Climb up, work out: Athletes ascend volcano to take record for highest altitude push ups

The rugged peak of the Pico de Orizaba volcano is covered in snow, and towers over the surrounding landscape as the tallest mountain in Mexico. Yet for four determined athletes, their goal wasn’t just to reach the summit… they wanted to climb to the top for a workout. 

On 4 July this year, this group – led by Cold Club Global Corp (USA) – spent five hours ascending from base camp in the thin, frigid air to take the Guinness World Records title for the highest altitude synchronized push-ups with dumbbells (team).

Each coming from different countries, they were united in their mission to take fitness to new extremes – with André Belibi Eloumou (France), Robert Glover (UK), and Evie and Matt Soule (both USA) claiming the record after climbing a total of 16,637.13 ft (5,071 m) above sea level.

Cold Club Global is a wellness company, focused on stress management through personalized adaptive protocols like heat and cold training. They want their members to build resilience and maintain long-term wellbeing, so they offer retreats that allow participants to test themselves in extreme real-world scenarios – such as climbing mountains, doing freezing lake jumps in Alaska, or exploring the countryside.

Record-breaking was a natural extension of the organization's mission, leading the team to undertake this challenge as a demonstration of what they believe can be achieved through dedicated training, preparation, and mental resilience.

In fact, this is already the second Guinness World Records title for the participant André, who claimed his first in 2024 for the longest duration full body contact with ice (male) with a time of 4 hr 5 min. 

That record has since been broken by Wojciech Pruński (Poland), with his time of 5 hr 8 min 2 sec, but André got bit by the record-breaking bug during that first attempt and was determined to claim another title. 

Read more stories about record-breaking athletes in our dedicated Sports and Fitness section!

For this mission, the four team members were diverse in age (18-54 years old), as well as background and gender – yet they ascended the mountain as one, acclimatizing together to the differences in altitude and temperature.

Finally, they reached basecamp. And just past midnight on 4 July, they made their last trek upwards to the summit, spending the next five hours navigating the volcanic terrain and freezing temperatures in the pitch dark. 

Once they reached the top, the four team members then successfully completed more than 20 synchronized push-ups with dumbbells, each lasting for the minimum time frame of one minute. 

Footage shown to Guinness World Records Adjudicator Joanne Brent demonstrated their coordination and proper push up form – despite the exhausting effects of the fatigue and altitude – and she said she was proud to award them with the record.

“It was evident that considerable preparation went into both the attempt and the organization of the trek itself,” she said.

So congratulations to these high-altitude high-achievers – you are Officially Amazing!