A Work Adventure

A German colleague, Hendrik, has been visiting our group at UNAM for the past week. He developed an instrument in Germany for our group here. The goal of the instrument is to remotely take images of volcanic and power plant plumes that are color coded to the concentration of SO2 within the plume. Its a very handy measurement to have because we can be kilometers from the plume and figure out the concentrations within the plume. Henrik and I decided to test the instrument by going to Paso de Cortez to measure SO2 emissions from the active volcano Popocatépetl (5,636 m or 18,500 ft). But as luck would have it, it was cloudy and we couldn't see the volcanic plume from Popo. Here is Henrik with his instrument and Popo in the background.
Upon arriving to the refuge where we take our measurements from, we met a very nice man named Miguel. Miguel is retired and a widower. Since he has no commitments, he spends the majority of his time at the refuge greeting climbers and climbing himself. Although you can't climb Popo right now because it is active, on the other side of the pass is the non-active Iztaccíhuatl (5,230m or 17,159ft) and climbers stay at the refuge on Paso de Cortez at 4,000m (13,123 ft) before summitting Izta. Here is a picture of Miguel and I with Izta in the background.
Miguel convinced Henrik and I to stay the night at the refuge with him since the probability of it being clear in the morning was much higher. Henrik and I did not come prepared to stay the night but Miguel provided us with everything we possibly could need, plus more. We were treated to a wonderful meal of soup, salad, pasta, and wine in addition to some incredible hot chocolate. We got to hear plenty of fascinating stories from Miguel and see numerous photos from his time on the pass. Miguel woke up us early the following morning to inform us that there were clouds and measurements were probably not a possibility. Needless to say, we had bad luck making measurements, but we had great luck with our adventure.

Endo also got to join in on the fun at Paso de Cortez. After being in the city for months on end, I think he was glad to be in the mountains again.