Cerro del Potosí

After convincing my significant other that a hiking trip actually is a good way to spend two days of her precious vacation time in Mexico we got on our ways to Cerro del Potosí — Nuevo León’s highest peak — with Tec de Monterrey’s Club de Montañismo. That, however, I did not realize before getting there. My Spanish still not being quite up to speed, I did not really understand that “desnivel 1800m” actually means that we will be crossing 1800m of altitude by foot. Once it was too late to turn back though I did figure it out.

Starting in a small village at the mountain’s foot, we started walking over small paths, forest aisles cleared for fire protection or just crossing mountain meadows and trees. The way was quite steep in places but always manageable. The further up the mountain, the more breathtaking the views. As we came closer to the top breathtaking started to take on a more literal meaning of the word — breathing at 3800m is not easy if you are not used to such altitudes. It can be quite frustrating to just take three or four quick paces before you find yourself out of breath again.

On El Potosí’s peak, there is a radar station used for civil aviation. The station is constantly manned by two maintenance staffers. Their station is quite cozy compared to the night’s chilly mountain air and since we had heard that they are very friendly to campers wanting to use their facilities (no wonder! I would be bored too) we just went and knocked on their doors. Amenities include heating (with sub-zero temperatures outside this cannot be overestimated), running water, a fully-equipped kitchen, a billard table and satellite TV. This gave us the chance to prepare a hot cup of instant noodles and even some tacos with frijoles and cheese.

For the night, however, we retreated back to our tents and the outside cold. We can all attest that it was sub-zero during the night though we had no thermometer to test our hypothesis. The next morning, we got up to see a beautiful sunrise — or, actually, some of us did while lazy me staid in the warm sleeping bag a little longer. After packing up our equipment, we started our descent before we eventually safely made it back to Monterrey. All in all, it was an expedition of extremes — from Monterrey’s 500m of altitude to a whopping 3800m, from Monterrey’s 35°C to a probable -5°C during the night. And I loved it.

See all photos.

September 22, 2005 at 23:24
Filed under General, Me, Mexico

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