I failed to climb Cotopaxi -- I got to about 5,400m.  I could have gone a little further, but doubted I&#x27;d make it to the top at the time, and I don&#x27;t think I was wrong.<p>It probably didn&#x27;t help that the refuge was being rebuilt, so we had to sleep at 3,500m and start the climb from the car park below the refuge, which added on 500m to the climb. But more realistically, I live at ~20m and had only spent about 5 days in Ecuador before trying the climb.<p>Do you think 50% of people successfully climbing is true?  From asking people before and since, I think it&#x27;s more like 5-10%.