Tuesday, June 5, 2007

El Nevado de Toluca (next): PADRISSIMO, GREAT, WUNDERBAR!!!!


Nevado de Toluca is a large volcano in central Mexico, located about 80 km west of Mexico City near the city of Toluca. It is generally cited as the fourth highest of Mexico's peaks, after Pico de Orizaba (We will go there next November!!! the highest mountain in Mexico and the third highest in North America: 5,636 metres!), Popocatépetl, and Iztaccíhuatl.
The Nevado is often called "Senor Desnudo" in spanish, which is usually translated as "The Naked Man".
Oliver (A friend we met in Nijmegen, originary from Toluca) and Marco in front of the larger crater lake on the floor of the basin at about 4,200 m, called 'Laguna del Sol' (Sun Lake) Before our ascension of the highest summit of the Nevado, Pico del Fraile (4,680 m), on the south side of the crater...






At the beginning everything went fine (despite the cold temperature and thin air...)















All the way up to the Pico del Fraile, a lot of gravels: one step up, half a step down!!














But we kept smiling, it's so great to hike at 4,300 m so easily in a way...
















































West side of the volcano... I promise, the blue sky isn't fake ;-D























The volcano has a 1.5 km wide summit caldera.





On the East side, once on the 'mountain' ridge, nice view of the valley

















On the crest, the Fraile's pic was waiting for us, just in the back...

















Some snow in Mexico!!! Not a lot unfortunately...
We might come back in January/February to do all the summits of the Nevado and the snow might be there!!












The top!!!!!




























No no, I'm not so happy...


































We did it!!
































































May be a bit close the pic no??













































































Landscape at the east side



























































Some habitant of the Fraile's pic


























Enjoying the view...






































On the way down
























































How cute and shiny...







































































The Fraile's pic from the crater's lake





































































On the way to reach the crater's lake










































































































































































































4 comments:

iglou said...

Congratulations!

Una guapa in mexico said...

Thanks Lou, it was really great!! How was your trip in Italy?

I wish you good luck for your thesis.
Steph

iglou said...

Italy was cool, I would really go back there.
You know what I saw today in the Klimhal? I saw Olaf climbing. Tanguy and I were sitting on the bench, looking upwards and just smiling. It is the first time I see him on the wall.

Thesis? What is that? Can you eat that? No? So it can´t be good.
Have fun,
Kusjes,
Lou.

Una guapa in mexico said...

And he does well right? Are you going regularly to Klimhal now?

In addition to have rocks, they have some good food as well here ;-D
Que te vaya bien,
Steph