on Pico de Orizaba

The Piedra Grande hut offers protection and is a comfortable enough option, however, I’ve read peoples stories of the hut being completely full which mean you’re sleeping in a room with 40 to 50 other people. This is fine but camping may also be a better option for you if you would like a little more privacy or the chance to actually sleep without the sounds and smells of 40 plus other humans all around you then I would camp. This was our original plan, when we arrived it was a Sunday and there was a lot of people there so we set up our tent but by the afternoon everyone was gone and we decided to move into the hut.

Around the base camp, there are several flat spots where you can pitch a tent. There are also two more camp spots one at 4500 meters just before the labyrinth and another one at 4900 meters right at the foot of the glacier. The glacier camp breaks the hike up into two days and means you will have a far shorter summit distance on day two of your hike. It is however very exposed to the wind and weather so unless you have a tent built for extreme weather the 4500-meter camp or base camp might be the best option. Getting water up to either of these camps will be difficult though. If you choose the high camp you will be able to melt snow and ice but expect to carry a heavy water load if you decide to camp higher.

Map of Pico de Orizaba Climbing Route.

Here is a map of Pico de Orizaba. Well two maps actually, taken from Hiking Project and Maps.Me. The track changes occasionally and neither of these should be relied on 100%. But they are both good guides to have if you think you have gone off track as they can help lead you back towards the trail.

If you have a better app or mapping tool I’d love to hear about it in the comments also.

Training for Pico de Orizaba.

Training for climbing Pico de Orizaba is just like training for any other physical activity you want to do. The only difference here is that unless you’re a Nepalese sherpa you’re probably not used to being at 5,000 to 6,000 meters above sea level.

I’ll cover the physical aspect here first then the acclimatization process after.

If you’re lucky enough to live in an area with mountains or even large hills then the best training you can possibly do is hike. Start without a pack first and then slowly build up weight until you’re at the carrying weight you think you will have on Orizaba.

One of the best ways to build weight is with water bottles. There are two reasons this is good. One is you can pretty accurately gauge exactly how much weight you have and the other is that you can empty the bottles at the top of the hike so you can reduce the stress on your knees coming down. The last thing you want is some niggling injury to slow down your training.

If you live in a completely flat area don’t worry there are still things you can do. Running is an overall great activity to get your fitness levels up and I’d highly recommend it. I love swimming as well personally. It can be boring and repetitive but it also allows you to focus in on your breathing and control it which is something you’re going to need if altitude is new to you.

Now this one is one that I actually love but it might sound funny to any men out there that are accustomed to solely using weights at the gym. The stairmaster at any normal gym is a huge asset because essentially these are the exact muscles you’re going to be using and the stronger and more ready they are the less your body is going to have to work in that department so you can just concentrate on your inability to breathe haha.

These are just our personal tips and what we did for getting ready to hike Pico de Orizaba.
If you fly into Mexico City the closest high point will be Nevado de Toluca which is only an hour outside of Mexico City. It sits at 4200 meters and is a great opening hike to get a little used to the altitude. The hike is a basic climb around a volcanic crater but if you have come from sea level you’re still going to feel it but in my opinion, it is one of the best places to start.

After that, we made out way to Iztaccihuatl which sits at 5200. Unless you’re super fit and start extremely early this is a day hike. Where you can camp either in the basecamp hut or in a tent just around the corner. There are a few other mountains that you could hike. We did Nevado de Colima but this is a little out of the way if you’re coming specifically for Orizaba. Malinche is another mountain that is very close to Orizaba and while not the most beautiful hike a really good acclimatization hike and close to your starting point. Once we got to Orizaba we also did an acclimatization hike up through the labyrinth almost to the bottom of the glacier. This also turned out to be extremely beneficial as we also got a chance to plan our route a little better which was a great choice because on our way down it snowed so much we couldn’t see any signs of a trail. We ended up getting a little lost but eventually found our way due to the fact we had already hiked it. The other option is to contact Roberto at OMG whose number is above. They have different packages that you can customize that include several acclimatization hikes.

You may have bigger time restrictions than we did and therefore you won’t be able to cover all these hikes. If you can just pick two of these for warm-ups I’d suggest Nevado de Toluca and Iztaccihuatl.

Side note here: As stated people do die on Orizaba, and others have to be rescued on a semi-consistent basis so if you’re not that familiar or comfortable with crampons and ice axe or planning your own route up a mountain you might be better off hiring a guide just for this hike.

Packing list for Climbing Pico de Orizaba

• Ice axe
• Crampons
• Rope Length is up to you we had 30 meters
• Helmet We didn’t actually use them but it is a strong recommendation.
• Good hiking boots Boots are highly personal but we have had these in everything from minus 35C to plus 30 and they have been perfect for everything.
• Good socks lifetime warranty merino wool socks
• Sleeping Mat these are super comfy and pack down tiny
• Good Sleeping Bag, There is actually nothing worse than being cold all the time, it is the fastest way to ruin a potentially amazing trip. This is the best $300 to $400 I ever spent.
• Thermal top – We try & buy Patagonia as much as we can afford to. Great quality products, lifetime warranty & environmentally friendly.
• Thermal Bottom
• Gators, not needed if there is no snow but life saving if there is.
• Sunscreen, Burnt noses in the sun and cold are a serious concern.
• Sunglasses, it gets soooo bright and the sun is harsh.
• Jacket – The micro puff jacket packs down so tiny!
• Gortex Shell
• Gloves – Again cold hands are a big downey. Sara had these on for the whole hike and was completely fine.
• Camera – were shooting the Sony A7riii and A7ii
• Lenses – we have a few different lenses here are the two best all-around ones.
• Sony 16-35mm f2.8 – super wide lens great for wide landscapes
• Sony 24-70mm f4 – If you are only needing one lens then I think this is it. It covers such a huge range of everything that I would be happy to carry only this most of the time.
• GoPro
• Warm pants
• Stove
• Backpack
• Something to read or music
• Jaybird Vista Headphones – Out of all the wireless headphones I have ever had these ones win!
• Between here and Izta I was reading The Ledge a crazy survival story about two friends climbing Mt Rainer.

You do not need a permit to hike Pico de Orizaba and there are no entrance fees to enter either.

Route to hike Pico de Orizaba.

When you read about hiking routes for Pico de Orizaba there are officially four. I only researched two of them, the Jamapa Glacier route which is the most common route and the one we ended up taking. The other route we researched was the southern route.

The southern route is shorter and faster however it is steeper, the main thing that turned us off though was the fact that there is no permanent glacier which we wanted as part of our experience. We also read about a possible avalanche hazard after rainy summer/fall seasons.

The are other more technical routes on the east, one called the Serpents Head that is 10 pitches and grade 3 ice.

The Jamapa Glacier route.

This route is the most popular route.
There are three sections to the Jampa glacier route and I’ll outline them here:

The scree.

The trail starts on an old broken aqueduct that’s starts almost immediately after leaving the hut. This only lasts for a few hundred meters and there are several small tracks to follow. We had done an acclimatization hike up and already chosen our route but it’s pretty straight forward and I can’t imagine any of them leading anywhere else other than to the Labyrinth. Sections on this part of the track are loose so just watch where you put your feet.

The Labyrinth.

Although climbing Pico De Orizaba was pretty straight forward this is the section of the hike where we got lost on the way. On our way up it was a fairly clearly defined rock path that was mostly easy to follow and really just required a little experience and common sense even in the dark. After a massive dump of snow through the track completely disappeared and with no one else on the mountain, there were no other tracks to follow. The track splits into two sections here, the section on the right is steeper while the section on the left is a windy path with less of an incline. On our acclimatization hike we took the track to the left, in the dark we missed this and ended up on the steeper route to the right which ended up being fine also but there was a couple of small slightly technical section that we had not expected. We did, however, take the windy track down, it was the route we had planned on and we kind of knew the way. It was also easier and the way would have liked to have gone in both directions. On the way up we didn’t need our crampons until the glacier but on the way back down we had our crampons on the whole way through the labyrinth.

Climbing Pico De Orizaba, The Jamapa Glacier Route.

This section of the climb was super straight forward and we had amazing conditions for the hike up, ice axe and crampons are 100% needed though and if you are climbing with a partner I would suggest being roped up. We had no problems but if one of you had a tumble it is extremely steep. The angle of the glacier reaches up to 40 degrees and once we reached about 5300 meters despite all the acclimatization I started to struggle terribly and it became a matter of one foot in front of the other, but it slowed our progress. I almost quit 100 times, well I said out loud overly dramatically about 100 times that I quit and just lay face down in the snow but in the end, sheer perseverance and Sara’s encouragement managed to get me to the summit. Sara had very few problems though and she was really the only thing that pushed me through it.

Climbing Pico de Orizaba solo.

Obviously there were two of us doing this hike but climbing Pico de Orizaba solo is completely possible. The day we left one guy arrived and went for the summit by himself. We also met another guy in town that had done it a few days before us solo. If you’re taking the standard Jamapa Glacier route then there is nothing overly technical and you don’t really need to be roped into anyone. Depending on the time of year the glacier as discussed can be extremely slippery and is probably your major concern. But don’t let being solo deter you from going for the summit.

Thunderstorm on Pico de Orizaba

We got caught in a crazy thunderstorm that rolled in about 50 meters before the summit. At first, it was just a lot of hail but then the lightning rolled in. This was by far the scariest experience I have ever had with a thunderstorm. I grew up in a region when they were a daily occurrence all summer, Sara had never really seen them and it scared her a lot. I, however, had not experienced one on top of a glacier, I kind of took the whole thing a little light because I suppose I was just so used to lightning and thunder. That changed pretty quickly after the first few cracks started to hit around us. The air changed, it was literally charged with electricity, every single bit of metal we had on us started to charge, it stung, or burnt or was somewhere in between these two feelings, it was something I had only ever really felt when you touch a cable that is not well insulated or metal that has electricity running through it that is not well grounded or something like this.
With this new feeling came the noise, we could hear this loud low vibrating noise and it proceeded to get louder and louder as the sensation burning our faces grew stronger and stronger and as it peaked bright light and thunder would surround us immediately. The thunder was like nothing I have ever felt, the ground shook like crazy thunder but this was more extreme, this was more like when you shoot a gun(I have only ever shot a guns once) and all the air around you completely compresses, you could feel it push on you.

We realized pretty quickly that this was a far more serious situation than we both realized at the start and we started to run as best we could down the glacier. We were actually extremely lucky there was so much snow as it allowed us to have very steady footing even though we were moving really quickly. We got down from the summit to the bottom of the glacier in about 15 minutes, but we were still not safe, there was nowhere to hide, it was still just bare rock and the hail and snow had completely covered the trail and our tracks from the way up.
We kind of scrambled down as fast as we could until we managed to find a massive rock that had a small overhang and we took a break under there and tried to wait out the storm.

It eventually started to pass but even as it did it still took several hours of gnarly lighting that was far too uncomfortably close to us.

The smart thing for us to do would have been to dump our gear and go up the next day and get it. I do not know if we would have done this again in hindsight. It should have been our first move and the smart thing to do would have been to do it instantly but we were getting picked up the next morning and after the struggle and energy from the day I was not even sure I would make it up the glacier again and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to dump several thousand dollars worth of camera gear on a glacier never to return again. Nothing ended up happening so it was all good in the end but are a few cameras really worth our lives, hell no, I just hope this is not a situation we end up in many more times.

If anyone has more experience in these issues than we do I would love to hear your opinions in the comments.

Safety on Pico de Orizaba.

So when we returned from the hike there was someone going through all of our stuff, they had taken out anything valuable and tried to leave with it. This didn’t happen luckily but it was sheer luck that it didn’t. The man fled on horseback and it’s not like there is anything you can do up there, the cops are not coming that’s for sure.
We had been a little bit smart at the start of the day and we had taken all our really valuable things, put them in a large waterproof bag and hidden them along the trail so even if we had not have caught this guy we would not have lost our most valuable things.

Another thing here was the two days we didn’t go up the mountain people came up to the hut, they rode motorbikes, they had no purpose, they came into the large hut first, saw us and said hi then went straight to the other hut looked inside and then left. I really can’t see any reason besides theft for someone to come this far out of their way to leave within 5 minutes, as the drive is long and pretty terrible.

So you may want to think about having a waterproof bag to hide any electronics and other things you don’t want to take up on the hike with you and hide them somewhere along the start of the track. I suppose the locals know that most of the foreign people that do this have some expensive gear and they take advantage of this. So yeah just be careful.

Tips on how to hike sustainably

So this is something we think about every time we go anywhere and it ranges from things as simple as buying a banana and making a sandwich instead of buying plastic wrapped products to buying clothing from companies that support sustainable business practices.

Bananas are actually one of the most environmentally friendly things you can buy. They travel well, hold for a long time during transport and they have their own natural packaging.

Here are a few little tips to help you hike more sustainably.

I’m going to start with this just because I actually love the product so much! Sawyer water bottles come with built-in filters that remove 99.99999% meaning you can fill it up from any tap in Latin America and have no problems with bacteria. You kind of kill a few birds with one stone here. Number one you’re not spending money on bottled water, you are also not using single-use plastic bottles and you’re also making water more accessible to yourself on a day to day basis.

If you travel and hike often one of the things I would suggest investing in is a Water bladder. Osprey makes a nice series of them that range from 1.5 liters to 3 liters. I use one of these every hike unless it is below negative 5(Which it shouldn’t be on Izta) then the water tends to get really cold and or freeze. The benefit for me is that as you drink the packaging gets smaller and you end up with more room in your pack for a jacket or something else you might take off later and you never actually have to take your bag off to get a drink, just hang the straw over your shoulder and drink as you see fit. It is also reusable for a long time. I have been using my current one since 2010. So that’s 9 years of constant use and it looks good for another 10years.

Now if a Camelbak is not your thing, I know some people really don’t like them a reusable non-plastic water bottle is also something that will cut a crazy amount of plastic waste out of your life. Hydro Flask is one super popular company and they make a massive range of sizes and shapes.

Food, food is almost always wrapped in plastic when you buy it but this has been a surprisingly easy one to get around. It may be a little harder if you are backpacking but we’re traveling in our van so we have a small kitchen. We have started to make everything and package it in reusable containers that we just take on the next hike. Sara has been perfecting making these protein balls that are a mix of oats, peanut butter, cranberries, almonds and whatever else we have lying around. Also fruit! But if you buy fruit do not throw the peel along the track. These things can take forever to break down especially if they are not regional fruits and no one really wants to see someone’s old orange or banana peel lying around on the track.

Clothing is something that is often overlooked as a sustainable product as you just kind of wear things till they are old and then throw them away but there is a range of companies out there these days that are making amazing products built to last. Patagonia is one company I can not push enough. They support so many environmental campaigns, they have a lifetime warranty on everything they sell and they give one percent of all sales back to small grassroots charities. They will also repair any clothes you take into them with minor issues.