The mountain; A view from above
Ivonne Walls introduces us to the world of mountainous landscapes, highlighting the most essential and important characteristics of this environment, in order to raise awareness about its significance in the world, in The Mountain; A View from Above.
Mountains are not just fixtures of the landscape, they are regions that provide crucial ecosystem services for their inhabitants and surrounding lowland populations. Like practically all types of landscape, multiple anthropogenic factors, such as land-use change, climate change, overexploitation and population growth, have severely affected this type of terrain.
Its main characteristics are a rugged altitude and relief that tends to colder and rainier temperatures and more difficult living conditions. It has different types of vegetation at different heights ranging from dense forests to alpine tundra. In addition, its own morphological characteristics, with abrupt changes in altitude and shape, lead to erosion, landslides and risks such as landslides, avalanches and the appearance of cracks.
Donde despierta el horizonte / Where the horizon awakes
Fotografía / Photography: Johanna Meza Hernández
In general, access to this kind of landscape is complicated due to the ruggedness of the terrain and the poor infrastructure. It is difficult to bring light systems, wireless networks, drainage, and other services to these places. However, mountain-dwelling populations have developed specific strategies to survive in these hostile environments and to coexist with wildlife and the difficulties that this implies.
The mountain landscape is a unique ecosystem that plays a fundamental role in the environmental balance and in the life of many communities. Its importance and main points include:
Su importancia y puntos principales incluyen:
Water regulation: They are the main sources of fresh water, providing rivers and streams that supply millions of people (and even irrigated crops), through the runoff of rainfall down their slopes or the melting of their peaks when spring enters with their warmer climates.
Laguna del Inca / Inca Lagoon
Fotografía / Photography: Ricardo Medina
Biodiversity: They are home to a wide variety of flora and fauna adapted to extreme conditions, being the habitat of animal and plant species that could not live and develop in another environment.
Climate and environmental stability: They help regulate the climate, influencing rainfall patterns and temperatures, as well as serving as natural barriers against hurricanes, storms, and other phenomena.
Natural resources: They contain minerals, wood and other resources essential to the economy that, when well regulated, provide renewable resources that are fundamental to human life.
Tourism and culture: They are key destinations for ecotourism, hiking and mountaineering, in addition to having a cultural value for many indigenous and traditional communities, such as the Rarámuris or Tarahumaras in Mexico.
La fuerza del paisaje / The force of the landscape
Fotografía / Photography: Gabriela Angeles
Currently, in several countries of the world such as the United States, China, Switzerland and elsewhere, studies are being carried out in mountainous regions around the world, with the aim of providing new knowledge about socio-ecological systems and examining the transcendental role of protected areas, as well as seeking novel tools and methods, to better face the current and future challenges of these inhospitable areas, but enormously attractive landscapes. In addition, the studies emphasize the rehabilitation and conservation of the specific environmental and cultural characteristics of mountain regions.
Although mountain socio-ecological systems differ greatly from continent to continent and culture to culture, contributions from different researchers on this topic suggest that all mountain regions of the world are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures, so it is necessary to establish specific guidelines by local governments for each mountain or mountain system.
Los colores de la Mixteca Alta / The colors of the Mixteca Alta
Fotografía / Photography: Medrano Santillán Sofía
One of the main proposals advocates the diversification of ecosystems as one of the sustainable ways to strengthen their protection and conservation. Another suggestion is a better integration of local communities in decision-making by using the knowledge of local stakeholders, which consider the perception of their inhabitants.
As for our perception when we live and travel through a mountainous landscape, the experience allows us to feel that we touch the sky from its peaks, that we are approaching space, infinity. Opposite to what happens with the sea, where the sensation is of immersion in the depth and depths of the earth, the tops of the mountains launch us into space and into the light.
From its middle and upper parts, we can discover a different world, seen “from a bird’s eye view”, a landscape that can be observed from afar and that is below us. This change of scale in perception makes us live a unique experience of freedom and triumph.
Panorámica Cima del Nevado de Toluca / Panoramic Summit of Nevado de Toluca
Fotografía / Photography: Xocoyotzin Morales
Although you only walk through this type of landscape without reaching its highest point, the fact of walking the trails, listening to the birds and other beings that live there, visiting a lake or a waterfall, reaching a hermitage or a refuge, camping under the starlights is something unforgettable.
Contemplating the life that is in it, its flora and fauna, climbing its rocky walls, and enjoying the indescribable sensation of crowning its summit, are things that we like to feel about the mountain, which, as a living being, is in perpetual change and is never the same.
Contemplating the life that is in it, its flora and fauna, climbing its rocky walls, and enjoying the indescribable sensation of crowning its summit, are things that we like to feel about the mountain.
Each mountain is unique and different. Each one has its own morphology and personality; there are high and low, wide and narrow, with or without forests, arid and dry or cool and wet. There are mountains of sand, rocky or ice, some famous where thousands of people come, others are authentic wonders that are yet to be discovered, some are easy and grateful, others are difficult and motivating, some are generous and offer us a great show, while others, indomitable, show us their most bitter and terrible side.
Montañas de ensueño / Dream mountains
Fotografía / Photography: Gil CasRam
It is precisely all these factors that make them attractive and attractive, to the extent that thousands of climbers and mountaineers risk their lives continuously with the sole purpose of overcoming and enjoying this challenging landscape.
Even if we do not visit them directly, their profiles, sharply silhouetted against the horizon, are points of reference that give identity and meaning to the place they belong to. They are immovable witnesses who guide and accompany us from a distance and who often remind us of who we are and where we are.
