On April 29th, we woke at the Esperanza Lopez Mateos hut (4,850 m) before sunrise to make our bid to
the summit. Kent went outside and yelled for me to come out and take a look. Popo had erupted and had a
plume funneling out of the crater. We came to the realization that we almost went to Popo and would have
been high near its summit that morning. We also heard helicopters down lower near the base. The white
smoke from the crater blew over Ixta for most of the day during our summit bid and on our trip down to La
Hoya.
That nite there was an intense electrical storm. A few days later we were given a newspaper in Mexico City that told of 5 Mexican alpinistas whose
charred bodies were recovered from Popo. It was not determined if their fate was decided by the volcano or
the electrical storm. We could have been there at the same time as the alpinistas. Is there any information
about what happened that day. I would like to know.
Thomas Bengston
Write: uncia72@home.com
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