Will Popocatepetl quiet down?

This is the summit crater of Popocatepetl (17,880'), photographed in the summer of 1994, a few months before an eruption occured. The volcano is only a short distance from Mexico City. Notice the fumarole activity at the bottom, where sulfur deposits form. Although the air temperature is well below freezing here, the rocks are warm to the touch and the difficulty in breathing the already thin air is compounded by sulfurous fumes. Eruptions and magmatic activity now occur sporadically (with hot rocks occasionally falling on surrounding villages), and climbing this mountain now would be foolhardy.

Make no mistake, being sacrificed to a volcano is not our idea of fun. We were lucky enough to get one last climb in before things turned ugly. The moral of the story is: Don't wait on your dreams. You can always think of a thousand reasons not to do something - it's too far, it's too expensive, I don't have time, I have to go to work in the morning, I have a dentist's appointment... and you miss out.

Do it anyway. Had we waited to climb Popo, we would have deprived ourselves of a wonderful, awe-inspiring sight unlike any we had seen before. And we cannot go back.