We got higher than we´ve ever got before

From Baños it was off to try to summit Volcan Chimborazo, a massive snow-covered volcano that stands at 20,823ft. and happens to be the farthest point from the center of the earth, 2km farther than everest. We arrived at the first refuge (15,000ft.) at 2 in the afternoon, ate a quick lunch and walked up to the second refuge at 16,500ft. Here we were greeted by enormous clouds, snow pack, and cold temperatures. However, this time we had lots of warm clothes. No more dumb gringo pictures for us. After exploring around the refuge and drinking lots of warm tea, we went to bed around 7pm, knowing we had to get up in just 4 hours to begin our summit attempt. Sleep, however, was nearly impossible to come by. At 16,500ft. our hearts were working harder than ever to pump oxygen to our brains, so when we were just lying in bed doing nothing it sounded like our hearts were recovering from a 100yd dash.
After 4 restless hours, our two guides woke us up, we dressed, and quickly ate our breakfast before finishing our final preparations and heading out. Once we left the refuge we were soon stopped in awe by the night´s scenery. The monstrous clouds that sat next to us earlier that evening were all but gone, leaving in their wake a clear view of the mountain, and above the mountain shone millions upon millions of stars. Because of our proximity to the equator, we were able to see stars from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. After several minutes of stargazing, our guides decided it was time to start the walk, so we headed out unsure of what exactly we were about to do to ourselves.
Almost immediately after we started to hike we hit the snow fields and were told to put on our crampons and pull out our ice axes. After about a 30 second instruction, all in spanish, on how to best use the gear we started to trudge up the masssive ice fields. The millions of stars and our headlamps were our only source of light, so we could hardly see where we were headed. All we knew was that we were going up, and each breath seemed to fill our lungs with less and less oxygen. As exhaustion and altitude started to set in, we fell into a routine. Crampon, ice axe, other crampon, ice axe, crampon, ice axe, for hours and hours. We moved like zombies as our minds wandered to different places on our way up the massive peak. We soon heard sounds, and saw colors and objects that weren´t there. Ira kept thinking the rock trail markers were trolls.
Hours and hours of walking--we were still going up. Hours and hours more--we were still going up. Our guides told us we were getting closer, but nothing seemed to change except that we were more and more tired. We would walk, then take a break, then walk some more, straight up a pitch of 35-40 degrees at some points. After one break our guide said we were verey close, and began hiking at a rather ambitious pace. We didn´t believe hime, but we were, in fact, very close, and the slope leveled out a little to uncover the beginnings of a sunrise of a lifetime. We dropped our bags at the false summit, and hiked the saddle to the actual summit, driven only by the great view before us and a desire to see that little flag that marked the top of the world. After agonizing ove the last steep pitch, we reached the top and despite our exhaustion, were able to enjoy the 360 deree view of the rising sun.
Above every cloud in the sky, we could see almost all of the other ecuadorian vocanoes that were tall enough to break through the seemingly impenetrable layer of orange and red clouds below us. We had made it to the top of a 20,800 ft. peak despite being exhausted and loopy from the altitude. We were thrilled.