A group of amputee-athletes successfully summited Cotopaxi, a 19,347-foot tall, heavily glaciated stratovolcano that's also Ecuador's second highest mountain.
It's one of the most famous — and challenging — peaks in the South American climbing circuit.
The expedition is part of the Range of Motion Project (ROMP), a nonprofit organization that aims to improve the lives of amputees by outfitting those in need with the highest quality prosthetic limbs, and helping them climb some of the world's toughest peaks.
Nineteen members of the expedition, including 11 amputee athletes, made it to the summit around 6:15 on Friday morning, Lauren Panasewicz, ROMP's climbing director, told Business Insider.
The Cotopaxi expedition is seeking to raise $100,000, which will provide 100 prosthetics to those who lack access to quality healthcare.
The team is comprised of expert climbers, like Chad Jukes, a veteran, amputee, and accomplished mountaineer, and David Krupa — ROMP's executive director and an amputee mountaineer — as well as non-amputee experts and a host of local guides.
"Cotopaxi is big enough, bad enough, and intimidating enough to be a serious goal to train for," Krupa said. "But it's also reachable enough to be attainable, provided the team puts in the work."
The expedition includes amputee climbers from Ecuador, many of whom have never put on crampons or scaled big peaks before.
"This team has been a year in the making," Panasewicz told Business Insider. "It's by far the most physically and mentally strong team we've had."
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This article first appeared on businessinsider.com. The original can be read here .