A clear day down low but blustery and snowy up high. Clay, Emily and I went for a day out up Bristly Ridge, plastered in unconsolidated snow which was great fun to romp through. On top, the weather was significantly more windy and we stumbled back down the scree slopes after a quick trip to the summit. Photos courtesy of Clay & Emily.
Clay and Cat took me out for my first road bike ride, a casual 20 mile route taking in Winnats Pass. I later found out its one of the top 20 hills in the country, which made me feel better about getting off a few times for a breather.
The snow had melted, but the winds were still blasting the crags with freezing swirling gusts. Hen Cloud was another poor choice of crags on a blustery day but myself, Steve and Erinna still managed to tick off a couple of Classic Rock routes before hiking over to the Roaches for a third on the Upper Tier. An enjoyable first day of 2015!
The weather was freezing cold. The winds were cold and biting. Determined to get a climb in, we headed up to Castle Naze (poor choice) and battled up two fairly mundane routes. Then went for a walk.
The White Woman is Mexico's 3rd highest peak and watched over by the ever rumbling Popocatépetl. Erinna and I spent a night at 4000m in the TV/radio station before hiking up to the small tin Grupo de Los Cien hut at around 4710m. After a restless night accompanied by two little mice we left, overlooking a magical cloud inversion, to head up to the Knees of the mountain at around 5030m. The true summit lay only 100m higher but several kilometres along the ridge, so we opted to skip this and instead return back to Puebla far below.
A long inactive volcano, and Mexico's 6th highest peak. We were joined on the ascent by three happy dogs, eager for a morning trip to c.4,500m. The ascent is neither long nor steep but it was a good acclimatization warm up for the higher peaks to come.
