Mountain Traveler is a series about travelers in the mountains.

Sandy Patch wrote this guest post about his mountain documentary El Último Hielero (The Last Ice Merchant).  He has worked in the film industry in the United States for 10 years.

Since January 2011, he has been in Ecuador to produce three short documentaries and a photography book for his company Cotopaxi Productions.

Shooting as Baltazar breaks the ice down into uniform blocks on Ecuador’s Chimborazo.

Ecuador’s Chimborazo may not make the list of the top 100 tallest mountains in the world, but because of its proximity to the equator, the 20,700-foot high summit is the closest point on Earth to the sun.

For years, indigenous locals have made their way up this sacred mountain to harvest ice from the fossilized glacier – which they called the ice mine.

At times, 40 ice merchants worked these slopes with pick axes and pry bars. Today, there is only one remaining ice merchant: Baltazar Ushca.

Continue reading →