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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

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4 posted on 07/28/2026 12:23:17 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
This legend is similar to the legend of the first two glacier climbs I ever did, in the early 1990's in Mexico to the east of Mexico City, Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl:

In Aztec mythology, IztaccĂ­huatl was a princess who fell in love with one of her father's warriors, PopocatĂ©petl. The emperor sent PopocatĂ©petl to war in Oaxaca, promising him IztaccĂ­huatl as his wife when he returned (which IztaccĂ­huatl's father presumed he would not). IztaccĂ­huatl was falsely told that PopocatĂ©petl had died in battle, and believing the news, she died of grief. When PopocatĂ©petl returned to find his love dead, he took her body to a spot outside Tenochtitlan and kneeled by her grave. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains. IztaccĂ­huatl's mountain is called "Sleeping Woman" (Though the Nahuatl name literally means "White Woman" from iztāc "white" and cihuātl "woman") because it resembles a woman lying on her back, and is often covered with snow — the peak is sometimes nicknamed La Mujer Dormida, "The Sleeping Woman". PopocatĂ©petl became an active volcano, raining fire on Earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved.

Iztaccíhuatl (L) and Popocatépetl(R).

Popocatépetl began erupting shortly after my climb and has been erupting ever since.

I also climbed Orizaba on the same trip, but it does not have a legend around it as far as I know.

Orizaba

11 posted on 07/28/2026 12:39:53 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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