Ben Thorneycroft

Ecuador's Avenue of the Volcanoes is one of the great mountaineering environments on earth, a chain of glaciated peaks rising above highland valleys that offers more high-altitude climbing variety per square mile than almost anywhere else in the world. This fifteen-day seminar takes full advantage of it, moving progressively through five volcanoes in a sequence designed to build skills, confidence, and altitude experience from the first acclimatization climb to the summit of Chimborazo at 20,703 feet, the highest point in Ecuador and, due to the equatorial bulge of the earth, the point on the planet's surface farthest from its center.

The program is built around progression. The early acclimatization climbs introduce rock scrambling and high-altitude movement before the team moves to Cayambe, where glacier-based skills training prepares climbers for the technical demands ahead. Cotopaxi applies those glacier skills on a bigger, more crevassed objective, and Chimborazo is where all of it comes together on a serious high-altitude climb with a summit that rewards everything the program has built toward.

What sets this seminar apart from a standard Ecuador climbing trip is the deliberate arc from acclimatization to technical proficiency to summit achievement. Climbers leave with a skill set that translates directly to bigger objectives, and the experience of having applied those skills on three of the Andes' most celebrated peaks. The cultural richness of Ecuador, from Quito's colonial streets to the Otavalo Market, is woven into the program throughout.