Climbing Chimborazo: Our Personal Experience Report

What is the Chimborazo?

Chimborazo is a volcano standing at 6,263 meters — the highest mountain in Ecuador. It’s also the point on Earth that is closest to the sun. Measured from the center of the Earth, it actually sits higher than Mount Everest.

The volcano is inactive and lies about 200 kilometers south of Quito. It’s one of the most spectacular attractions in Ecuador, and the national park surrounding it offers a ton of activities.

By far the most epic of those is summiting the peak. We climbed Chimborazo ourselves, and we’ll tell you right upfront: it was one of the absolute highlights of our entire South America trip.

When is the best time to visit the Chimborazo?

You can go climbing Chimborazo almost year-round — the weather here is more stable than at other volcanoes in Ecuador.

The best months are September through December, when there’s plenty of snow, the winds are calm, and the hike is a bit easier. May through July are also great, with lots of sunshine. January through April works too.

August is the one month to avoid — it gets seriously windy, and climbs sometimes have to be canceled entirely.

Also read our travel tips for Ecuador

What do you need to climb it?

The Chimborazo ascent is not something you can just decide to do on a whim. When we made the climb, about half of all the people who attempted the summit didn’t make it to the top.

Please don’t underestimate this hike — you’ll only end up disappointed if you’re not properly prepared.

These are the requirements you should meet:

• Very good physical fitness
• Hiking and mountaineering experience
• Experience in high-alpine terrain (above 4,000 meters)
• Very good acclimatization
• Mental endurance

Do you need a guide?

Yes — you need a guide for the Chimborazo climb, which means booking a guided tour in advance. Most agencies offering the ascent are based in Riobamba.

We booked ours in the nearby town of Baños through Nato – Guia de los Cumbres and were really happy with our guide. In Riobamba, we’d recommend Fabian Chuto — we met him at the mountain hut, and he’s a seriously experienced guide.

One guide should be responsible for a maximum of two people. If you’re going with someone else, it’s crucial that you’re at the same fitness level — you’ll need to hike at your own pace, and if your partner can’t make it to the summit, you’ll have to turn back with them.

That’s why we actually recommend getting one guide per person, even though it’s significantly more expensive. Tours run roughly $500–600 per person with a private guide, or $300–400 per person when sharing.

How do you prepare for the Chimborazo ascent?

The single most important factor for a successful Chimborazo climb is thorough acclimatization. Altitude is the biggest challenge on this hike — full stop.

You can start preparing weeks in advance by doing other hikes at elevations above 3,000 meters. South America has great options for this, especially in Peru:

• Colca Canyon near Arequipa
• Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu
• Santa Cruz Trek in Huaraz

Another solid option is climbing Huayna Potosi in Bolivia, a mountain near La Paz.

In the days directly before the climb, you should spend at least five nights in the highlands. Good bases are Quito (2,850m), Cuenca (2,560m), Riobamba (2,754m), or Baños (1,820m).

During this time, you should also do at least one hike above 4,000 meters.

For example, you can summit the volcanoes Tungurahua (5,023m), Cotopaxi (5,897m), or Illiniza (5,248m). You can usually book these tours directly with the same guide you’ll use for the Chimborazo summit.

We also strongly recommend making the day before the ascent a rest day.

What do you need to bring for the Chimborazo ascent?

All of the climbing equipment is provided by your guide. Just make sure to try everything on beforehand — it’s really important that everything fits you well.

Equipment provided by your guide

• Climbing harness
• Waterproof pants
• Heavy jacket and sweater
• Winter boots
• Thick socks
• Headlamp
• Gloves
• Beanie
• Helmet
• Crampons
• Ice axe
• Trekking poles
• Sleeping bag

What you need to bring yourself

• Snacks (meals at the hut are included)
• Water bottle
• Toilet paper
• Hiking clothes
• Hiking backpack

Our Chimborazo experience report

Now let’s get into our firsthand account of the Chimborazo ascent.

Getting to the Chimborazo and the accommodation

On Day 1 of the climb, we set off with our guide from Baños at 9:30 in the morning. We’d already tried on all the equipment and packed everything together to make sure nothing was missing.

We then drove about three hours by car to the Refugio Carrel on the Chimborazo, arriving at the hut — which sits at 4,800 meters — at 12:30 PM.

There we had a small bite to eat and went on a hike to Laguna Condor Cocha. The lagoon sits at 5,100 meters, and the trail from Refugio Carrel is about 1.3 kilometers long. At 5:30 PM we had dinner back at the hut.

After watching an absolutely stunning sunset, we went straight to bed. The alarm was set for 10 PM — the ascent starts very early in the night.

We couldn’t sleep. Too excited, too many snorers in the hut.

The ascent of the Chimborazo

We set off from the hut at 10:30 PM. After a quick coffee and a few cookies, it was time to gear up: thick sweater, winter jacket, waterproof pants over the hiking clothes, snow boots on our feet.

Then the climbing harness, gloves, beanie, helmet, headlamp, trekking poles — and off we went. The rest of the gear went into the hiking backpack.

The first section is a rocky trail. You climb uphill for just under three kilometers until you reach a campsite at 5,300 meters.

Our tip: Take the first section slowly, even if it doesn’t feel that strenuous. You’ll absolutely need that energy for the final push.

At the campsite, you rope up to your guide, strap on your crampons, and grab your ice axes. From here on, you’re mostly walking on snow and ice.

This is also where it gets really tough. The trail goes very steeply uphill for almost the entire remaining stretch — about 900 meters of elevation gain. The first part is still somewhat varied: you walk partly on ice, partly on scree, and even do a short scramble (though it’s not technically difficult).

After that, it feels like an endlessly long snow wall stretching straight up — at times so steep you’re moving on all fours. The higher you go, the slower your progress becomes. You’re exhausted, gasping for breath, your legs getting heavier with every step.

This is the most critical part of the Chimborazo climb, because you start to seriously doubt whether you’ll actually make it. Nothing matters more here than mental strength and sheer willpower. Half of the hikers who started with us turned back somewhere along this section.

Honestly, we were on the verge of giving up too. By the time you hit the 6,000-meter mark, you’re averaging maybe ten steps before you have to stop and gasp for air. You feel like you’re making no progress at all, and the summit is nowhere in sight.

The summit

We still don’t fully know how, but somehow we made it to the Veintimilla summit at sunrise. We’d been going for almost exactly eight hours.

Chimborazo has two summits: Veintimilla at 6,228 meters and Whymper at 6,263 meters. By the time we reached the first summit, we were so spent that continuing to the second wasn’t an option. It was also already getting late — and that matters.

If you descend too late (which is why you start in the middle of the night), the sun beats down on the route and the risk of avalanches increases significantly.

Even though we would have loved to reach the very highest point, we were completely happy. The view from Veintimilla is absolutely breathtaking. You’re standing on a snow-covered landscape above the clouds, watching the sun rise — it’s simply wow.

Unfortunately, you get cold fast at the top. Temperatures are below freezing and the wind cuts right through you, so you head back down fairly quickly.

The descent back to the hut

The way down is more demanding than you’d expect. The steep descent means you really feel it in your thighs, and the air is still very thin, especially early on. With the crampons, though, you have solid footing on the snow and the descent goes fairly quickly.

Since it’s now broad daylight, you get to properly see the trail and the stunning landscape around you for the first time — and it’s worth pausing to take it all in.

After about three hours of descent, we were back at the mountain hut for a delicious, well-deserved breakfast. Then it was just a matter of packing up, getting in the car, and heading back to Baños — where we crashed into bed, completely wiped out.

Our verdict on the Chimborazo ascent

We would climb the Chimborazo again anytime and can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who loves high mountains and challenging ascents.

What’s great is that the route isn’t technically difficult. The altitude and the physical effort are by far the biggest hurdles. The ascent pushes you to your absolute limits — but the feeling when you finally reach the top is truly indescribable.

For us, the mount Chimborazo climb was a unique and incredibly beautiful experience we’ll never forget.