How to get there:
The approach drive to this peak is quite long, a good option is to
stay at Casa Chuparrosas. They rent a single unit with 3 beds. Good service
and location, high end in price. This location is N16.1419, W096.44171.
From Casa Chuparrosas, you may drive directly across a deep valley and join the
paved road at location: A high clearance, preferably a 4WD is recommended.
Alternatively, the (paved) access road forks left from the main Hwy. at location:
In both cases, continue to location xx, where a smaller forest road descends sharply
left, down to the valley floor. Follow this road to an area with several (abandoned)
buildings and a basketball court. Turn right and drive through a gate at location
N16.20824, W096.33549. From here, just follow the forest road to the main crest, you
cross a second gate here and descend slightly to a nice trailhead with good parking
at location N16.19367, W096.24103, elevation about 3270 meter.
It is possible to drive a little more, however not recommended. There are a few
local people living in the valley below,
better not to disturb these.
Route description:
From the trailhead described above, continue downhill a short distance, then
descend an old road that forks
left (directly downhill) to the saddle. Continue
directly uphill on the opposite side and follow the (very old) forest road until
it ends near an abandoned building.
This road crosses a local hill, however, if you
would like a
bonus P100m hill, it is located off on your right hand side before you ascend this hill.
From the end of the road, a trail continues downhill to a connecting saddle.
Soon after this, you will
pass a last building, long time since in use.
Follow the
trail until you are at the base of a slope that climbs directly to the west (summit) ridge.
The more visible trail contours left here, however there is a zig-zag trail going uphill
(straight ahead). This trail is easier to see a little higher on the slope.
Once on the west ridge, follow this easterly, you will cross two high points, then
descend about 50 meter to a local col connecting the west ridge with the summit hill.
There is a stone cairn as
well as a cross marking the summit.
Comments:
We stayed at a nice place named Casa Chuparrosas, a bit luxurious and expensive, but
with very nice food and superb service.
This accommodation is fairly close (about 2 hours!) to the trailhead.
A 4WD or high clearance vehicle should have no problem driving (dirt road) directly
across the deep valley (first descend then ascend)
to the paved road. We had a delicious breakfast served at 0530, then
left at 0610. Since we had never been here before, we took some time
to explore and find the best trailhead. We parked around 0845.
We started our hike at 0855.
Following the old road across the col below our parking, then up the hill on the
other side, quickly showed that our parking was good. The uphill was deeply eroded
and also blocked by fallen trees. This old road traverses close to a local hilltop,
we initially believed it would have more than 100 meter of prominence, but discovered
later that the hill you traverse before getting here, is a little bit higher.
This would be an easy "bonus" on a return hike.
The old road ends near a building that is no longer in use. From here, we descended
to the col and followed a somewhat overgrown trail to the base of the west ridge.
We did not see the continuation directly uphill, thus continued left.
After crossing many fallen trees, we decided that this trail would not ascend. Leaving
the trail we next headed directly uphill in order to gain the west ridge.
We arrived on the west (summit) ridge around 1115. Exploring the 2 highpoints, we soon
came to the conclusion that a visit to the east summit would be needed. This summit
(unlike the west ridge) had a good sized cairn structure as well as a summit cross.
We were finally on the summit. The time was 1200 - noon.
We returned back and across the west ridge, but this time all the way to its end. There we discovered
the proper trail descending in zig-zag turns down to the trail that we had followed also when it
started contouring left.
Back at the car at 1455, so 6 hours icluding quite a bit of time exploring the different high points
to determine that Nube Flane is indeed the higher point. We knew that our drive back to a hotel
in Oaxaca would not quite be completed in daylight, but that is life! We arrived at our hotel
around 2000, not long after dark. A long day that deserved a good meal before night.
