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Oscar Eckenstein Diary Entry Monday, 25 February - Sunday, 3 March 1901
Our [Eckenstein and Aleister Crowley] next trip was to the Colima district. Nineteen hours by rail from Mexico City took us to Guadalajara, and then we had two days by diligence to Zapotlan, the town nearest the mountains. At Zapotlan there is a meteorological observatory, where records of the eruptions of the volcano are also kept. This volcano, the Volcan de Colima, is said to be the most active one on the Continent, a reputation which I am not prepared to dispute. The neighbouring mountain mass, the Nevado de Colima, has two summits situated approximately N.E. and S.W. of each other; we did not know whether either had been ascended, or which was the higher. Three days of rather rough travelling from Zapotlan took us to a hollow, about 12,400 feet high, and open to the north, enclosed by a sort of horseshoe formed by the Nevado ridges, and here we camped for a few days. On March 3rd we scrambled up the very broken up gully (chiefly rough scree and snow, also a little rock) coming down from the pass between the two summits. It took us 2 h. 5 m. to reach the pass (4,204 metres = 13,793 feet). From here a very jagged rock ridge, with numerous towers, leads up to the N.E. summit. The climbing was quite easy. From the pass to the top took 55 minutes; but then we climbed all the towers on the way. We found, much to our satisfaction, that our summit was a virgin one; but that satisfaction was somewhat tempered by the fact that the S.W. summit, was undoubtedly higher. Later on we ascended the S.W. summit, it was merely a scramble, and it had evidently been ascended before.
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