Ambitious Adventure to the Andes

5 weeks, 3 countries, 3 highest mountains in each country totaling 64,533 feet, and 2 wheelchairs.

…one of our most ambitious climbing adventures yet (certainly from a logistics standpoint) and it all begins this Thursday! In our quest to explore new and exciting high altitude destinations for future Step Outdoor Adventures programs, we are heading south to Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Our plan is to climb the highest mountains in each of those countries – Nevado Huascaran: 22,262', Nevado Sajama: 21,590' and Chimborazo: 20,681'.  Each one is higher than the highest peak in North America, and Huascaran is less than 600 vertical feet shy of Aconcagua, its less technically challenging neighbor to the south and the highest peak in the world outside of Asia.

During our journey we will also visit some spectacular sights along the way like the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu (located at a comfortably lower altitude of ~8,000') and the beautiful Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. We’re not sure if our bodies will hold up to such an active itinerary, or if we can actually pull off all of this, since it seems like we just planned an episode of the Amazing Race. Nonetheless we’re super excited for the adventure, and also enthused to be delivering two customized wheelchairs to some deserving challenged athletes in Lima along the way!

We would love to have you follow along on our “Ambitious Adventure to the Andes” to see how it all unfolds. So if you're not already receiving e-mail updates when new posts are made, please subscribe by entering your e-mail address in the box in the upper right portion of the blog post (and don't forget to verify through the automated email you will receive immediately after subscribing - check spam filter if you don't see it).

Adios y Hasta Luego!

Paul y Denise