Chimborazo

Chimborazo in the Andes, central Ecuador.

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Chimborazo, mountain peak, central Ecuador, in the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes. Rising to 20,702 feet (6,310 meters), it is the highest peak of Ecuador and was long mistakenly thought to be the highest mountain of the Andes. An inactive volcano with many craters, it is heavily glaciated. From about 15,400 feet (4,700 meters), the mountain is capped with eternal snow. Many attempts were made to climb Chimborazo in the 18th and 19th centuries; the first to reach the summit was the British mountaineer Edward Whymper, who climbed the peak twice in 1880. The geographer and traveler Alexander von Humboldt reached 19,286 feet (5,878 meters) in 1802.