T.RES Worldwide initiatives

By Italian Alpine Guides Valerio Bertoglio , Fabrizio Manoni, Gian Antonio Moles,  and Enrico Rosso, in collaboration with Operation Mato Grosso. Courses to instruct Andean youth to become High-Mountain Guides.

In Peru, at the foot of the most spectacular peaks of the Andes, a group of determined young men born and raised in poor rural villages of the Cordillera Blanca has successfully completed training and earned licenses to work as High Altitude Mountain Guides. As students of the Escuela de Alta Montanña “Don Bosco en los Andes” of Marcarà, they were taken in during the late 1990‘s and prepared by the Operacion Matto Grosso volunteers of this school, which was founded by Father Ugo de Censi in an effort to fight a future of poverty and marginalization.

From a technical point of view, this group has completed their training and these young guides of the Escuela are now working with many groups that follow the itineraries and climb the summits of the Cordillera Blanca.
  

Update December 2009

We are publishing the words of guide, Valerio Bertoglio with whom we have been working for several years on the Escuela de Alta Montaña "Don Bosco en los Andes" project – courses to train young men from the Andes to become High Mountain Guides - in collaboration with Operazione Mato Grosso.

"I taught them to run on the mountains and some of them have learned this art well.
They were born at an altitude of 3000 metres and when they want to, they can go fast.
They are the young guides from the Escuela Don Bosco en los Andes di Marcarà, founded by Padre Ugo de Censi, also founder of Operazione Mato Grosso.
The first group of boys began the course in 2000 and now seven of them are guides, five are aspiring guides and ten or so are porters.

Felipe Paulino, a quiet man but someone with clear ideas, began by linking three climbs together on the mountains of the Ishinca Valley: Tocllarraju (6032 m), Ishinca (5530 m), Urus (5420 m) in just under 14 hours.
Then Jaime Ramires astounded everyone on Aconcagua. His courage was rewarded with an ascent and descent from Horcones to the peak of Aconcagua in 14 hours and 59 minutes (that is 80 km and a difference in altitude of 8000 metres!).
He was accompanied on this feat by Cesar Rosales, who soon developed a taste for this activity and so it was that in 2008, a small expedition set out from Marcarà to attempt the summit of Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador, in the shortest time possible. In 2 hours and 38 minutes, Cesar made the summit and back from the Carrel refuge!

Exploration continued in 2009 in Bolivia. On 3 October, a team from the Escuela Don Bosco together with Cesar set a new speed record for the most climbed mountain in the Cordillera Real, Huayna Potosì (6088 m).
The climbers took two days to complete the ascent of Huayna Potosì. The route was approved by the Bolivian Ski and Mountaineering Federation and the Club Andino Boliviano. .
After an initial reconnaissance of the peak, the route was organised, dividing the group along the way.
On 3 October, in splendid weather conditions, Cesar Rosales set out from the Huayna Potosì Refuge (4750 m), which marks the end of the road, at 5 a.m., arriving at the bivouac (5290 m) at 5:33, and summiting at 6:42. Back at the Refuge, the stopwatch showed an overall time of 2 hours, 21 minutes and 44 seconds.
The previous record of about eight hours belonged to no less than Walter Bonatti but that was almost forty years before: now at a pit stop, they can change boots and put on crampons in under two minutes.

I am passing on the baton, fully aware that for some years, on the Alps, the idea of bringing athletics and climbing together has led to a new kind of mountain experience. Speed as a way to overcome one’s own limits, as a dimension of climbing. Not that this is all new: many great climbers have completed great ascents at speed. However, there is a time for everything, a time to run and a time to teach running. This has happened in Peru, in Argentina and in Bolivia. I am happy to see the interest of these strong, young men and their wish to try their hand at the athletic side of climbing. Talented and used to hard work, they have soon learned the need for continuity in training.

The athletic performances of the Marcarà groups on South America’s mountains is also an extension of their work as high mountain guides. They are athletes but also and above all, young men who are going to live better lives than their fathers before them."

Valerio Bertoglio
About Valerio Bertoglio
After practising track sports for years, Valerio Bertoglio started climbing. Mixing these two sporting disciplines led to his initial feats in this field, including - in 1988 – a non-stop climb of Gran Paradiso and Monte Rosa. In 1989 he consecutively climbed the four north faces of the Gran Paradiso Group in 12 hours: Gran Paradiso – North Face 46'; Ciarforon - via Chiara 40'; Becca di Monciair – North Face 31'; Denti del Broglio – North Face 1h 03'. This marked the start of a career that now numbers over 1250 alpine skiing trips, 550 rock, ice and mixed wall climbs – including more than 80 north faces, 13 new routes, 2 winter records and over 100 ice falls, most of which untied. A career crowned by some unforgettable achievements.
 

June 2008 Update

Racing towards the sun...for the Escuela of Marcarà
Cesar Rosales, 25-year-old UIAGM - Don Bosco Guide has set the record for the ascent and descent of Chimborazo (6310 m, Ecuador). This marks a first success for the Andes 2008 expedition of the Marcarà Escuela, an initiative that is part of the Operazione Mato Grosso training and support project.

Andes 2008 has got off to the best possible start; this year too, the expedition is renewing its appointment with the adventure of the Marcarà Escuela, an initiative set up as part of the Operazione Mato Grosso support project. In the last few years this project has seen some of the very young campesinos become high-altitude mountain guides with the help of Italian Alpine Guides, including Valerio Bertoglio and Enrico Rosso.

The main objective of the expedition was to set the speed record for the ascent and descent of the volcano Chimborazo which, with its height of 6310 m and location one degree south of the Equator, is not just the highest peak in the Ecuadorian Andes, it is also - due to the slight flattening at the poles – the furthest point from the centre of the Earth as well as the closest point to the Sun. So it was a race towards the Sun and back that 25-year-old UIAGM (International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations) - Don Bosco guide, Cesar Rosales completed in the record time of 2 hours 38’ 40”, reaching the Whimper Refuge - the highest on Chimborazo - to descend to the 4800 m of Carrel Refuge, where he had started out.

“Rosales’ record,” as Piedmontese Alpine Guide, Valerio Bertoglio points out, “is an even greater achievement on account of the unfavourable weather conditions.” What is more, “it is also the first officially recorded race because it was certified by the Refuge caretakers and by the group of Ecuadorian guides present.”

The day after the speed record, the other members of the expedition also reached the peak, confirming the very same team spirit that in 2006 led the Don Bosco en los Andes Guides to achieve the record for Aconcagua: Horcones – Cumbre -Horcones in 14 hours and 59 minutes.
After a long and adventurous voyage by public bus service, the expedition returned to Marcarà. The team was joined by the Biellese Guide to begin preparations for climbing a new route on the Northeast Crest of Nevado Santa Cruz (6259 m above sea level) in the Peruvian Andes.
This programme also plans to continue to measure the frontal variations of the main glaciers in the Cordillera. This activity, which began in 2001, is currently part of a research programme conducted by Valerio Bertoglio with the Earth Sciences Department of the University of Turin.

Andes 2008 Expedition members (Ecuador):
Valerio Bertoglio - Sardini Giancarlo-Cesar Rosales - Enrico Rosso - Felipe Paulino - Raul Laveriano - Joel Buiza - Oscar Sanchez - Roberth Ortiz Giovanni Belleri - Piero Borre

All of the activities and projects concerning the Marcarà Escuela de Alta Montana are part of a broader project to support the young people and the farming populations that the NGO has been continuing since the 1980s. The unpaid work of thousands of volunteers in Italy and Peru has made it possible to build laboratories, schools, farms and even a hospital at the foot of the most beautiful peaks in the Cordillera Blanca.

 

January 2008 Update
On 28th January, the Escuela di Alta Montagna di Marcarà arrives in Italy.  For over a month, two of the young Peruvian guides will be the guests of the various organisations that started and supported the dream of the School from its earliest days.
They will have a week's apprenticeship in an agency promoting tourism and mountain activities and they will also be practising ski mountaineering to better their knowledge of the techniques involved in safety and rescue.
With evening events, films, and work camps, they will be presenting the upcoming May 2008 expedition that will take them to Nevado Santa Cruz with the aim of ascending the untouched southeast crest and then on to Ecuador, in the attempt to set the speed climbing record for Chimborazo.

 

October 2007 Update
Glacier measurement in the Cordillera Blanca

After climbing Alpamayo with Enrico Rosso, Lucio Foliman, and Elias Flores and attempting Chinchay Nord, I started to measure the fronts of the main glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca.  Topographical surveys were carried out using GPS as well as glaciological observations of the Raymondi glaciers around Huascaran, Tocllaju, Palcharaju, and Chinchay.  Crossing certain points was more dangerous than climbing Alpamayo on account of the passages under ice falls and the difficulties climbing on the smooth mountain rock.  The data were sent to the glaciology unit of INRENA, which operates in Peru, and monitoring was commenced for several sample glaciers and above all for the lagoons - the great pro-glacial lakes.

The purpose of studying the evolution of the lagoons is to prevent natural disasters caused as a result of ice avalanches and landslides of rocky and moraine material onto the surface of the lakes.  Beneath the Pucajrca glacier are the two lagoons of Safuna: an upper and a lower lagoon, separated by a high moraine strip.  The waters of the lagoons are discharged by filtration, although two drainage tunnels in cement have been built for hazard mitigation purposes.  In 2002 a large landslide from the left side covered the end lobe of the glacier and spilled into a part of the upper lagoon.  The result of the event was to generate waves overtopping the 75 metres in height of the end moraine dam, fortunately without any victims among the local population.  The sudden emptying of the lagoon would cause a disaster throughout the Rio Quitaracsa valley.

Glaciers and especially tropical glaciers are excellent indicators of climate change.  They are vulnerable ecosystems as well as being a reserve of fresh water.  The reduction and loss of these reserves are worrying factors that have motivated scientific research.  In the Cordillera Blanca, 722 glaciers with a surface area of 723.37 km² were assessed in 1970.  Glacier shrinkage between 1970 and 1997 was 15.46 % and the problem is still ongoing.  In the last 30 years, the Yanamarey glacier has receded 617 metres, shrinking an average of 20.5 metres per year.

April 2007 Update

Valerio Bertoglio, alpine guide on Gran Paradiso and Enrico Rosso, alpine guide from Biella, will be setting out on 28th May for a period climbing in the Cordillera Blanca with young Peruvian guides, on a project that includes scaling a difficult mountain along a new route, in alpine style - the Nevado Santa Cruz (6259 m) by the imposing south-east crest, which has never been climbed before.


The initial group was selected according to the increasing levels of difficulty and now some of the members are international guides for high peaks.  The young people from the school have always considered this experience as an employment opportunity that will take them away from their poverty and isolation.  Therefore, those who did not pass the various levels of the course have in any case moved towards other jobs in this field, becoming excursion guides, refuge managers, cooks or arrieros (mountain cowboys).

Ferrino supports this project by providing the necessary climbing equipment.

There is still a dream that must come true however - that of crossing the Peruvian borders to conquer the other splendid summits of the Andes chain. For this reason the “PATAGONIA 2006” has been organized as a trip full of exploration, knowledge, and adventure that comprise a quintessential element for the personal and professional enrichment of these young Peruvian guides.  

This initiative will be remembered for a stunning record: the young Andean guides, leaving from Horcones, trekked the ups and downs of the Aconcagua within the provincial park bearing the same name in only 14 hours and 59 minutes instead of the standard 8 days.  

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