After meeting on Mount Everest, couple keep the adventure going for their wedding
When the bride and groom are a rock climber and mountaineer who met on Mount Everest, you know the wedding is going to be epic.
Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington have taken their bodies to the extreme — he's one of about 200 people to summit Mount Everest without needing oxygen, while she's the first woman to free-climb El Capitan's Golden Gate route in one day — and they didn't chill out when it came to planning their wedding. They decided to first hike to the summit of Cotopaxi, a 19,347-foot volcano in Ecuador, then ski down it, before getting married on the beach in Ayampe.
"Our life is very much built around love and commitment in a traditional relationship way, but then also adventure and how to support each other in adventure and how to make sure we always have big adventures together," Ballinger told ABC News.
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The pair expected maybe around 12 people would join them for their wedding hike in December, but 42 friends and relatives participated. Although many of their pals are also extreme athletes, some said Cotopaxi was the highest mountain they'd ever hiked, and after spending nine days together climbing in difficult weather, "we were bonded," Ballinger said. After their trek, marriage will be a breeze.
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