At the Outer Limits

A refuge on the slopes of Chimborazo.

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Gradually green expanse turns to brown. Vegetation struggles at this altitude. Only vicunas, relatives of the llama, seem comfortable among the rubble and rocks. The terrain approaches lunar desolation as the taxi pulls up alongside the first refuge, which is named after Whymper's two Italian climbing companions, brothers Jean-Antoine and Luis Carrel. Inside, the dining and sleeping facilities are similarly stark. Lodging here costs about $10 a night.

Outfitters Alta Montaqa, also can arrange a climbing package—with lodging in a converted rail station at nearby Urbina—for $180. The price includes equipment (except for boots and clothes), transportation to Chimborazo and back,and a licensed mountain guide. Lodging on a nightly basis in Urbina costs about $6.

Only 450 feet of elevation separate the two refuges, but it is enough to give the uninitiated a taste of the strength and stamina needed to climb the remaining 4,000 feet to the top. Even a roadside detour for photos of craning vicunas can turn a heartbeat into a drum solo.

As the rough path meanders upwards, each step is a struggle against invisible forces. Gravity may be less this far from the center of the Earth, but the novice climber quickly discovers that any advantage is countermanded by the thin atmosphere.

Frequent pauses for breath are both a necessity and a pleasure. For the views are, in themselves, breathtaking. Ahead, clouds drape over the summit, revealing tantalizing glimpses of bare snow. Below, mist dances across the Altiplano, the valley separating Ecuador's two parallel Andean ranges, the Cordillera Oriental and Cordillera Occidental.

No wonder the mountain is particularly sacred to many indigenous people. Even the snow on its summit has significance, tourist guide Antonio Torres says, explaining that some locals drink melted ice from Chimborazo as a tonic.

"There are people who go up to the glacier to bring down ice to sell ," Torres says."There is a community there that makes their living doing that. They leave at two or three in the morning, they go up to the glacier at Chimborazo and bring back ice to sell in the market at Riobamba."

Among Whymper's predecessors in this area were South American liberator Simon Bolivar, who dubbed Chimborazo "the watchtower of the universe," and German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who in 1802 climbed within a 1,000 feet or so of Chimborazo's summit.

Whymper, strongly motivated by his interest in researching the effects of altitude, made meticulous if restrained notes about his two successful attempts to climb the mountain on January 4th and July 3rd, 1880. He noted, for instance, that the daytime temperature on both occasions was 21 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bolivar, for his part, returned to Riobamba after a partial ascent and chronicled the experience in verse. Chimborazo also made a big impression on Humboldt, who considered the mountain to be the most impressive on earth.

Only in the last 30 years, since the building of the two refuges, has mountaineering become popular at Chimborazo. In the region as a whole, new routes are still being pioneered. Not until 1963 was Altar climbed.

A lesser-known name, scientist Hans Meyer, summed up the region's appeal as well as anyone during his 1905 visit to this"incomparable panorama."

"The beauty of the Andean landscape is sublime because of the extreme simplicity of its forms," he wrote, "the classic stillness of its lines, the vastness of its immensity, the profound gravity of its balanced coloring, generally of dark hues, and its infinite solitude."