Las Montañas Sí Tienen Memoria

The mountains remember us, they are attentive to our thoughts and moods as we pass near and within their domains. Some of my best trips to the mountains never had any possibility of actually getting up high, much less attaining any technical summits. I have felt fortunate to climb mountains, and I have felt fortunate to see them in the distance. Such was my trip to Torres del Paine, Región de Magallanes, Chile, South America. Me acuerdo mucho de mi experiencia con el macizo de Paine. I remember the mountains for what they remind me of as much as for what I touched and felt when I was there. I hiked the W, as it seemed fitting at the time, and I did amazing day hikes into the glacial carved valleys, solo trekking with always interesting company if needed to be found in other campers and trekkers. Torres del Paine in March and April 2003, can you imagine, an austral fall paradise, a dream trip, surreal and hard rock, with the USA invasion of Iraq as the backdrop. I had been working in the field in the Aysén Region of Chile before trekking south through Argentina and into Magallanes upon finishing my contracts, finally seeing Fitzroy and Torres on my own time, free to take advantage of the gorgeous austral autumn, colder weather, shorter days, but less wind, and incredible colors. It was a culmination of many months of planning and work, and an extra bonus after having finished my masters work at the University of Montana. There are times that I just feel fortunate to cast my gaze on world class mountainscapes, and this was definitely one of those times.

I was escaping, as we always do to some degree when we go to the backcountry, but I was still tuned in, literally and figuratively. In the fall of 2002 I had repeatedly made my opposition to the possibilities of a USA war in Iraq very public and clear. I still stand by my position with greater conviction everyday. Though there would be little I could do to halt such ill conceived madness, in early 2003 from Southern South America I was going to track this historically tragic moment closely. For my travel south that year to work in Central Chile and Patagonia I kept a small, energy efficient, and effective shortwave radio in my pack at all times. I could follow the travesty of the invasion, listening from my tent to BBC and Chilean and Argentine news sources, and still confer with the mountains watching our petty human conflicts erupt with their global ramifications. The mountains remember, las Torres del Paine se acuerdan de nosotros, y valoran nuestra pasión para un mundo silvestre que conoce una paz verdadera.

Valle Francés

Valle del Silencio

 Torres del Paine

 

A note on the photos -- this series of images are digitized but it is from a time before I had a digital camera, I think I had one roll left of the bag of good slide film that I had brought all the way from Montana with me, and maybe a roll or two of cheap print film that I had picked up in Puerto Natales. I must have all of the originals stashed in a box in the attic, but these are the digitized ones that I could find on my current drive. Only a few of these are really quality images. But they are worth a great deal to me, they remind me of all that I had thought and felt during that time, my love for the mountain, and my angst regarding the premonition that the invasion of Iraq was not just violent, that it would have unforeseen repercussions that our communities would be reeling from for decades. The mountains help us see the truth, and they see our true selves. Las montañas sí tienen memoria.