We aim to have our first expedition as the Mountain Women of the World network in the Mount Aconcagua (6962m) in Mendoza, Argentina, one of the Seven Summits and the highest mountain in America. We are mountain women from Chile, Argentina, Italia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal, and Bolivia. The expedition will consist, first, of a trek to Plaza de Mulas and, second, of the opportunity for a smaller group to continue to the Aconcagua summit through the normal route.
Our goal is to build a Mountain Women's Collective that showcases how mountaineering can strengthen economic justice for mountain women. Moreover, we want to foreground the collective knowledge and experiences that mountain women create and use to protect mountains, nature, and society. It is our dream to bring together women mountain workers on Aconcagua, as a means of cultural exchange, empowerment and a platform for visibility of 1) cultural diversity, 2) the challenges of being women in their places of origin, and 3) the environmental impact on our mountains. It will be a platform for learning exchanges.
We believe that mountaineering is a collaborative experience that builds collective power and solidarity. Through this expedition, we want to encourage more women to become involved with mountains, promoting mountaineering as a tool for collective care, to build humility, resilience, connection, empathy, and reciprocity.
This expedition will allow us to gather mountain women, such as women guides, porters, mountain workers, and hikers from different backgrounds and countries, including women who are working in heavily patriarchal environments where men generally carry out these activities. We want to emphasize the importance of working together, of supporting and collaborating among different formal and non-formal collectives. Together, we are undoubtedly stronger. We are an instrument to create real changes in the mountain communities where we work.
Climate justice and gender justice are deeply interconnected and we can't have one without the other. Mountain women from all over the world are collectively leading this awareness by raising campaigns with the expedition. Not only are our water sources, including our glaciers, aquifers, rivers, streams, and high-mountain wetlands (vegas or bofedales) being impacted negatively, but also the entire ecosystem that makes up mountainous regions, such as flora, fauna, and human livelihoods and culture.
Mountains do not exist in isolation, but rather within social and environmental networks of human and non human relations, including history.
Together, we propose making the entirety of these impacts visible, creating awareness and working to generate change from an international platform. Given the global scale of climate change, what occurs in a place like Aconcagua is certainly similar to what is occurring in other mountainous area across the world. We intend to shed light on these local impacts by connecting our international experiences through an expedition to Aconcagua, creating a platform to speak about similarities and differences regarding issues arising from climate change. Moreover, this international platform will visibilize the current climate change impacts in Aconcagua.
As the Mountain Women of the World network, we carried out our first expedition to Mount Aconcagua (6962m) in Mendoza, Argentina, one of the Seven Summits and the highest mountain in the Americas. The expedition to the summit of Aconcagua will be by the normal route.
It was our dream to bring together 15 women mountain workers on Aconcagua, as a means of cultural exchange, empowerment and an international platform to make visible 1) the cultural diversity. 2) the challenges of these women in their territories, 3) the environmental impact in the mountains. It was a dream to be able to integrate them to this expedition and give them this opportunity.
For this purpose, we brought Muna Gurung, a trekking/mountain guide from Pokhara, Nepal. She is a mountain worker and comes from very vulnerable contexts. We mobilized resources so that 3 guides (2 of them cholitas) from Bolivia could come. Two girls from Chile, 2 guides from Italy and 2 Argentinean girls from Salta, northern Argentina, one of them is a shepherdess (Karen) and lives at an altitude of more than 4000 meters at the base of a mountain of more than 5500 meters. Unfortunately, we were not able to raise the resources to bring Ekeney Njua, a guide from Tanzania.
This was a self-managed expedition. The Dirección de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Provincia helped us with the permits to enter the Park. Promoción Turística of the province supported us with local transportation and hotel. Aconcagua Vision, company B of Aconcagua, supported us with the subsidy of part of the services in the mountain. LATAM helped us with the flights for the 3 girls from Bolivia. Zafran and Sabor de Reyes provided us with food for the march and days at altitude. Mountain Partnership of FAO supported us with visibility platforms. "We want to emphasize the importance of working together, of supporting and collaborating between different formal and non-formal collectives. Together, without a doubt, we are stronger. We are an instrument to generate real changes in the mountain communities where we work."
As Alessandra Segantin rightly shared "9 of them managed to carry their fears, their memories, their skirts, their children, their mothers, their ambitions and their butts to the top of the mountain, realizing the dream of all 15 of them".
THANK YOU to each one of these immense WOMEN who accepted the challenge of being part of this project and made every step possible.
Thanks for the complicity, the laughter, the tears, the feelings and the shared talks.
The challenges that each of these women carry in their territories continue, but with the difference that we know that we have each other, that we will be there, that we are already a network.
We have the responsibility to make visible each of these women and what each one of them felt and experienced in this expedition.
Together we made history. Together we transformed each other.