1 week, 4 mountains: Climb Malinche, Nevado de Toluca, Iztaccihuatl & Pico de Orizaba in Mexico

My guide Bernardo was fantastic and super helpful and experienced and friendly. They were also able to provide me vegetarian food, and a sleeping bag. I have particularly large feet (US size 14-15 in sneakers), which means that the ordinary krampons didn’t fit my boots( (US size 13). But they worked to find me some krampons that would fit me in time. I share this as testimony for their good service but also as an advice to give your guide a headsup if your feet are also particularly large. I did not make it to the top, but only becauae i was gassed (out of energy). The aclimitization and pace were good. It was a challenge for me to do so much hiking in the cold and dark hours of the morning before sunrise. But even though i didn’t make the summit, i accomplished a lot and set personal records and had a very unique experience with unbelievable views. And the guide and company were very helpful always.

Great trip! If you get bored sitting on a beach for days on end, this provides excitement, adventure and accomplishment.

The guides on Malinche and Orizaba were very good. But there was a big problem on Iztaccihuatl. I said to each of the guides that I had there that I wasn't bothered about seeing the sunrise from the top, and would it be possible to start a bit later than the usual 1am? They both agreed that it was, one saying that the reason for leaving so early was that normally they needed to take clients back to Mexico City after the climb, and in my case that wasn't necessary as I would stay at the visitor's centre. So in the end we left the visitor's centre at 4:30am. When we got to a foresummit of Iztaccihuatl at 11am, my guide said that we had left very late, and would have to turn back. So we never reached the top, to my great annoyance. In retrospect the best option would have been to have spent one night at the refuge at 4700m before going to the top, but this was never really offered as a possibility.

I love Carlos and the team! We ended up changing our itinerary to 3 mountains in 8 days and had a great experience. I will recommend Carlos and his wonderful hospitality and working with logistics anytime!

The incredible human being known as Bernardo aka Bernie will be your guide for this once in a lifetime experience and I promise you it will be one of the best decisions you ever make! Myself and 2 other friends did this 8 day hiking tour and Bernie was the perfect guide - not only did he sort out 100% of the logistics for this trip (food, lodging, extra equipment that we didn't have, driving to and from each mountain, etc) he was extremely flexible when a couple of us got food poisoning (not his fault) and had to re-arrange certain dates. He knows the area really well and obviously can climb these mountains in his sleep so he was able to help us navigate any headaches or high altitude issues and he even ran to the store for us to pick up some paracetamol and pepto bismol one day. The mountains are difficult but the itinerary that Bernie has provided means you have the best possible chance at summiting all 3 peaks. Highly recommend this tour and thank you Bernie for an excellent experience in Mexico!

It was a really unforgettable experience! Personal thanks to our guide, Raul, for interesting stories, tasty food in the shelter and support! But you need to be sure that you are in a good physical condition. Unfortunately due to circumstances we did not make it to the peak of Orizaba and reached only the glacier, but such length was perfect for acclimatization as we nearly did not feel mountain sickness. Also guys from the agency forgot to put the sleeping bags as we discussed, but Raul solved this problem at the mountain by giving his own sleeping bag to my wife and organizing two more bags delivery from the campus next day.

Bernardo was so nice and made sure that we were all safe and sound at all time. The taco place we went afterwards were so good. I had a wonderful trip that day and will definitely recommend it to everyone! Thank you!