Qualla: Chimborazo https://qualla.com/chimborazo en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/x/z/chimborazo-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Chimborazo https://qualla.com/chimborazo Chimborazo: Introduction https://qualla.com/chimborazo/ Photo credit User:Gerd Breitenbach, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Earth is not a sphere. It bulges at the equator and flattens at the poles - an oblate spheroid rather than a globe - and the bulge is substantial enough to change what 'highest' actually means. Measured from sea level, Mount Everest wins by 2,585 meters. Measured from the actual center of the Earth, Chimborazo wins by 2.1 kilometers. The summit of this Ecuadorian volcano, sitting one degree south of the equator, reaches 6,384.4 kilometers from the planet's core. Everest, much farther north and much higher above sea level, reaches only 6,382.3. It is the closest place in the world to outer space that your feet can stand on - and because the equatorial bulge also reduces gravity slightly, it is about one percent easier to jump there than at the poles.

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Image: User:Gerd Breitenbach | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/x/z/chimborazo-wp/6pxz-chimborazo-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Chimborazo: What the Bulge Does https://qualla.com/chimborazo/ Photo credit Silvio1973, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Earth's shape is the consequence of its own spin. Over billions of years, rotation has thrown the equatorial regions outward by about 21 kilometers more than the poles. Chimborazo sits at 1.5 degrees south - essentially on the bulge - while Everest sits near 28 degrees north ...

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Image: Silvio1973 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/x/z/chimborazo-wp/6pxz-chimborazo-what-the-bulge-does.mp3 0:06 2 full Chimborazo: A Volcano Stacked on a Volcano https://qualla.com/chimborazo/ Photo credit Ljuba brank, CC BY-SA 3.0. Geologically, Chimborazo is a double stratovolcano - one volcanic edifice built on top of another - and it shows four distinct summits. The highest is the Whymper summit at 6,263 meters, named for the English climber who reached it first. Next is Veintimilla at about 6,234 meters...

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Image: Ljuba brank | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/x/z/chimborazo-wp/6pxz-chimborazo-a-volcano-stacked-on-a-volcano.mp3 0:06 3 full Chimborazo: The Climbers and the Ice https://qualla.com/chimborazo/ Photo credit Friedrich Georg Weitsch, Public domain. The story of climbing Chimborazo runs through three centuries. In 1802, Alexander von Humboldt attempted to climb the peak with Aime Bonpland and Carlos Montufar. They suffered altitude sickness badly and turned back at an estimated 5,875 meters - at the time, the highest elevati...

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Image: Friedrich Georg Weitsch | Public domain

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/x/z/chimborazo-wp/6pxz-chimborazo-the-climbers-and-the-ice.mp3 0:06 4 full Chimborazo: The Hieleros of Chimborazo https://qualla.com/chimborazo/ Photo credit ma_xyz, CC BY-SA 3.0. For centuries, local men climbed Chimborazo's ice field to mine ice. They were called hieleros - from the Spanish hielo, meaning ice - and their route took them up to high camps where they would cut blocks from the glacier with simple tools, wrap them in dry paramo grass, and car...

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Image: ma_xyz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/x/z/chimborazo-wp/6pxz-chimborazo-the-hieleros-of-chimborazo.mp3 0:06 5 full Chimborazo: The Mountain in the Imagination https://qualla.com/chimborazo/ Photo credit Guido "random" Alvarez from Richmond, USA, CC BY 2.0. Chimborazo has a way of making writers lose their footing. Simon Bolivar wrote a prose poem titled 'Mi delirio sobre el Chimborazo' - 'My Delirium on Chimborazo' - in which the Liberator imagines himself carried up the mountain by the spirit of time. Ralph Waldo Emerson used Chim...

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Image: Guido "random" Alvarez from Richmond, USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/x/z/chimborazo-wp/6pxz-chimborazo-the-mountain-in-the-imagination.mp3 0:06 6 full