So it's the breathing that makes it hard

Last Saturday I summited Rucu Pinchincha, the 15,500 foot mountain that towers beside Quito. (That's about 1,000 feet higher than any mountain in the continental US.) I went with a few American friends who are serving as interns in Quito for the summer. Pichincha is high enough so that, even as it sits on the equator, it has snow on the top. The top was cold, but much worse, it was very difficult to breath. Our last 150 yards took us half an hour to ascend because we'd take about 6 steps through the steep, soft, sandy terrain and then have to stop to catch our breath. On the way back down, the same 150 yards took us less than 2 minutes. I've felt exhausted from pushing myself physically many times before, but this was a much different feeling - feeling fine throughout my body, yet not having the air to tell myself to keep going.
The top looks sort of like Mordor from Lord of the Rings with its dark, jagged, unfriendly looking rock. It was cloudy at the very top, so I hope to go up again on a clear day. From below the clouds we got a great view of Quito and the surrounding area. I never realized how big the city is.
-Pete