A new PBS and Firelight Media film from Jackson filmmakers explores adventure, climate change and who belongs on the tops of mountains. It opens with shots of pro athletes and stars Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada and Junior Rodriguez on a first ski descent of Nevado del Huila, the tallest volcano in Colombia. That expedition spurred an unexpected social media firestorm and serves as the backdrop for questions of belonging and ethics in the outdoors.
KHOL’s Sophia Boyd-Fliegel spoke about what came next with Chavarriaga Posada and her nonprofit partner Camina Conmigo’s Julie Gonzalez and Miriam Morillon.
Camina Conmigo hosts a free screening of “Internal Peaks” on May 16 starting at 6 p.m. at the Teton County Library.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. – Eds.
Sophia Boyd-Fliegel: Vanessa, set the scene for us. Describe to someone here why accessing that peak is different from, say, going up one of the Tetons.
Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada: I am from Colombia and I’m a ski mountaineer and have been seeing people go to these “exotic places” and bag first descents. And I had this, like, righteous anger about it because I didn’t like how other people were coming in and extracting from countries like mine. So I decided, ‘Why can’t I do it? It’s my country.’
The expedition itself took like five years to create. I had to go to the place several times to ask for permission from the Indigenous community. I had to make relationships with the land and the place and the people. The actual logistics, it was like three days of hiking up mud that was sometimes thigh deep to get up to the páramo [a South American sub-alpine biome], because it’s a very, very wet ecosystem. And then after that, scope out this line that I had been envisioning from aerial photos, from my experience being there. It had never been done before. So the guides had no idea what we were doing, and there was a lot of education, a lot unknowns, but we did it. And we got a really good weather window, which is also rare because again, it rains like rivers.
SBF: I wanted to jump right into the surprise. So some of the videos of you and Junior skiing the volcano go viral, but not in a good way. Talk about what you started reflecting on, newly, with these messages.
VCP: Summiting the mountain was this feeling that I can’t even put into words, of reclamation of my identity, of my lands. And then once we posted it on the internet, there was a lot of backlash, specifically from the Latino community, about whether or not this should be done.
Skiing [on volcanoes that are federal land] is actually illegal in Colombia. But this volcano is technically Indigenous land. There was a little bit of a loophole, some would call it, where we obtained permission. Folks were like, ‘Why are you doing this in Colombia? This is detrimental to our glaciers, the impact you’re having is bad.’ Some people thought we were building a ski resort up there because they didn’t know what backcountry skiing was. But it was really hard to receive all of that backlash from my own people knowing that I did it for them.
I started questioning myself, like, ‘Did I do the right thing or did I become the colonizer in this space by wanting to do this thing that I’ve seen so many white men do before me?’ And that’s a question that I am still grappling with. And it’s part of the reason why we made this film.
SBF: After exploring your own ambivalences with a majority white sport, I would say the biggest part of the film is sharing backcountry skiing with people who might be experiencing it for the first time, including a group trip backcountry skiing up Snow King here in Jackson. Miriam, with so many barriers to entry, do you feel like days like this are just a drop in the bucket or are they really making a difference?
Miriam Morillon: I think I see changes especially because nobody was talking about these opportunities before. And right now a lot of people see what we are doing and then also people who never before were doing anything like what we did at Snow King. It was a surprise how [many] participants signed up.
SBF: I see you getting emotional.
MM: When I saw the pictures on their social media about doing those [things] on their own, it is amazing.
Julie Gonzalez: Can I add just a little here, having been there that day. I’ve been in Jackson about five years now and learned to ski as an adult and started in the resorts and the thought of backcountry skiing was, still is, really intimidating and daunting. There’s so much to know. Having had that opportunity to join Vanessa and Junior through this Camina Conmigo collaborative outing was a space where I felt safe to navigate a lot of that uncertainty and to then go up the mountain together. That was just a really powerful moment. There was music playing and really rich conversations and we were learning along the way, but also connecting with each other in the space. It felt like we belonged there.
SBF: Vanessa, what does it mean to you to hear Julie reflect on the experience in that way and know that she’s gone back out?
VCP: Yeah, it’s amazing. And all I feel is, I want to go with you, Julie.
JG: We need to make it happen.
Listen to more in the interview above.
