Mountaineering in the Patagonian Andes Talk

Speaker
Mar 13, 2026: 11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Leyburn Library Northern Auditorium

Mountaineering in the Patagonian Andes: Risking Death & Memento Mori Figures
Talk by Dr. Marcos Mendoza, author of "The Patagonian Sublime"
This talk explores the history of mountaineering in the Patagonian Andes through the lens of fatality narratives. It shows how mountaineering publics have created memento mori figures to situate the cultural meanings of death. Memento mori figures provide explanatory frameworks for why certain deaths occurred, highlight the conduct of the fallen and how they embodied (or not) the core values of the sport, and provide authoritative warnings about what went wrong. In recent decades, climate change has destabilized Andean environments. This has prompted climbers to reconsider fatalities and how they might adapt to these new conditions.