26 Jan 2021 / 20:56 H.
By Matt Maynard
SANTIAGO, Jan 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - There were two reasons mountain guide Viviana Callahan and her climbing partner Felipe Cancino made the first ever ascent of Cerro El Barco, a 4,500m mountain flanked by glaciers in the central Chilean Andes.
The first was her mountaineering experience, which has seen her make the first recorded human footprints on multiple snowy peaks in the country s southern ice fields.
And the second was the citizen-led Queremos Parque (We Want a Park) campaign to turn this pristine wilderness 60km (35 miles) from Santiago into a massive national park, providing protected green space for residents of the overcrowded capital.