Extreme: First Paragraphs
It all started with a dream… Marcos Cayuso, Carlos Caldera, Carlos Castillo, Marcus Tobia and Martin Echevarria dare to face the adventure of their lives. They form “Proyecto Cumbre”, a group of five Venezuelans that share the passion and love for adventure. From the highest places on Earth to the most frigid ones, they have conquered them all.
This dream they all shared started during their school expeditions to the Avila. Each one of them dreamed about climbing the Himalayas and standing in the very top of the world. They fell in love instantly with the mountain, they had just climbed Avila and already felt the same love and passion that moved them to conquer the most challenging places of the planet. As they grew up, they began looking for more challenging mountains. They started by climbing the highest mountains of our country: Bolivar, Humboldt, La Concha, Bonpland and Toro. Then, they went down looking for other mountains to climb in South America. They bought a 4x4 vehicle and headed down the Andes through Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina; without any planification, just climbing whatever mountain they thought was worth of a try.
In 1991 the group was officially formed. The fist important mountain they climbed as Proyecto Cumbre was Mount Aconcagua (6.962 m), located in Argentina. Aconcagua is the highest mountain of the whole continent and forms part of the Seven Summits, the seven tallest mountains of every continent. By climbing this mountain they started their first challenge: climbing the Seven Summits. So, they began this amazing adventure of climbing the tallest mountain of every continent, including Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.
By 2000 they had accomplished two of the seven mountains. The group decided it was time for something new, they decided to climb Mount Everest. With 8.850 m, Mount Everest is the tallest, the most dangerous, and the most challenging mountain on Earth. The ascent was planned for 2001, so a year earlier they began their training. They began climbing from Pico Naiguata to Pico Bolivar. A whole year of hard work finally paid off. By May 2001 they headed off to Nepal to finally accomplish their dream. By that time the team was conformed by six climbers. Jose Antonio Delgado was one of them and was taking part of the Everest Expedition. In May 23, 2001 at 10:31, Jose Antonio and Marcus reach the summit. They were the only ones of the team who were able to ascent due to weather and health issues. Those two men were the first Venezuelans to reach Mount Everest. The dream that they had since they began climbing mountains was made true. They had put a lot of sweat and tears to reach this outstanding goal.
