One adventure. Three summits. Are you up for the challenge?! Trek through native forest to the peak of Pasochoa, take in the vast highland paramos from the top of Rumiñahui, and last but not least, mountaineer to the icy summit of Cotopaxi at 5,897m!

This is one of our most intense adventures, and is perfect if you are looking to push yourself and up the ante after doing another big summit like Kilimanjaro. It’s a great match for adventurers who do well at high altitudes (think 19,347 ft), and want to get off the beaten path and work on a new bad a$$ skill - mountaineering! Be sure to read the Daily Breakdown to make sure you are mentally and physically prepared to take on this epic challenge. NOTE: We do require everyone who joins this adventure to have high altitude summit experience like Kilimanjaro.

We rated our Cotopaxi 3 Summit Challenge a 5 out of 5 on the WHOA Adventure difficulty scale because all three summits on this trip are high altitude treks. The final summit requires mountaineering skills, and wearing mountaineering gear (including crampons, a helmet, and an ice-axe) for the entire trek.

This is a high altitude adventure, and the conditions and elements, especially the higher we climb, are extreme, unpredictable and out of your and our control - that’s part of its beauty! Don’t underestimate the effect that altitude plays on your body either. At elevations over 914 m, your VO2 max decreases about 2.6 percent for every 305 m. What does a VO2 max decrease mean, you ask? It means sluggishness, loss of appetite, fatigue, and the inability to exert the same amount of energy that you could at lower elevations. Altitude sickness is also a real possibility - and is a big part of what makes mountaineering on Cotopaxi so challenging. Bottom line, be ready to embrace what mother nature throws our way, and put on another layer and dance when it gets cold. Always remember the one thing that we can all control is our attitude!

We’re not going to sugar coat it, Cotopaxi is no joke! This is a team expedition and requires that everyone brings their A-game and pulls their own weight, so stay active and start breaking in your hiking and mountaineering boots ASAP. Work on your endurance as well as your lower body strength and hike at high altitudes whenever you get the chance. There are no absolutes in adventuring, except this one: the better trained you are, the more enjoyable your experience will be!

If hiking at altitude, in all sorts of weather, and perhaps losing a toenail on the descent sounds like your idea of a good time - you’re in the right place! This is a perfect adventure if you’re looking to disconnect from your creature comforts, and connect with a team of awesome adventurous women over an epic challenge!

Here at WHOA, we're in the adventure business, but above all, we're in the human business. It's our adventure family around the world that sets our trips apart. In Ecuador, the person behind the magic is Fátima.

Fátima has spent more of her life in the mountains than out of them. She started climbing at 11, and by 2022 she'd become one of only three women in Ecuador to hold ASEGUIM guide certification, a credential she's now building on with her international UIAGM/IFMGA certification. She's guided across Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and the Alps, and this season she's headed back up Cotopaxi to lead another WHOA group in 2028.

Ask anyone who's climbed with Fátima what they remember most, and it's rarely the summit. It's her: the stories she tells at camp, the way she makes room for whatever question you're too embarrassed to ask, the way she notices exactly when someone needs a minute or a push. Cotopaxi is the destination. Fatima is the reason the trip stays with people long after they've come back down.

She credits her family, and fellow guide Juliana Garcia, Ecuador's first female guide, for backing her dream early and showing her it was possible. Ask Fátima what still pulls her to the mountains after all these years and she'll tell you it's the peacefulness, the silence. Ask what's in her pack on summit day and she'll tell you chocolate and gummies, she's a sweet tooth through and through.

One thing is certain: the best way to climb Cotopaxi is with Fátima and her team by your side, and we’re so thrilled to have her on our team! Read More >

Julie is your GAL (Group Adventure Leader) in Ecuador, your hype squad, problem solver, and biggest believer, working hand in hand with local partners to keep the adventure running smoothly even when plans change. Because in adventure, they always do, and Julie's there to make sure you thrive anyway.

She fell for Ecuador during a second Peace Corps term in its "volcano alley," running an after-school program built around healthy habits and creative arts, and she's been back many times since. Her host family connected her to a knitting cooperative and a women's soccer team, where she earned the nickname Gringaso for towering over everyone else on the field.

Julie climbed Cotopaxi in 2011 but turned back before the summit when the weather closed in, and she's been waiting for another shot ever since. She's still building her technical mountaineering skills, but altitude is nothing new to her: 14ers in Colorado, Kilimanjaro twice, and Peru's Volcán Misti at 19,101 feet.