My mother is from Ecuador and my father is from Switzerland. So I grew up in Ecuador until I was fifteen years old and then moved to Switzerland to live for ten years. Initially I hiked mountains with my father who was also a mountain guide. I went with him often to help tourists with cooking and logistics. When I was fifteen years old I started playing soccer. I almost professionalized in this sport but I got injured and had to stop playing.

I am currently a professional mountain guide and I own my mountain tour operator in Ecuador and also organize expeditions to Peru, Argentina, Nepal and Kilimanjaro. In the high season I climb mountains in Ecuador regularly and guide VIP clients.. When I prepare to a train for a project such as Red Fox Elbrus Race, I take off some days off work to focus on my training.


I came to participate at the Red Fox Elbrus Race, because of my project of climbing the World?s Seven Summits in Speed. After breaking the record of ascent and descent at Kilimanjaro (Africa) and Aconcagua (Argentina) we thought that Elbrus should be the next one to try. After researching about this mountain we came up with the race and that it could be the good opportunity to try the record while participating. We came to learn about the mountain and if the conditions were possible we could try the record. Here I summited Elbrus twice, one for training and the other one during the Skymarathon. This experience taught me a lot about the mountain and the required conditions to try the record that couldn?t be possible this year because of the heavy snow on the mountain. So actually I came here to see how the mountain is and to do a good performance. Perhaps I would come next year to try once again!


So you would like to come back here to participate in Elbrus Race and make a record or you would like to come here as a mountaineering guide for some of your clients for example?
I would say both but my main focus would be the record and would be honored to be part of the race again. It is important for me to travel with my support team because they are the basis of every project. I learned that from the experience at Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua where key people were at certain strategic places to check time, equipment and also support.

I'm very happy for the result of this year and of course I want to come back to defend the first place and to try the record if the mountain allows it next year. I was honored to meet a lot of great athletes and to share the starting line at the race such as Vitaly, Shkel, Pascal Egli and Oriol Cardona.


Would you like to come for Red Fox Elbrus Race or in summer, when it's the best time for ascension?
Probably both. I'll decide next year if I come to the Race or if I go to the Lenin Race and stay longer and come here then. Depends on the conditions on the mountain and the weather forecast.


So when you choose a mountain, do you really want to study it? To learn a lot about it, its conditions and so called character?
It's a connection. A lot of people believe that it is enough to reach the summit of the mountain, but there are a lot of things that go through your head when going up fast. It is really important to know the mountain, its conditions and feel how it works, specially to ask for permission. I have learned a lot about Elbrus and believe that next time we can come more prepared for its conditions.

When I'm in front of the mountain I'm connected with it. If I feel the mountain will give me a window, I will do it and if not, I stay away. I have a lot of respect about mountaineering because I grew up with mountains and learned you have to respect them and read what they are trying to tell you.


What does mountaineering mean for you? Do you see the beauty of the nature? Or it's simply a records making?
Mountaineering means a lot to me. It is my passion, I admire and respect nature. I love the beauty of mountains, going up slow or fast, feel free and enjoy the views they give me. It is great to help clients fulfill dreams when they reach a summit, whatever the time or pace we had to go up. Every ascent is different and I enjoy them all. I try the records for myself, to find peace with the mountain and to find my limits. When I am trying a record I have to focus because you need to be concentrated and have all your senses aware. It is you versus the mountain. Lots of emotions and thoughts come while I am going up fast, but I always give some minutes at the summit to thank the mountain and to take it all in.

When I'm training for a new project, I don't guide too often because I spend my time training at my own pace. Also I like to train with my mountaineering friends who are also fast in the altitude. It helps me improve and to push myself more.

After the projects are over I go back home in Ecuador and reassume my normal life at the office and guiding. I recover while staying active by running or mountain biking and also guiding at the mountains.


When you're planning a new project, what is more important for you? The route to go, or people with whom you do that?
I believe it is both. My team is really important for me and also I study the best route and try to learn as much as possible about the best way to go before the attempt. As you know, my project is the “Seven summits” so I'll go for the highest mountain in every continent. Some of them, for example Everest, are very expensive. Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro I had the luck to do because I combined the attempt after guiding a group

On Aconcagua, for example, I was with seven people of my team because it was easy for all of them to be there. For Elbrus, I thought with Nicolas was enough because we would try the record during the race and wanted to study the mountain first so we didn?t need more people of my team to travel this far. This is why it was so important to come this year to learn about the mountain, the conditions and the best way to attempt the record. I didn?t know about the town that was so close from the start, the ski lifts and routes, refuges and the logistics so now it is clear to me. Also on a record attempt you cannot use fixed ropes. It's not fair because fixed ropes are for tourists. Yesterday at the race I didn't touch them once.

The records have to be certified by local people (in this case it would have been the race organizers and the town authorities) so it is important to start and end at the last populated spot so it can be certified.


Why is this so interesting for you to become the fastest?
The main reason is that I want to challenge myself. Also twenty years ago, when I was a kid, I saw these mountains in magazines and admired them. So it's a mixture of a personal challenge, getting better at what I do, reaching my limits and knowing new mountains in the World. My project is to be the fastest to go up and down all the seven summits so this is the real challenge.

On Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua I luckily was faster than Kilian Jornet, the previous record holder. So after I did these two mountains I was motivated to start this project. It's very difficult to set the new records that have been previously stated because the record holders train on these mountains and so you have to be very fast and better and there is always coming back to improve your time. If you go for example to Mount Vinson in the Antarctic, it's difficult to try a record there because there is little information on how to do it (and expensive) and nobody has done it before.


So maybe we could wait for Kilian to ascend Elbrus and then you?
No, I don't want to make it rivalry at all. We're friends and had the chance to meet him last year in Chamonix. He is a great athlete that I respect and admire. We attempted Mont Blanc in speed together. This was a message to all the people that we aren't rivals, we're friends. In this sport there are so few people who do this kind of things that we have to work together. If Kilian has the record or Vitaly has the record there's a lot of respect from me because I know the best ones have these records. And at the same time if I go to a mountain where Vitaly or Kilian have never been, I know that if I do the record they can come so I also have to do my best time.

But the competition ends where respect for the mountains starts. There's an example: if you're twenty minutes before the record but you're sick or the conditions are really bad, it's because the mountain didn?t want it to happen and that's it, you go down. I'm not putting my life at risk for the record. The mountain is there, it will never go away we can always come back. Of course sometimes you have to challenge on the record and you give it all and sometimes you pass your limits. But my limit is my life. So people ask me why I'm not with Kilian on the Everest right now and I answer is because I want to prepare more and I am not ready for it yet. I know that it's a very tough project and even if he breaks the record I want to be my best version of myself to go there because the mountain deserves a lot of respect.


How do you understand, where the boundary is?
This is the great question. There is a difference between a skyrunner and a mountain guide. The combination of both is to have a lot of respect and to want to be fast. For me the limit is all the experience that I have had with my clients. I have seen other dead people on the mountain many times so I always analyze what happened and respect the mountain. To define a limit is difficult because the limit is very different for an every single person in an every single day and every single mountain and conditions. You can be in best shape and have a bad day or you can be in very bad conditions and have a good day. So I think the limit is where you lose the respect to the mountain. Even if I'm five meters with my client before the summit and he cries and he says “I give you double as much”, it's nothing to do with that safety and life comes first always. If the mountain decides we will go down. The same is when I try the record. You can come back any day. You can think about being fast but at the same time you have to always have the logistic for going down if something happens and that family is waiting for you back home.