Daughters scale Argentine peak, retrieve dead mountaineer dad's photos
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago, have retrieved his backpack from the spot -- finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences.
Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 while descending Argentina's Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas.
Then last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro's daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44.
In February this year, the three set out with four other guides and two filmmakers on an 11-day journey to recover the bag from an altitude of about 6,100 meters -- close to the summit of the 6,600-meter volcanic peak.
"In my family, the word 'mountain' was always forbidden. My mother wants nothing to do with the discovery of this backpack. It's a family that has been broken by grief, by the void," Azul, who was just 4 years old when her father died, told AFP.
"It all seemed crazy to me, and I didn't want to go back to the volcano where he had died. But as the months went by ... I started to loosen up, and began thinking: 'Why not?'"
Inside the backpack, the women found a jacket, a sleeping bag, a water bottle, aspirin, vitamin C tablets, a set of knives and two rolls of film that had belonged to their father.
"Spiritually, it felt like a greeting, like: 'I'm still here, I exist. You're not alone,'" Azul recounted.
Mountaineering history
The experience also allowed her to learn more about a man she never got a chance to know.
"My mother never really told us who he was. We knew he had died in the mountains and that he was a mountaineer, but not much more than that. So, it was like rediscovering his story, like saying, wait ... we have a father who had a life, a history. So it was like discovering him all over again."
Photos taken from other film found inside the same backpack by Cavallaro a year earlier, showed that Vieiro and his partner Leonardo Rabal, 20, had been the first climbers to reach the top of Tupungato from its eastern side -- the most challenging route.
"That slope has never been scaled again," Cavallaro, who lives at the foot of Tupungato in the city of the same name, told AFP.
"What they (Vieiro and Rabal) accomplished has real historical value in Argentine and international mountaineering," she added.
The bodies of Vieiro and Rabal were recovered shortly after they died.
Azul and her sister said they would donate their father's belongings in an attempt to share a "piece of Argentine mountaineering history" with others.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Voice of America
09-03-2025
- Voice of America
Daughters scale Argentine peak, retrieve dead mountaineer dad's photos
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago, have retrieved his backpack from the spot -- finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 while descending Argentina's Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Then last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro's daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. In February this year, the three set out with four other guides and two filmmakers on an 11-day journey to recover the bag from an altitude of about 6,100 meters -- close to the summit of the 6,600-meter volcanic peak. "In my family, the word 'mountain' was always forbidden. My mother wants nothing to do with the discovery of this backpack. It's a family that has been broken by grief, by the void," Azul, who was just 4 years old when her father died, told AFP. "It all seemed crazy to me, and I didn't want to go back to the volcano where he had died. But as the months went by ... I started to loosen up, and began thinking: 'Why not?'" Inside the backpack, the women found a jacket, a sleeping bag, a water bottle, aspirin, vitamin C tablets, a set of knives and two rolls of film that had belonged to their father. "Spiritually, it felt like a greeting, like: 'I'm still here, I exist. You're not alone,'" Azul recounted. Mountaineering history The experience also allowed her to learn more about a man she never got a chance to know. "My mother never really told us who he was. We knew he had died in the mountains and that he was a mountaineer, but not much more than that. So, it was like rediscovering his story, like saying, wait ... we have a father who had a life, a history. So it was like discovering him all over again." Photos taken from other film found inside the same backpack by Cavallaro a year earlier, showed that Vieiro and his partner Leonardo Rabal, 20, had been the first climbers to reach the top of Tupungato from its eastern side -- the most challenging route. "That slope has never been scaled again," Cavallaro, who lives at the foot of Tupungato in the city of the same name, told AFP. "What they (Vieiro and Rabal) accomplished has real historical value in Argentine and international mountaineering," she added. The bodies of Vieiro and Rabal were recovered shortly after they died. Azul and her sister said they would donate their father's belongings in an attempt to share a "piece of Argentine mountaineering history" with others.
Voice of America
22-02-2025
- Voice of America
Sri Lanka's first elephant orphanage marks golden jubilee
Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage marked its 50th anniversary Sunday with a feast of fruit for the 68 jumbos at the showpiece center, reputedly the world's first care home for destitute pachyderms. The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage lavished pineapples, bananas, melons and cucumbers on its residents to celebrate the anniversary of their home, which is a major tourist attraction. A few officials and tourists invited to the low-key celebration were served milk rice and traditional sweets while four generations of elephants born in captivity frolicked in the nearby Maha Oya river. "The first birth at this orphanage was in 1984, and since then there have been a total of 76," said chief curator Sanjaya Ratnayake, as the elephants returned from their daily river bath. "This has been a successful breeding program, and today we have four generations of elephants here, with the youngest 18 months old and the oldest 70 years," he told AFP. The orphanage recorded its first twin birth in August 2021 — a rarity among Asian elephants — and both calves are doing well. Two years before the orphanage was formally established as a government institution in February 1975, five orphaned elephants were cared for at a smaller facility in the southern resort town of Bentota. "Since the orphanage was set up at Pinnawala in 1975, in a coconut grove, the animals have had more space to roam, with good weather and plenty of food available in the surrounding area," Ratnayake said. The home requires 14,500 kilos of coconut and palm tree leaves, along with other foliage, to satisfy the elephants' voracious appetites. It also buys tons of fruit and milk for the younger calves, who are adored by the foreign and local visitors to the orphanage, located about 90 kilometers (56 miles) east of the capital Colombo. It is also a major revenue generator for the state, earning millions of dollars a year in entrance fees. Visitors can watch the elephants from a distance or get up close and help scrub them during bath times. Tragic toll The facility lacked running water and electricity at its inception but things improved as it gained international fame in subsequent years, said retired senior mahout K.G. Sumanabanda, 65. "I was also fortunate to be present when we had the first birth in captivity," Sumanabanda told AFP, visiting the home for the jubilee celebrations. During his career spanning over three decades as a traditional elephant keeper, he trained more than 60 other mahouts and is still consulted by temples and individuals who own domesticated elephants. Twenty years ago, Sri Lankan authorities opened another elephant home in the south of the island to care for orphaned, abandoned or injured elephants and later return them back to the wild. While Pinnawala is seen by many as a success, Sri Lanka is also facing a major human-elephant conflict in areas bordering traditional wildlife sanctuaries. Deputy Minister of Environment Anton Jayakody told AFP on Sunday that 450 elephants and 150 people were killed in clashes in 2023, continuing an alarming trend of fatalities in the human-elephant conflict. The previous year saw 433 elephants and 145 people killed. Killing or harming elephants is a criminal offence in Sri Lanka, which has an estimated 7,000 wild elephants and where jumbos are considered a national treasure, partly due to their significance in Buddhist culture. But the massacre continues as desperate farmers face the brunt of elephants raiding their crops and destroying livelihoods. The minister was confident the new government could tackle the problem by preventing elephants from crossing into villages. "We are planning to introduce multiple barriers — these may include electric fences, trenches, or other deterrents — to make it more difficult for wild elephants to stray into villages," Jayakody told AFP.
Voice of America
22-02-2025
- Voice of America
VOA Spanish: Argentina prays for Pope Francis
Following the news of Jorge Bergoglio's health, churches across the country are joining in prayer. In this video we visit the most emblematic places in his hometown. Argentine faithful share prayers and reflect on the importance of having an Argentine Pope. Click here for the full story in Spanish.
