The highest mountain in the world is Everest. But the point on the earth's surface that lies furthest from the centre of the earth is not. That is the summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador, at 6,263 metres.
That is because the earth is not a sphere. Its rotation flattens it at the poles and thickens it around the equator. Chimborazo sits little more than one degree from the equator, and that extra thickness of the planet is greater than the difference in height with Everest. Whoever stands on that summit stands further from the earth's core than anyone else.
It is a wonderful piece of trivia. But it is not the reason the mountain is worth it. This article is about what the destination actually is.
A volcano on the equator
Chimborazo is a stratovolcano in the Ecuadorian Andes, dormant for thousands of years. Despite sitting on the equator it carries a permanent ice cap: at that altitude latitude no longer matters.
That contrast defines the whole destination. At the foot of the mountain it is a landscape of grass and dust, with vicuñas grazing between the shrubs. A few thousand metres higher you are standing on a glacier in crampons. There are few places where those two worlds follow one another so closely.
The páramo
On the way up you pass through the páramo, the high grassland that is characteristic of the northern Andes. It lies between roughly 3,500 and 4,500 metres and it is an ecosystem that occurs in this form nowhere else on earth.
It looks barren and that is deceptive. The páramo works like a sponge: the soil holds enormous quantities of water and feeds the rivers that supply half the country. For anyone walking through it, it is mostly tiring terrain. Tussocks of tough grass, boggy stretches, and a sun that is merciless at that altitude while the air stays cold.
Altitude is the whole challenge
Climbing Chimborazo is not technically extreme. You need crampons, an ice axe and rope work, and you learn those techniques along the way. What makes the mountain hard is the altitude.
At 6,263 metres the oxygen pressure is roughly half that at sea level. That does not mean you walk half as fast, it means every step becomes deliberate. You breathe in rhythm with your paces, you stop more often than you want to, and simple actions like closing your jacket suddenly demand attention.
That is why acclimatisation is not preparation for the expedition, it is the expedition. The days you spend on lower summits and high camps determine whether the summit day works. Anyone who wants to go up too fast does not get there.
Altitude sickness is not a matter of fitness. Well trained people are hit by it just as readily as anyone else, and sometimes sooner, because they ignore their own signals. That is one of the first habits this destination breaks.
At altitude, going slower is not weakness but technique. The people who struggle most to reach the top are often the fittest, because they wave away their own warning signs. When I say we stop, that is not a suggestion.
Koen De Leeuw, expedition leader
Summit day
You set off in the middle of the night, usually around midnight. That is not romance but necessity: during the day the sun warms the snow and the rockfall risk on the flanks becomes too great. You want to be up and back down before the mountain wakes up.
What follows is hours in the beam of your head torch, seeing no more than the feet of the person ahead of you. Participants rarely describe that afterwards as beautiful. They describe it as the longest night they can remember, and that is exactly why it stays with them.
Why late May and early June
Ecuador has no summer and winter but wetter and drier periods, and those differ by region. Around Chimborazo the early part of summer is one of the calmer weather windows, with less precipitation and steadier mornings than in the preceding months.
Steadier is relative: on the equator the weather at high altitude can turn within the hour, in any season. What the window does give you is a reasonable chance of a workable summit day, and on a mountain of this height that is the only thing that counts.
You learn the technique on site, the altitude you do not
The Chimborazo expedition is rated Challenge (4 out of 5) and lasts ten days. You need no mountaineering experience, because you learn the techniques on site, but you do need solid endurance and a realistic picture of what altitude does to you.
The honest version: not everyone makes it to the top. Altitude cannot be forced and the mountain has a say. Anyone who can live with that gets far more out of this destination than someone who comes only for the summit.
Practical
The Chimborazo expedition runs from 29 May to 8 June 2027 and lasts ten days, including acclimatisation on lower summits. All the details are on the page for the Chimborazo expedition.
Want to see the destinations side by side: which expedition suits you compares them on terrain and intensity. And the packing list for an expedition goes into detail on what has to come along.