Memories of a Volcano in Mexico

This is what I was doing during Easter Break in 2005, the year of the Cool.  Josh made this picture of me cooking it up in the base camp hut(4,375m)  of El Pico de Orizaba the day after Easter and the day before I moved my camp to a thin lava ridge at 5,155m. This was my third trip to the mountain in the previous two and a half years.  I saw this print last night for the first time in years and was reminded of how I felt during this trip.  The light in my eyes is real, the immense summit cone looms majestically out of the large glass window on the wall to my right.  Citlaltepetl's(the original Native Indian name for Orizaba) peak is covered in snow and in the early evening setting sun it was illuminated bright white and gold.

Josh also made this image of me fixing a flat while he and I were on an acclimatization ride from 2,440m to 3,430m.  The summit of this 5,840m volcano stands quietly shrouded in a dark weather cloud around 30km behind me. After I made the fix we rode through some upward undulating fields passed a young shepherd tending to his flock all the way up into the unusually tall ever green tree line on the mountain.  Hours had gone by, the day was waning by the time we made our descent all the way back to town from the piney smelling trees.