(About 15 years later; trip to the east side of the mountain, non - climbing... got to about 12,500 feet. Awesome view. A couple points: -- The NE side, below snow / ice line is composed of steep slabs and cliffs. Anyone wandering off-route, e.g. in a whiteout, onto this side could be in deep trouble, esp. if covered with snow / verglas. Wilderness below. -- Weather. This was in mid - summer. During evening a fantastic T-storm came up over the mountain; one of those deals with multiple lightning strokes every second for a while. Anyone on the upper slopes in something like that could well be fried. *There's* a reason for 1 AM starts.
I'm posting this mainly in an attempt to get info and comments on the following:
-- The other, more challenging routes on the mountain. (I've bought TWO copies of RJS' book: one I gave to a young Mexican couple and the other is "temporarily" lost.) Am especially interested in the two eastern glaciers. "60 and 70 degrees" according to the old *Summit* article cited by RJ. A comment (e-mail) from someone on another forum said up to *80 degrees*, with lots of rockfall, as I'd suspected. Just that the Jamapa route is too easy. At least it was back then! (Technically, not aerobically!)
-- Retreat of the glaciers on the Mexican volcanoes over the past (however many) years. How depressing. Even semi - quantitative info is hard or impossible to find. In '78, the glacier began (estimated) no more than 700 feet above PG; which would then be around 14,700. This jibes with (IIRC) the maps, etc. in Lorenzo's "Glaciares de Mexico" and maybe with a photo in RJ's book (1st edition). This was a narrow tongue, but definitely part of the Jamapa; none of that mixed ice / rock I've heard about recently. Same with Izta, apparently. You shoulda seen it back in the 70s. I guess Popo doesn't count, or is hard to compare, what with the heating up and whatnot.
-- Has anyone here seen W. Crausaz' book on this mountain, and have comments? (Could we locate him and talk him into reprinting?!?)
Nice site. I'd welcome comments here or via mail or both.
Cheers,
Scott Harden