Aconcagua: The Invention of Mountaineering on America’s Highest Peak

Conclusion: Final Debriefs

221 Conclusion Final Debriefs Aconcagua as Global La identitidad se define y redefine . . . en interacción con otras sociedades , . . . conviene . . . tener en cuenta cómo nos ven otros y cómo asimilamos nosotros esos modos de mirarnos. (Identity is defined and redefined . . . in interaction with other societies, . . . it’s advisable . . . to keep in mind how others see us and how we assimilate those ways of seeing.) —garcía canclini (2000, 85) The globalization of Aconcagua has evolved out of the growth of the adventure tourism market, the commodification of adventure, and the influential nature of North America therein, all of which condition the way mountaineering is experienced and how cultures interact on the mountain . Mendocino presence and control of mountaineering practices counter the homogenizing impulse of the United States, at the same time that they resist national urges to define Aconcagua as Argentine in the traditional way that ignores its provincial identity. The globalizing confluence of capital, interests, radical improvements in gear, and a higher profile for mountain climbing would promote Aconcagua but also pose challenges for Mendoza. While Mendoza mountaineering benefited from the currents of globalization , the globalizing forces of neoliberal economics and transnational financial workings debilitated the Argentine economy at the turn 222 • Conclusion of the millennium. However, Mendoza was already positioned to fill the vacuum that the empty coffers of the national government left, in terms of its regional economy, by focusing ever more on the promotion of international tourism vis-à-vis the devaluation of the peso. Aconcagua mountaineering was already a major drawing card, and the province was able to capitalize on its recognition quotient. Although Aconcagua tourism plays a modest part in Mendoza’s overall tourism industry, the celebrated peak is the province’s best-known international attraction. Its role in provincial tourism became even more significant when at the turn of the millennium the Mendocino government decided to allow the Dirección de Recursos Naturales y Renovables to keep Aconcagua revenues to administer all the province’s natural reserves. This move not only gave more administrative freedom to the Dirección, but it also assured monies for the natural reserves that were not tied to national or regional support but that instead were contingent on international economies and tourist markets. In a sense, following the tendencies of Menem’s Argentina of the 1990s, Mendoza essentially privatized its Dirección to sink or swim in the waters of international tourism and free market capitalism. Aconcagua tourism, as a product of globalization in this sense, reflects Mendoza’s increased dependence on direct connections with transnational financial situations and systems that are not filtered by or dependent on nationally driven directives or fully controlled by regional governing bodies. While generally regarded in Mendoza as beneficial, reliance on Aconcagua ’s international tourism dollars to support the Dirección’s budget has also been seen as prejudicial for the well-being of the park. Some Mendocino critics have complained that the park is driven to issue more entrance permits than its ecosystems and infrastructure can manage due to the Direcci ón’s budgetary needs. The pressure to expand the Dirección’s budget is also seen as the cause for allowing encroachment into areas of the park that are those wild and distant zones most marketable in adventure tourism markets but that have been designated by Mendoza as off-limits to tourism or mountaineering. In other words, using Aconcagua mountaineering as an example, we see that global capitalism not only fractures national-regional connections but it also undercuts local public control of its resources. This conflict between needs for increased revenue and desires to ensure ecological preservation was highlighted again in late 2006 when plans were announced for a new tourist center to be built adjacent to Highway 7, the international highway to Chile, at the entrance to Aconcagua Provincial Park, and to pave the road that leads to the Horcones ranger station. This Final Debriefs • 223 tourist center with its entrance fees and improved access into the park were explained to me by various park officials as an effort to capture more tourist bodies and monies with the least amount of ecological repercussions. This plan was not meant as a measure for bettering or increasing mountaineering numbers, but rather as a way to attract national and international travelers who might stop for an hour, on their way to or from Chile, to visit the Horcones lagoon...