Tuesday, October 21, 2025

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.
Bernardo Bravo

Suspect arrested in connection with murder of Michoacán lime growers’ leader

0
Bernardo Bravo, the leader of the Apatzingán Citrus Growers Association (ACVA), had been organizing lime growers to resist an extortion gang named “Los Blancos de Troya" before he was assassinated on Monday.
A person doing grocery shopping at a market in Mexico

Mexican economy contracts 0.6% in September, capping weak Q3

0
An annual economic contraction in the third quarter of 2025 — as appears inevitable — would be the Mexican economy's first year-over-year decline for any quarter since Q1 of 2021.
A Pacific harbor seal

Pacific harbor seals vanishing from Baja California waters, study finds

0
A study led by the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE) observed a 61.2% population decline on the Baja California Peninsula from 2016 to 2022.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity