Volcan Chimborazo, Ecuador 20,704´

Me at the furthest point from the Center of the EARTH!

This could be a world record for the largest shadow????????????

There are many reasons why I decided to climb Chimborazo, but the number 1 reason is it is the top is the furthest point away from the center of the earth and it is over 20,000 ft. This is due to the fact that the world is wider near the equator and this Volcano is located less then 1 degree off of the equator. If you measure from sea level it is obviously lower then some other peaks, but climbing above 20,000 ft is definitely not an easy task. After getting acclimated, I paid a guide 160 dollars, and off we went to climb the highest peak in Ecuador. When you look at it, it looks so much bigger in real life then in pictures and it makes any mountain you see in Colorado look small. If you have ever hiked a 14 er and when you get close to the top every step takes so much out of you because there is literally no air up there. Now imagine starting at just above that altitude as your starting height and going up from there! To start off, we hiked up to and camped at the second refuge which is around 16,000 ft. We arrived there around 4pm and rested as much as possible until we were to attempt our summit leaving at 11pm. From then we hiked through the night because of the risks of avalanches to reach the summit just before 7am as the sun was coming up. While at the refuge we tried to sleep, but I found that it is nearly impossible to sleep at the altitude because your breathing pattern slows down so much while you sleep. You just can´t sleep or you just wake right back up with a migraine. Having slept less then 15 minutes that night we headed off under our headlamps directly up the side of this enormous mountain. After the first 10 minutes the only thing that you walk on going up this mountain is Snow....Snow .....and more, SNOW! Climbing Chimborazo was also different then I expected it to be. As you start going up most mountains there is always a level spot somewhere to just relax and take a break, NOT HERE. From the time we left there was not one rock, or one spot where the mountain leveled out enough to where you didn´t feel like you needed to hold on for your life. If you wanted to stop you would drive your ice ax in the snow and hold on to that. The climb was at an angle where you could just barely walk up but if you slipped you would slide down all the way to the bottom. For that reason we were tied together in hopes that the other person could stop you from sliding all the way down. There was no zig-zag path going up or ever once a feeling that you could completely relax for a few moments. The whole time your white knuckling your ax, fighting to find oxygen, and dealing with temperatures around 0 degrees. The whole time I was so cold, so tired, and so miserable I just wanted to give up so bad! I can honestly say that was the most miserable moment in my entire life, hands down. When we left there was around 10 people that were going to attempt the climb that night. Out of the 10 people there was one other guy who made it all the way. As I got around 20,000 ft I knew I was getting sick. I had never felt so exhausted and I decided that as much as I paid and as close as I was, I was going to the top or death! I struggled for 2 more hours and it always seemed that as far as I could see, there was more mountain. If I wouldn´t have been sick it wouldn´t have been so bad, but I was completely miserable and the weakest I have ever felt in my life. When I finally arrived at the top I couldn´t of helped the fact that I had tears in my eyes cause I was so happy to finally be there and to know that although I was extremely sick, so cold I could not feel my hands or feet, and tired, I pushed my self to the limits and accomplished my goal anyway. Looking back it was not really a good idea to push myself that far. It took me just as long to get down as it did going up. I was not able to eat anything and I was so weak coming down the mountain I would just fall over on my ice ax and wonder if I had the energy to get off the mountain. If I ate I would throw up so I just kept sweets in my mouth so I could get the sugar from them. As we hiked up during the night time, when we walked down it didn´t even seem like we were on a mountain side. You would go down and down and things never seemed to be getting closer. At that height, things looked the same as they do in an airplane. Going down really scared me because I was so dizzy and weak I knew if I was not careful it was easy to slide right off the mountain. After 6 grueling hours we reached the refuge and I had never felt so relieved in my entire life. The feeling of accomplishment you get from doing something like this is not explainable in words and this will always be one of my biggest accomplishments in my life!