La Malinche, Iztaccíhuatl at 5,215 m and Pico de Orizaba at 5,636 m — the highest mountain in Mexico. Three volcanoes in ten days, modular so you can choose your length.

No mountaineering experience required.

Activity level — Strenuous.

Three volcanoes in ten days, starting the evening re:Invent closes in Las Vegas.

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. Nevado de Toluca has been closed by the authorities since 2025.

Everything in this itinerary serves one thing: arriving at the foot of Orizaba genuinely ready. You sleep at 2,240 m, then 3,100 m, then 4,000 m — climbing higher each day than you sleep. By the time you reach base camp you have already stood on a 5,215 m summit. Roughly half of all Orizaba attempts fail, and it is nearly always acclimatisation rather than fitness or weather. This trip is built to put you in the other half.

It's modular. Module 1 is six days and works as a complete trip on its own — La Malinche and Iztaccíhuatl, two summits, no glacier, home on the 9th. Module 2 adds four days and Pico de Orizaba. You choose at booking.

You do not need mountaineering experience. The guides teach glacier travel, crampon work and rope-team technique at base camp the day before the summit push. You do need to be fit: two summit days of ten to twelve hours, at altitude, starting in the dark.

Group capped at 8, with one certified guide to every three climbers on both technical peaks.

Land in the evening. Private transfer to the hotel (about 45 minutes). Sleep at 2,240 m — the acclimatisation starts the moment you land.

Overnight: hotel, Mexico City

Drive to the cabins at La Malinche's trailhead in Tlaxcala. Afternoon acclimatisation hike, then a night at 3,100 m. Overnight: Centro Vacacional La Malintzi or something nearby

Twelve kilometres round trip, 1,275 m of gain, around seven hours, every step above 3,000 m. A marked trail with no permit and no technical ground — just thin air and an early alarm. Climb high, sleep low.

Overnight: Centro Vacacional La Malintzi or something similar, 3,100 m

Drive to La Joya at roughly 4,000 m, the highest road in Mexico, with a grocery stop in Cholula on the way. Afternoon hike onto the ridge, then a night in tents.

Overnight: tents, La Joya

A 1 AM start. The Ayoloco moraine, then the long summit ridge, with Popocatépetl smoking behind you. Ten to twelve hours on the move. Descend and drive to Puebla — about fourteen hours door to door.

Overnight: Puebla (2,160 m)

Module 1 finishes here: transfer to Mexico City and fly home with two summits behind you.

Everyone continuing drives to San Miguel Zoapan, the climbers' village below Orizaba. Overnight: lodge, San Miguel Zoapan (3,050 m) — Module 2 only

Four-wheel drive to the Piedra Grande hut at 4,260 m. Afternoon acclimatisation hike above the hut, plus a full session on crampons, ice axe and rope teams. Early night. Overnight: Piedra Grande hut

Midnight start. Up through the rock labyrinth, rope up at the Jamapa Glacier, crater rim around sunrise. The highest point in Mexico. Descend the south face, with a hot shower waiting below.

Overnight: lodge, San Miguel Zoapan

This day belongs to the mountain first. If weather or conditions stopped us on the Friday, today is the second attempt — same guides, same route, one more chance.

If we summited, today is yours: we drive into the Sierra de Zongolica and descend the Sótano de Popócatl. A 45-metre-wide shaft in the forest floor — a 30 m rappel at 70 degrees, then a 50 m free-hang — with a 60 m waterfall falling past you into an underground river at the bottom. Certified local guides, all technical equipment provided, no caving experience required. Around five hours underground.

You'll know which one you're doing by Friday evening.

Overnight: hotel, Orizaba city (or San Miguel Zoapan if we're going back up)

Long drive to Mexico City for afternoon or evening flights.