In mid-January I had a chat with my scheduling manager at the hotel, asking for 5 days in a row off…any 5 days. I had no idea what I was going to do with my time off but after weeks of working two nearly fully time jobs I needed a breather. She picked the dates that worked best for the schedule and I started perusing the internet for cheap flights.

I ended up booking a flight to Monterrey, Mexico where I knew I’d find a familiar face, cheap tacos and an excuse to work on my Spanish. Come late February…off I went! I was giving myself a mid-winter trip to Mexico, where I wouldn’t see a drop of salt water but I would find the top of a few urban mountains.

After a few hours in spacious exit row seats and a quick Uber ride across the city I met up with Jeremy’s dad, inhaled some food and crashed into a pillow. Jeremy was working but I got a cryptic text that implied we were needed to be up + at ’em by 7:30am for a guided hiking adventure. The next morning with a few handfuls of the hotel’s continental breakfast in our bellies we headed for Cerro de Chipinque where we would meet our guide for the day.

The mountains behind Cerro de Chipinque, just west of Monterrey — an accordion of jagged ridges.

Now, I had heard stories about the Chipinque mountains…something about an afternoon hike that ended up taking 12 hours, elusive trails and friendly rodents. I wasn’t sure what I was in, but mostly, I was just happy to have an excuse to get outside in weather that warranted shorts + a tank top!

We parked near Hotel Chipinque and started our trek upwards. It was obvious at first, but then we veered left onto a trail that I would not have noticed if I weren’t following a guide. Immediate evidence of how Jeremy’s previous adventure here took twice as long as anticipated! Once we got a few hundred feet down the trail it became better defined, but the turn off was easy to miss.

The trail led us up steep switchbacks, along the base of a cliff and through a few crevasses before it stopped being a simple hiking trail and became a steep, hands-required trail. The trail was setup with cables to guide us up the mountain but I avoided them in favor of some quasi climbing along side them. It was technical and a little thought was required to ascend safely but we were pretty mellow about it — moving slowly, talking as we climbed and stopping for snacks + water whenever we found shade.

Our destination was La M, one of the lumps of the “M” along the Chipinque ridge that borders the southwestern edge of Monterrey. By the time noon rolled around we were settled in just below the summit cross of La M munching on trail mix, Snickers + Twinkies. Don’t ever doubt our ability to pack quality trail snacks!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day! We sat in the toasty, but not sweltering, sunshine watching the massive city of Monterrey as it sprawled out below us, clearly visible on one of the few smog-free days the area gets. Honestly, if someone hadn’t mentioned “tacos” and “ice cream” we probably would have settled in for an early afternoon nap at the top of the mountain!

IMG_2516La M summit — along the Cerro de Chipinque ridge!

As we started our trek back down the Class 3 scrambles our chatter died down — turns out you have to pay a lot more attention foot placement when you’re scuttling down a mountain. I was the slowest, I really do need to work on my downhill technique. Granted, I did manage to kick at least four rocks down at Jeremy so my technique isn’t *that* bad!

Once we got off the steep scramble the trail got easier…but man, downhill is tiring and not nearly as much fun as the uphill when it seems like you’ll never make it down to the aforementioned tacos + ice cream! Occasionally we would chat, but most conversations were interrupted by violent bouts of curse words or the clattering of scree sliding down the mountain side when once of us took an unexpected “ground squat”. Yup, “ground squat”. That’s the technical term for what happens when you slip on the trail and land on your bum…no biggie, just extra strength training courtesy of ground squats.

…this is why we’re friends, we’re both so normal no one else wants to be our friend!

Eventually we made it down the mountain! Throughout this entire endeavor our guide was amazing! He spoke very little English [and we all spoke very little Spanish] but we still managed to get a few laughs out of the day — probably something to do with M&M bribery and Google Translates version of “can I shit in the woods”. Either way, it was awesome having a guide handle all the navigating, especially on the way down when he took the more mellow route to keep us on our feet rather than our bums!

We finished off our hike with a few cans of Coke then headed into town for tacos + ice cream, as promised. Then, with fully bellies, we escaped the “winter heat” of Mexico by making good on our other promise to ourselves — afternoon naps! And this, this is how you vacation in Mexico without a beach! And I haven’t even gotten to the stories about elusive trails, wild piglets + foggy summits!


5 Comments

Jacquelyn · March 12, 2021 at 10:18 pm

This looks incredible! Not sure how you made it up to the top of that rock.. pretty sure I’d be dead. Ha.

    Heidi Kumm · March 15, 2021 at 10:25 am

    It was awesome! The steeper climbs definitely took some concentration but the risk was relatively low…! 🙂

Monterrey's Mountains: Pico Norte of Cerro de la Silla - Heidi Kumm // Oversharing Life · March 28, 2021 at 4:42 am

[…] of trails without snow, La M wasn’t the only mountain we hiked while I was down in Monterrey, Mexico. It was only the […]

Going Into "Vacation Mode" - TETON Sports · April 19, 2021 at 8:12 am

[…] headed up La M near Chipinque and spent a few hours trekking along wooded trails and scrambling up rocky chutes before returning […]

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[…] the city seems so much more inviting from way up here… [taken near the top of La M in Chipinque] […]

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