Mexico: the Greatest Volcanoes

The idea

Three volcanoes in ten days.

We begin on La Malinche at 4,461 m — non-technical, no permit, no ropes, and the peak every serious operator on this circuit uses to find their altitude legs. Then Iztaccíhuatl, the Sleeping Woman, at 5,215 m — a 1 AM start along her summit ridge with Popocatépetl smoking behind you and the lights of Mexico City below. And finally Pico de Orizaba at 5,636 m: the highest mountain in Mexico, the third highest in North America, and a proper glacier climb with crampons, ice axe and rope teams.

Mexico's four highest peaks are Orizaba, Popocatépetl, Iztaccíhuatl and Nevado de Toluca. We climb two of them — Popocatépetl is actively erupting and closed to climbers, and Nevado de Toluca has been closed by the authorities since 2025.

Everything here serves one thing: arriving at the foot of Orizaba genuinely ready. You sleep higher every night — 2,240 m, then 3,100 m, then 4,000 m, then 4,260 m, then 4,700 m — and by the time you reach high camp you have already stood on a 5,215 m summit. Roughly half of all Orizaba attempts fail, almost always on acclimatisation rather than fitness or weather. This trip is built to put you in the other half.

Pick your length

You don't have to do all ten days. The trip is built in modules, and you choose at booking.

Module 1 — 4 to 9 December · six days

La Malinche and Iztaccíhuatl. Two summits, no glacier, no ropes. A complete trip on its own — you fly home on the 9th having climbed two volcanoes.

Module 2 — 9 to 13 December · four more days

Pico de Orizaba. Glacier travel, a high camp at 4,700 m, the highest point in Mexico. Module 2 requires Module 1 — the acclimatisation built across the first week is what makes the summit possible, and turning up fresh for Orizaba is how people fail on it.

Two chances at the summit

Orizaba is scheduled for Friday 11 December, and Saturday the 12th is held in reserve. If the weather shuts the mountain on the Friday, Saturday is your second attempt — same guides, same route. Most operators on this circuit give you one shot and wish you luck.

If the mountain gives you the Friday, that spare Saturday becomes something else entirely: we drive into the Sierra de Zongolica and descend the Sótano de Popócatl. Either way it's part of the trip, not an extra to buy.