Mexican climbers, one of them blind, conquer North American’s highest peak

Two Mexican climbers tackling the Seven Summits challenge have left the highest peak in North America in their wake, despite one of them being blind.

The feat has made Omar Álvarez and Rafa Jaime Jaramillo the first Latin American rope team with a blind member to tame Alaska’s 6,190-meter Denali, also known as Mount McKinley.

The Seven Summits challenge involves climbing the highest mountains on each of the world’s seven continents. The 19-day expedition on Denali in low temperatures ended two days ahead of schedule, on June 29. The pair had already conquered 6,961-meter Aconcagua in Argentina in January last year making Denali the second peak of seven.

Both climbers have a story to tell. Álvarez took up climbing to fulfill his father’s dying wish to have his ashes scattered on Mexico’s highest peak: Citlaltépetl, or Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano on the Veracruz-Puebla border. Meanwhile, Jaramillo has been blind since he was 18.

The next summit on the list is 5,891-meter Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa, which the pair plan to tackle later this year, they confirmed to Milenio. Then the highest mountain in the world, 8,849-meter Mount Everest, awaits.

With reports from Milenio

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
fire at warehouse in Zacatecas

Government blames protesting bean farmers for fire that destroyed welfare food supply in Zacatecas

0
The Zacatecas farmers are convinced that state officials and non-productive middlemen are filling the increased purchase quotas that are supposed to benefit the people who grow the beans.
President Sheinbaum gestures from the podium of her morning press conference

Sheinbaum blames state officials as new evidence shows CIA joined multiple security operations in Chihuahua this year

4
Under pressure over likely CIA involvement in multiple Chihuahua security operations, Sheinbaum placed blame on state officials while seeking to avoid a conflict with the U.S.
Fuel cannisters next to a Pemex gas station pump

Mexico’s security forces dismantle a major fuel theft network

1
The joint operation, months in the making, appears to have been a rousing success, not only terminating a huge criminal enterprise but also arresting its cartel-connected capo, Mauricio Gamboa, aka “El Burras.”
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity