Pole dancing champion scales Chilean volcano to stage record-breaking performance
What do high altitudes, intense hikes, freezing temperatures, and pole dancing have in common?
The answer is three-time World Pole Sports Champion Fiona Caffin (Australia), who put her skills to the ultimate test when she performed the highest altitude pole dance.
With the help of her two guides Christian and Max, the dancer carried her equipment up Sairecabur volcano in Chile, where she staged a pole dance routine at an altitude of 5,834 m (19,140 ft).
What's particularly impressive is that Fiona, now 57, only started pole dancing later in life as a hobby. She said: “I only started when I was 51, looking for a form of exercise I might enjoy! Unfit, overweight and hadn't done any dancing or gymnastics since my childhood. I saw a four-week Groupon and thought 'how bad could it be...'”
These fun classes then went on to become her passion where she found community, confidence, and self-expression.
She told us: “I love to move to music, express what it evokes in me. I love pole as it combines dance with strength - it's given me physical strength and the motivation to weight train, friends in an amazing world-wide community, I've poled in many countries, dropped into classes in other languages - pole is a common language. It also helped me develop body confidence and acceptance at a difficult time in my life.”
Fiona with her guides Christian and Max
Discovering her love of pole dancing, Fiona began to compete in the World Pole & Aerial Championships. Also motivated by a Guinness World Records title, she knew she wanted to do more to show off her sport.
She said: “I had oh'd and ah’d over the Guinness World Records book when I was a kid and dreamed of being in it. About five years ago I wrote a bucket list. ‘Hold a world record’ was item 63.”
Fiona’s plans have actually been a pretty long time in the making. She confessed: “One day in August 2023, I was wondering what records there were for pole dancing. It was listed, but not with a record.
“I was heading to Nepal in February 2024 to trek up Mera Peak. The two thoughts just jumped together… I put together a plan but, in the end, couldn’t get the logistics together for that trip.”
Read about more record-breaking physical feats in our Sports and Fitness section.
Although her original plan did not work out, Fiona did not give up on her dreams and often found herself looking at other potential summits.
She said: “I discovered there were high volcanoes in Chile, not far from Buenos Aires where I was hoping to go to compete in my third World Championships. And so, the attempt was planned.”
On the day of her attempt, even with training, Fiona said it was a big challenge.
She said: “[The volcano] was already above 5,500 m and the air was thin and it was cold. At that altitude it's best to walk very slowly - unless you are fully acclimatized. I had spent the week acclimatising gradually to higher and higher altitudes, but it was still very hard going.
“Taking steps barely longer than my foot, I was focused on taking 10 steps before allowing myself to stop and take four deep and slow breaths. I was wondering if I could make it up, let alone dance, and meanwhile Max and Christian simply charged on!”
Motivated by the sadness she would feel if she had to turn around, Fiona pushed through. Finally making it to the top of the summit, guides Christian and Max set up her pole, which she had to specially source as it needed to be sturdy enough for her to dance on, but also light enough to carry up the volcano.
She said of her performance: “All was good for the first 20 to 30 seconds, but then my hands had dried out again from the low humidity and on my first inversion I slipped very badly and was lucky to not hit my head on the ground. I held on and continued, fighting the cold and the constant lack of hand grip, until I had performed all the moves I had planned that I thought safe to do.”
Since she had to compete with such a harsh climate, Fiona admits she was disappointed in her performance. She said: “I had a vision of feeling - and looking - elegant, graceful, and performing the routine to the music I had put my heart into - to express that dreams can come true, it's never too late.
“But the cold, the wind and the extreme dryness put paid to that. On the day, I was so cold, gripping for dear life! I kind of felt I hadn't 'done it'.”
Despite the gruelling conditions, Fiona says she took a moment to take in the beautiful view she was lucky enough to experience. She said: “The view up that high is amazing. Looking across the salt lake in Bolivia you realize how small our 'normal world' is. But really, all the views and the whole experience in San Pedro de Atacama was amazing! Such enormous sky, such long horizons - I was told you see for hundreds of kilometres.”
If there is one thing to learn from Fiona, it’s to dream big.