A goal: to reach the summit of the famous Sleeping Woman, the third highest point in Mexico, at over 5,000m above sea level. One of the most difficult but satisfying challenges of our lives, which was made perfect by the impressive views of this scenic volcano. Are you ready? I'm ready. We hired an agency of professional mountain climbers who took us from Mexico City to Izta-Popo National Park. It's 8 in the morning, we left Mexico City at 7.30. We're on our way to Amecameca, which is a village in the mountains, in the foothills of the mountains. I'm from Seattle, in the United States. Great! And we also have with us a kiwi! Where are you from, kiwi? New Zealand. It's gonna be a challenge, because we're gonna be at an altitude of over 5,000m. It's one of the highest mountains in North America. We've got all of our provisions. Of course, we can't forget toilet paper. On our route, we saw the forests of the Izta-Popo National Park. The park has over 25,000 hectares. We're in the Izta-Popo National Park, between the volcanoes Popocapetepl... Popocapetetl What? Popocapetl. Where? Over there? Over there... and Iz... Iztaccíhuatl. Iztaccíhuatl. Why is this called the Cortés Pass? Because, like we said, it's between the Izta and Popocatépetl volcanoes, and Hernán Cortés, one of the conquerors of Tenochtitlán, passed through here to get to the Aztec city. We're going to climb constantly until we get to number 14, which is the Otis McAllister shelter. When we get to Otis McAllister, we'll take a route called the Ayoloco Route. The route goes directly to the heart of the volcano, which is the glacier, which is at around 5,050m. From the Otis McAllister shelter to the summit is around 3 hours. From the park entrance, we got closer to the foothills of Iztaccíhuatl and La Joya, our journey's starting point. We're in La Joya, and we're enjoying some quesadillas, and this is the starting point of various hiking routes of Iztaccíhuatl. Do many of the climbers come here? Yes. This is where they come to eat quesadillas. Everything is organic, it's really delicious. Blue tortillas, made with organic corn... It's recommended that you climb Iztaccíhuatl with guides who are specialists in high mountain climbing. We chose the agency México y Aventura, from whom we hired all of the equipment we needed to be prepared for any adverse conditions the volcano might throw at us. At what altitude are we starting, guide? At around 4,000m. 4,000m! From here to our first rest point, at around 4,100m, is gonna be the longest leg of the journey. It'll take us around 45-50 minutes. And, to be honest, it really is hard to climb with... with our big bags. We don't have sherpas. Where are the sherpas? It's a tiny distance! Tiny, but we're walking at an altitude of over 4,000m. And 1,200m is the amount that we're gonna ascend. We're starting the hike. I'm sweating loads and, to be honest, you can really feel the altitude. The plaques that are there, they put them there in honour of certain climbers. Several of them have climbed mountains over 8,000m tall. What do you think of the team? Great! We're making good time. Really, really good time. Everything's good! Here I want you guys to hydrate yourselves, catch your breath... If you wanna eat a snack or something, go ahead. OK? And then we'll get going again. Bear in mind that the leg you just did is the longest one. All of the others are shorter so that you don't tire yourselves out. It's really hot, isn't it? Really hot? No! In New Zealand... Even though we feel hot, we have to look after ourselves, cos it's just our own internal heat. Actually, it's really cold out. It's very cold, but we're good. How are we doing, guide? Well! We're almost ready to leave from the main trail. We're headed to that valley over there. On the right, you can see the feet of Izta. They're also called Amacuilecatl. It's a subsummit, a secondary peak of Iztaccíhuatl. This guy is a New Zealander-Mexican, -Latino. He speaks perfect Spanish. He comes to Mexico every year. And we're happy that you love Mexico so much. We're at 4,200m, and there's no longer any vegetation. Yes there is! ...OK, well... ...There are flowers in this valley! OK, there is some vegetation. There's like, moss, and tiny flowers. Now we're eating and taking a bit of a break. I find the fruit really helps me, as well as carbohydrates that are quick to be absorbed and easy to digest, like pasta and rice, and some vegetables, which just kind of complete a good diet. I think this is the route with the best landscapes on this face of the mountain. Along our route, there are markers. It's a case of following these stones, and knowing how to read and interpret them as signals in order to reach the summit. We felt so tiny next to the grandeur of the Sleeping Woman, and this volcano is divided into three parts, the chest, the head and, finally, the feet. It's exactly 7PM and we've been on this mountain since noon. But we're gonna make it. We're gonna spend the night in the shelter and acclimatise to the altitude. Behind us, we have a stunning natural phenomenon. This is Popocatépetl, Mexico's second highest volcano, which has been in a period of intense activity in recent years. Climbing that volcano has been out of bounds since '94 because, as you can see, it's just erupted. We heard it from here. The natural beauty of Mexico is unbeatable. We're inside the risk zone because there's a chance ash could fall here. The zone in which large objects like rocks and flaming fragments could fall has a 7km radius. We're outside of that, but inside the zone in which ash could fall. Fortunately, the ash is going towards Puebla, and isn't coming towards us. That's because of the direction in which the wind is blowing right now. It is possible that a plume like that could reach us, though. In fact, I don't know if you can see it, but you can see the ash falling from here. You can see lines like underneath the plume of smoke. According to the latest information, the crater has increased in diameter, it's much bigger than it was even 6 months ago. Teague, are you tired? A little, yeah. Yes. But the shelter is just there. We're gonna sleep in the shelter, and tomorrow we'll climb to the summit. It's May in Mexico, and we're here on the snow! We're walking on snow. Finally, you've seen snow! Finally! Upon reaching the shelter, it was magical to see how some members of our group were seeing snow for the first time in their lives. This is the Ayoloco shelter, also known as Otis McAllister. 8 people can fight in this shelter comfortably, and if they don't mind squeezing in, 10. And of course when there's an emergency, you just get as many as you can in. Luckily, it's empty today. And this is where we're gonna spend the night. We're at over 4,600m above sea level. To give you an idea, it's the equivalent of being on top of the Nevado de Toluca volcano in the State of Mexico. We're making instant soup. We always have to be conscious of the environment, and Tetra Pak, a responsible company, thinks about that. For that reason, we brought this water, which comes in Tetra Pak containers. Tetra Pak containers are good for the environment because they're made from cardboard that comes from sustainable forests. In other words, forests that are used in a responsible way, and are continuously reforested. What are you doing? We're eating Maruchan instant ramen. Delicious! We're ready to sleep. We're gonna wake uo at 5AM, and here our resident American is going to sleep. Let's hope he dreams that Trump loses the 2020 elections. Good night! The next day, like good Mexicans, we didn't get up on time. Ready! It's 8AM and we're gonna head to the summit. Super late, but we're gonna enjoy it all the same. How did you sleep? Very well, Jorge. We're getting ready to go now. What's that you're putting on? A harness, in case we need to use ropes at any point. The light of the sun appears, and it reflects off the snow, so 100% of the sun's light reflects off the snow and goes directly into our eyes. It's really important to have sunglasses with a protection level of 4 or higher so that your retina doesn't get damaged, because being on the snow without glasses is really dangerous. You can lose your sight temporarily, or go blind forever. It's a steep slope with a 30 degree incline. Let's learn how to use an ice axe, OK? This is an ice axe, it's a basic tool of mountain climbing. This bit here is the dragonera. It's the safety strap, which goes around your wrist and gets tightened. This is what stops us from falling, OK? It's more likely that the ice axe gets itself wedged in to something and we get stuck, but we're not gonna fall, OK? It's like a third arm on steep slopes like the one we're climbing. With the ice axe, we can better support ourselves, OK? The ice axe always goes on the side of the mountain. Today, I have the mountain on my right-hand side, so I'm gonna put the ice axe in my right hand. Wow! This is Mexico, and it's the middle of May. It's only a month until summer starts. In the north of the country, temperatures get up to 40 degrees, and look at this wall of ice. It's like "Lord of the Rings" here, with the snow, the rocks, the mountain. It's super cool. Now, we need to put crampons on, because we're on the ice and it's dangerous. The crampons that we have, that you guys are wearing, have 14 points. The points make it easier for you to penetrate the top layer of snow and get your foot in. I think this is the hardest bit of Iztaccíhuatl so far, walking on the snow. Our feet disappeared in up to 30cm of snow, so it was really important that we followed our guide's tracks. And behind us we have the glacier that is at the heart of Iztaccíhuatl. It's deep, look. We were surprised to see some high-altitude athletes running to the summit. I'm from Pachuca, in Hidalgo State. Here is one of Iztaccíhuatl's craters. It's been thousands of years since its last eruption, but it still has a number of craters, and its craters... here we can see one of them. And behind me is the glacier, one of the most important glaciers in Mexico, one of the few. Why is it so important? Because if you look at the latitude of the Earth, Mexico is on the same line as the Sahara Desert, so this is one of the only tropical glaciers that exists in the world. We can see how this glacier is slowly thawing, and that is a result of climate change, because that little lake wasn't there before. There is a chance that this glacier will disappear in the next 30 years. Glaciers are fragile natural resources that are suffering the effects of climate change. As recently as 1999, these glaciers were measured, and an average depth of 70m was recorded. By 2004, that figure had declined to 40m. We gave one last push on Iztaccíhautl. In the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, the volcano's name is "izta", which means white, and "cíhuatl", which means woman. The White Woman. We're gonna make it! It's as if we were in the sky. All those clouds are getting closer to us. I hope it's not rain. We can do this. We can do this. Just when we thought we were about to arrive... We still have all of that to go! We're oh so very close now. It's an indescribable feeling, getting to 5,215m and the summit of Izta, a volcano whose explosive activity has never been seen by man, because its last eruption was 11,000 years ago, but is still considered an active volcano, because in the 19th Century, it emitted gases. ¡México y Aventura! ¡Visit Iztaccíhautl! We've just said goodbye to Iztaccíhautl. We've started our descent. It took us hours to get here. Yesterday we did, like 6 hours, and today, to reach the summit, we did 4 more. Let's keep enjoying Mexico, keep travelling, keep making the most of its volcanoes. Life is beautiful. We're gonna go as calmly as possible, make sure we get a good footing with every step, because in almost all expeditions like this, the accidents, 80% of the accidents, happen on the way down, so we have to be really careful. The important thing about reaching the summit of a mountain is to get up there, but even more important is getting back down, OK? You always wanna get home in one piece. There's a storm coming, so make sure you get a good footing every time, but relax, OK? It's snowing! Oceí's first time! And the doctor is tired, but let's go. When a muscle is tired, it means that there's been a build up of lactic acid inside. So the best way to deal with it... First, stretch your legs. Find somewhere to sit and stretch your legs. The second way is by eating certain foods: bananas, because of the potassium that they give you, and oranges, because of all the citric acid they have. The same advice applies to any and all forms of exercise. We've arrived back at the beginning, where everything started. This is the Izta-Popo National Park, which was one of the first national parks in Mexico, It was established in 1935, and one thing we noticed is that it's very clean and tidy right? Very clean, yeah. Exactly, so we, in order to keep things that way, drank water in these Tetra Pak containers, which are easier to recycle than ever. First, you just lift the folds on the corners. Then, you put the lid back on. Now, this container is gonna have a green future, just like the Izta Park, that we all have to look after. Subscribe to the channel to continue exploring Mexico.