El Nevado de Toluca
There are few things in the world that feel as good as climbing the summit.
Why does it feel so good? Hard to say, but I’ll try to explain.
The mountains represent a lot for us human beings, they represent challenges, they represent adventure, they court our courage and sense of grandeur and when climbed they certainly stand up for the challenge, they are hard, indifferent and majestic.
Every mountain has its own personality, you cannot compare them, the challenge is just different and each mountain has its own language, its own history.
The Nevado de Toluca was my first mountain, it’s hard to forget such an experience.
Just two hours away from Mexico City, the Nevado de Toluca stands 15,300ft above sea level. Surrounded by an immense forest and small villages, you can also see Mexico City from above the clouds.
When you get there, you start ascending by car up until a sort of base camp where the rangers take care of the mountain, mountain people.
The hike starts pretty high, at 13,000 ft. From there you start to hike, and hike and hike until you reach one of the ridge lines of the volcano, from there you see the amazing view in the picture above. The volcano has two lagoons in the crater, which are interconnected. The experience, at least for me, was surreal, if I could describe it with one word it would be: immense.
The mountain just stands there in immensity, high above the clouds and big as the Olympus.
The trek continues until the summit which is called “El pico del Fraile”. I’m not going to lie, you have to be in good shape if you want to achieve it. It is a demanding climb.
For a while you get to appreciate the mountain, the sight of the lakes is mesmerizing. There is about an hour of self-reflection and pure walking, just admiring the beauty of the mountain, and then.
The ascend to the summit begins, you really have no time to think about anything other than putting one feet in front of the other, it’s tiring, demanding and hard. This goes on for about 4 hours.
The terrain is slippery and if you don’t bring boots and trecking poles, you are in for a double challenge. If you’ve ever been in a marathon, this feels kind of when you are finishing it. The altitude messes with your breathing the entire time, it’s hard to breathe and to concentrate, you start wondering why the hell are you doing it.
But the summit and the mountains pays well off at the end.
Amazing, simply amazing.
If you want to make this trip yourself you can books with Nomada .
