KINGSTON — In a downtown building in Seattle Tuesday, Ian Patrick adjusted his hiking pack as he prepared for his ascension up 42 flights of stairs. With 20 pounds of weight inside the pack, Patrick, 45, began to climb, imagining the challenge that awaits him outside the country of Ecuador.

Although a trip to Ecuador is an academic year away, the volcanoes that Patrick will face require steady training — training he began Tuesday afternoon after leaving the Kingston High School library.

The Kingston High librarian decided after summiting Mount Rainier for a second time at the end of the summer he’d continue to pursue mountain climbing, he said.

“I really like nature, which drew me into climbing in the first place,” Patrick said. “But of course I like reading too, so certain authors inspired me.”

Patrick read books such as “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer before he began climbing, which sparked his interest, he said.

As he grew up, Patrick went through the Boy Scouts program. Now, as an Eagle Scout, he just deposited money for a trip to South America where he plans to summit two volcanoes in June in the Andes mountain range: Cotopaxi and Cayambe.

Both volcanoes are larger than 14,411 foot Mount Rainier and will require much more training than a Rainier summit, he said.

Cayambe is a little less than 19,000 feet in elevation and Cotopaxi rises more than 19,000 feet in elevation.

For his second summit, which Patrick climbed with his wife, Shea, and friends, he said he probably trained more than he needed to. In the first trip, however, only half of the group made it to the summit, prompting him to overtrain for the second climb.

The Rainier summit took two days and included a stay at the Muir camp, which about 90 percent of the hiking routes up the mountain pass through.

Although Patrick was well prepared, librarian technician Julie Kass said she was worried about him while he was gone, she said.

“His expertise in the library is unmatched and people continually look for his advice and leadership,” she said. “We don’t want anything to happen to him.

As a librarian, Patrick tries to transform the use of a library from book storage to a tool that can be used as another teaching method, Kass said.

Kass that said Patrick is one of the most dedicated employees she has seen.

“He’s a guru,” she said.

While climbing mountains such as K2 and Everest are out of the picture because he got into climbing too late in his life, he said. But Patrick will continue to seek new thrills. Thrills which include surfing, an activity he just started last year.

“I’ll continue to go on adventures for as long as I can,” Patrick said.