A North American
premiere, an especially spare and meditative film that finds fascination with a
particular mountain, the Chacaltaya (bridge of ice, or cold gate in the Aymara
Indian language) that measures at 17,785 feet in Bolivia (higher than the Mt.
Everest base camp), just 20 miles from La Paz, a city with a metropolitan population
(including neighboring towns El Alto and Viacha) of over two million
people. What’s particularly unique is
that there is a road where cars can drive to 17,115 feet, a practice of many
mountaineers, where they simply have to climb the last 660 nearly vertical feet
to the summit. It’s also home to what
was once the world’s highest ski resort, as a ski lift was installed in 1939,
running with a car engine, where the ski season was from November to March each
year. We are introduced to Samuel
Mendoza, an Aymara Indian who lives with his family in El Alto, as he is the
only surviving employee of the Club Andino Boliviano, the Bolivian national ski
club that used to organize South American championships to determine the best
skiers from Argentina, Chile, or Colombia on the highest slope in the
world. Since he was a small child,
Samuel only had to look up, as he could see the top of Chacaltaya, the mountain
where his father worked, as did previous generations of his family, where it was
always covered by a crest of white snow.
Samuel and the Aymara believe in ancient mountain spirits, or
Achachillas, wise grandfathers who belong to Mother Earth and protect their
children, so they make offerings to the gods and offer prayers. Nearly every day the 52-year old Samuel walks
the four-hour, nine and a half mile hike to the top of the mountain from his
home, leaving before daybreak, working long hours at the lift, helping tourists
or anyone interested how to ski, then walking home again at night for another
four hours, as he has done for the past 30 years. But something happened in that period of
time, as the snow on the glacier completely disappeared after 2009, leaving
behind only a sandy soil. Without the
snow, the skiers are gone, as only a handful of tourists show up, or a
collective of scientists measuring the air quality.
Despite being
the lone witness to the disappearance of the glaciers, Samuel does not believe
in global warming, and prays that the snow will somehow return to the top of
the mountain. Climate experts predict
that the disappearance of the glaciers in the Andes Mountains will lead to
severe water shortages in the region that could affect as many as 80 million
people, where already Bolivia’s second largest lake has dried up and
disappeared (Bolivia's
Lake Poopó Disappears : Natural Hazards).
Since 2011 the world’s highest scientific air monitoring station was
built on Chacaltaya peak that includes a collection of research groups from France,
Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, all part of the Global Atmospheric
Watch that measures changes in atmospheric composition, monitoring of gases,
characterization of particle properties, as well as radiation and meteorology,
conditions for which the world has yet to provide any real solutions. Even as several scientists regularly visit
with Samuel, they are only a part of the mountain’s mystery. Other families have been mining the mountain
for minerals such as tin or zinc for decades, where individual families own
certain mines that as the year’s progress dig deeper and deeper into the heart
of the mountain. Interrupting the quiet
calm of the view from the top are intermittent dynamite blasts that can be
heard throughout the film. At the very
top is an old wooden house sitting precariously on edge, with windows looking
outwards in all directions, a place where Samuel can prepare a pot of mate,
offering cups to any guests that arrive, while still housing all the old ski
medals and sports memorabilia. Several
of the recent arrivals are experiencing altitude symptoms, feeling light-headed
and faint, with racing heartbeats, as the body takes some serious adjustments
to sudden changes in altitude, as there is less oxygen in the air. Many Olympic and world class athletes train
in these conditions, hoping to increase their endurance by forcing their bodies
to produce extra red blood cells, which aids in the delivery of oxygen to their
muscles.
It rarely snows
at the top of the mountain anymore, yet Samuel recalls as much as 3-feet of
snow would accumulate overnight. The
director was fortunate to be filming for the first snow in eight years, where people
had to learn how to get used to it again.
Cars and tour buses had to be pushed out of snow banks, emptying the
passengers, who then had to climb their way up the mountain. On this occasion, a bus was delivering a
group of musicians, but also another group of performing dancers, including
women in brightly decorated native costumes.
After hiking up the mountain in the snow, they performed outdoors in the
snow, as planned, creating a colorful, celebratory festivity. The mood of the mountain changes throughout
the film, engulfed in a mist of fog or snow, capturing the sunrises and sunsets
from distant horizons, or simply offering an awe-inspiring view from on high, as
the mountain provides a view of the world one rarely ever sees, becoming a
picture of meditative serenity. Samuel
sadly points out the spot where his father fell off the cliff and died,
indicating there was no safety netting or railing in those days, where
accidents were more commonplace. He also
makes a calling sound for an eagle that drops out of the sky onto a wooden
ledge at the side of the cliff, where a wild animal becomes a constant
companion. Still, it’s the image of the little
rickety house sitting atop the mountain that holds the most fascination,
sitting on a precipice, reminiscent of Chaplin in THE GOLD RUSH (1925), where
he has to run to the other side of the cabin to keep it from tipping over and
tumbling down the mountainside. The
mountain seems to defy time, standing firm for several million years, yet now
suddenly at the center of a great warming trend that could have dramatic
effects on the next generation of human life.
Yet, like Samuel, people tend to not want to believe these things will
happen, remaining resigned to the inevitable course of nature for incidents like
storms, famine, or flood, but this new possibility remains out of sight, something
most people prefer not to think about, perhaps still hoping for the best. It recalls a meditative line from a Donovan
song, “First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is,” where
something so obvious gets lost from sight, such as the view of a mountain when
you are on a journey struggling to “climb” the mountain, yet once you reach the
top, everything is clear again.
