Day 8: Pico de Orizaba, 18,490 ft. The highest volcano in Mexico, and the 2nd highest volcano in the world(after Kilimanjaro). Harder than Mt.Elburus in Russia according to Anna, who was our our team and climbed both.Matt(@sierrasplendor), Eric(@erknucci), Mathias, Anna, and I all headed up the mountain at around 1am. It was a round trip of 11 hours and 4.5k to get all the way to the top and back down.Mathias, still feeling ill from the previous night, didn't even attempt to start; he stayed at basecamp to sleep off altitude sickness. Eric we learned after coming back down made it an hour or so before also getting sick and puking a few times, and turned around as well.Anna also made it to the top, but not after the guide literally pulled her up by the rope the last hundred feet.Matt and I made it to the top after a hard push. But man, what a mental battle. Once we hit the glacier, it was 2 hours of nonstop 30-45 degree slopes. At one point Matt had to go to the bathroom, but there was nowhere to go! He had to just wait to we reached the top.Truly, the glacier felt like it never ended. I would constantly glance at rocks nearby, expecting us to move past them, but they stayed in the same spot!!! But eventually, somehow we moved past them, and reached the top.Pics 5 shows Matt smiling and the absolute exhaustion on my face while on the endless glacier. Pic 6 shoes the "causalities of the mountain": Eric curled up in a ball and Mathias resting after coming partway down the mountain back to the hostel we had lunch. Pic 7 shows a telescope on a nearby mountain that contributed to the picture of a black hole that came out a few years ago. Super cool!This was mountain 3 of 9 for me. I'm on my way to ecuador to tackle another 5, topping out at 20,000 ft, before attempting Aconcagua. More to come!