Lebanese woman climbs summit closest to the sun

Lebanese mountaineer, explorer, and life coach Youmna Maalouf has climbed Chimborazo, a mountain peak located in central Ecuador, in the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes.   

Rising to 6,263 meters above sea level, it is one of the highest peaks in Ecuador. As an inactive volcano, it is very glaciated, as from about 4,700 meters, the mountain is capped with snow.  

Youmna went on this venture to be the closest to her father, who died when she was nineteen, as Chimborazo is the point closest to the sun on earth.  

The Lebanese mountaineer expressed via her Instagram page that the journey took her 15 “difficult” hours and lasted from 10 pm until 1 pm the second day.  

Youmna, a 32-year-old Lebanese woman from Rayak, Zahle district, has been practicing mountaineering for around two years. Based on Annahar newspaper, she was introduced to this hobby after marriage and moving to Ecuador with her husband.   

She said that she felt she belonged to the mountains the first time she stepped on a mountain.