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Oscar Eckenstein Diary Entry Monday, 28 January 1901
We [Eckenstein & Crowley] went to the same pass between Cabeza and Panza (i.e. the one down to this pass) is very fine, being curiously curled, and consists entirely of ice and snow. At one point it is broken by an outstanding buttress of ice and snow. We ascended this ridge, which starts at a very gentle gradient, but rapidly steepens, till it has an angle of 47° immediately below the break, which is 147 m. (482 feet) above the pass. After reaching the foot of the break we bore up to the right, over a very steep snow slope, consisting of powdery snow, till we came to an ice wall, along which we traversed horizontally for a short distance. We then struck straight up the ice wall, which was about 70 m. (230 feet) high, and had an average angle of 51°; it was covered with 5-15 cm. (2-6 in.) of rotten ice, which had to be chopped away before the spikes of our crampons could obtain satisfactory hold. This brought us back on to the ridge, which here was of snow and had a gentle gradient; and then a short walk took us to the true snow summit, which we found was about 6 m. (20 feet) higher than the ice summit ascended on the 19th, a nearly level snow slope connecting the two. We descended to the camp by the same route as on the 19th. Times: Camp to pass, 2 h.; ascent of ridge to break, 1/2 h.; snow slope, 1/2 h.; ice wall, 50 m.; to true summit, 10 m.
I may mention that "Cabeza" is the name of the north summit (5146 m., or 16,882 feet) of Iztaccihuatl (this is the correct spelling; you will find it spelt wrongly in the A J. and elsewhere and "Panza," that of the central mass (5286 m., or 17,343 feet), of the mountain.
The heights given are the latest corrected ones; the district has been surveyed lately, and a map on the scale of 1 : 100,000 is now procurable.
Our first expedition was to Iztaccihuatl, a noble mass, visible from Mexico City, and the only one in the country with well-developed glaciers on it. As far as we could ascertain the main summit had only been ascended four times, each time by the route taken on the first ascent, and the other summits had not been ascended. One interesting point was our speed in ascending, which was a good deal greater than any hitherto recorded at similar heights. Thus in our expedition of January 28th, our rate of ascent (heights between 13,717 and 17, 343 feet), stops excluded, was 907 feet per hour, and stops included, 691 feet per hour; and this included some difficult and laborious ice work. The easier part, that from our camp to the col, which involved long traversing and the ascent of a small icefall, took just 2 hours; the difference of level being 2687 feet.
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