When they first started climbing the Andes peaks, they could hear the ice crunching under their crampons. These days, it is the sound of melted water running beneath their feet that they mostly listen to as they make their ascents.
Dressed in colorful, multilayered skirts, a group of 20 indigenous Bolivian women — known as the Cholita climbers — have been climbing the mountain range for the past eight years, working as tourist guides.
As the glaciers in the South American country retreat as a result of climate change, they worry about the future of their jobs.
Photo: AP
The Aymara women remember a time when practically every spot on the glaciers was covered in snow. Now there are parts with nothing but rocks.
“There used to be a white blanket and now there is only rock,” said Lidia Huayllas, one of the climbers. “The thaw is very noticeable.”
Huayllas said she has seen the snowcapped Huayna Potosi mountain, a 6,000m peak near the Bolivian city of El Alto, shrink little by little in the past two decades.
“We used to walk normally. Now, there are rocks and water overflowing,” the 57-year-old woman said, as she jumped from stone to stone to avoid getting her skirt and feet wet.
Edson Ramirez, a glaciologist from Pierre and Marie Curie University in France, said that in the past 30 years, Bolivian glaciers have lost 40 percent of their thickness due to climate change.
In the lower parts of the mountain, the ice has basically vanished, Ramirez said.
“We already lost Chacaltaya,” he said, referring to a 5,400m mountain that used to be a popular ski resort, but now has no ice left.
With no ice on the lower parts of the mountain range, the Cholita climbers need to travel further up to find it. This has reduced the number of tourists seeking their services as guides.
Huayllas would not say how much she makes as a tour guide, but she said a Cholita climber makes about US$30 per tour. That is less than the US$50 per tour they used to make.
During last year’s September-to-December climbing season, the Cholitas did 30 tours, Huayllas said.
This year, through early last month, they had barely done 16, she said.
The situation has gotten so critical, the 20 women have looked for other jobs to make ends meet. Some of the Cholitas have started making and selling blankets and coats with alpaca wool from the Andes, Huayllas said.
“If this continues, we’re going to have to work in commerce or do something else for a living,” she said.
However, she quickly dismissed her own pessimistic thought, somehow hoping for a change.
“No. This is our source of work,” she said.
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