CHIMBORAZO VOLCANO
why this mountain?
Chimborazo is a dormant, glacier-clad stratovolcano in the Ecuadorian Andes and the highest mountain in Ecuador. Its summit holds an extraordinary geographical distinction.
A mighty deity that was revered even before the time of the Incas.
THE FARTHEST POINT FROM EARTH’S CENTER
Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level.
Chimborazo is different.
It is more than two kilometers farther from Earth’s center than the summit of Everest. This is the geographical phenomenon behind Chimborazo’s poetic identity as the point on Earth closest to the stars — and the inspiration behind HELIOS.
A MOUNTAIN OF TROPICAL ICE
Chimborazo is also home to tropical glaciers. The ice is both landscape and record: a physical archive of the past that is disappearing in the present.
A LIVING MOUNTAIN
For generations, Chimborazo has held cultural and spiritual significance for the communities of Ecuador’s central Andes. Today it exists simultaneously as a natural landmark, a cultural presence, a scientific reference and an extreme environment.
For HELIOS, that convergence is what makes Chimborazo irreplaceable.