THE JEWELS OF THE ARCTIC

It's the true ceiling of the world, strictly speaking in geo-referential terms, and part of the ultimate dream of travelers, tourists, explorers, adventurers and conservationists. On the other hand, it is also an extremely fragile and endangered territory because of the enormous difficulty in reaching it, meaning that, at such high latitudes, any potential witnesses to environmental desman are few and far between.

The last realm of the planet's geography, the Arctic , is actually even less know that its South Pole counterpart, the Antarctic continent. Unlike the latter which is a continent surrounded by oceans, the Arctic is nothing but an ocean surrounded by stretched out islands and continents. In terms of geopolitics, it is also unlike the Antarctic continent in that no country holds any sovereignty over its territory (although Argentina and Chile claim to have rights over specific parts of the Antarctic peninsula, they are not internationally recognized except, theoretically, by themselves.), the territories that reach into the Arctic Polar Circle are shared by a total of eight nations: Norway, Sweden and Finland; the Russian Federation; the United States (Alaska); Canada; Denmark (Greenland); and Iceland (whose sole territories that are actually arctic are the small islands of Grymsey and Kolbeinsey).

But what are the exact geographical limits of this great, circumpolar arctic territory? Without a doubt, the Arctic Ocean makes up the most important element of its identity: the smallest of the Earth's five Ocean (behind the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the most recently defined and established by geographical science: the so-called Austral Ocean ), 14,000,000 square kilometers and 45,389 kilometers in circumference. It is a body of salt water in part covered by the Arctic Polar Cap which massively extends across the northern limits of three continents, Europe, Asia and America , and it is situated mainly within the Arctic Polar Circle. It includes such exotic and unheard of maritime areas as the Baffin Bay; Barents, Beaufort, Chukchi, East Siberian, Greenland, Kara and Laptev Seas , as well as the so-called White Sea and the northernmost waters of the Canadian Hudson Bay. Included among the few Arctic seaports of international interest are: Churchill in Ontario , Canada ; Prudhoe Bay in Alaska , U.S.A. ; and Murmansk in Carelia , Russian Federation .

From a conservationist's perspective, exploration of the arctic world is by no means complete. International supervision of the gigantic and unknown north of the world expands the map of areas connected to the Arctic Ocean and includes the Bering Sea up to the Aleutian Islands and the Kamachatka Peninsula; the Northern half of Alaska; the northern territories of Canada up to the latitude of Bear and Slave Lakes and the entire Labrador Peninsula; The islands of Greenland and Iceland; and the mountains known as Fenoescania that make up of the northern half of the Scandinavian Alps and Lapland region. The territory of the Russian Federation alone includes the entire Kola Peninsula, the northern part of the Ural Mountains, the hydrographical basins of the Pachora and Northern Duina Rivers , the Central Siberian and the Anadir Basins , the mountains of northeast Siberia and the lower basins of the five large Siberian Rivers: Obi, Yenisei, Lena , Indigurka and Kolima.

As for the natural jewels of the Arctic , some of its most valuable territories in ecological, biologically and landscape terms are included in the best selection of the World List of Priority Natural Spaces. 62 percent are protected by and subject to already establish conservation status in connection with systematic conservation politics and international environment monitoring despite a controversial spotlight located mainly in the North Siberian territories and seas under the administration of the Russian Federation . A long list of unsustainable plans for oil-drilling, mineral mining and the military, not to mention future pressure by potential tourism are just a few of the main challenges to conserving the uniquely exceptional, unknown world of the Arctic.

Among the natural arctic jewels of North America , the world inventories are thrown out of balance by the eleven priority enclaves in the world. One of them if the National Park of Northeast Greenland, instituted in 1981 by Danish authorities on an area of over 70 million hectares where human inhabitants do not exceed roughly fifty Inuits (Eskimos). It is one of the most extensive natural spaces protected on the planet and includes spots as typically arctic as the so-called Peary Land, Morris Jesup Cape (the northernmost extreme of the island of Greenland) the Geographic Society's island, Claverind Island and the winding Scoresby Fjord. It's an arctic territory in its original condition with over 500 documented polar bears, over 10,000 musk oxen, a substantial population of arctic wolves, Atlantic walruses and various species of seals, breeding grounds for thousand of migrating scoter, numerous cetaceans and the mythical narwhal, the legendary unicorn spotted by the first travelers to make it to the Arctic Seas.

The archipelago of the Canadian Arctic makes up another one of the last undiscovered lands of the world in addition to being the second largest collection of islands on the planet after Indonesia . Of the jewels of this insular crown, the Island of Ellesmerre stand out as the northernmost Canadian territories a separated from northwest Greenland solely by the Nares Straight by as little as 20 km, with a national park established in its northern region. Here we find the 105 tallest peaks in the Arctic region, one of which, Bareau Peak , at 2,604 m in height, rests in the remote mountains of the British Empire Range . Then there is the peculiar Lake Hazen : a sort of dry desert in the middle of the frozen circumpolar regions with open waters that allow for the most northerly kayaking on the planet Earth. It is also a geothermic steam oasis with convenient heated springs. Also there are grey whales, musk oxen, caribou and the largest population of arctic wolves in the world.

As for Bylot Island and its Eclipse Cove, situated at the north of the large Baffin Island, they make up the two key spots for the survival of several millions of sea birds as well as the endangered northern right whales, concentrations of beluga whales and narwhals; and different seals and walruses, and has the greatest density of polar bears in the world during the summer. Traveling 300 km west from Bylot towards Lancaster Sound, we find another small island (satellite of the larger Somerset Island) only known by the Inuits and some biologists: Prince Leopold Island . Along its cliffs, which dominate the deserted Perry Canal from over 500 m in height, perch the greatest colonies of sea birds in the world. It is yet another intact refuge for several endangered species.

The largest protected space of the Canadian Arctic archipelago is, in any case, the Nation Park of Auyuittug (2,150,000 hectares), on the Cumberland Peninsula of Baffin Island. In the Inuit language, Auyuittuk means "the snow-covered land that never melts." It's a fantastical territory in its natural condition made up of arctic mountains and valleys and forgotten fjords and tundra. You can get to the park quite easily by plane setting out from Iqaluit (the capital of Nunavut province) heading towards Pangnitrtung where the Canadian offices in charge of the administration of conserving the vast arctic territories are located. Between the months of July and September, the best trekking route established in the Arctic sets off from here; the Akshayuk Hiking Route, 97 km in length, it crosses the park from West to East covering, in turn, Thor Peak (with its vertical granite face of 1,500 m) Overlord and Summit Lakes and the coast of the David Straight boasting at least seven strategically placed emergency refuges.

On the opposite side of the Canadian Arctic archipelago, on Banks Island, another exclusive national park, Aulavik, includes the Thomsen River Basin : here we find another intact arctic ecosystem brimming with uniquely exceptional landscapes. The best territory on the planet for musk oxen, it has over 12,000 examples in the region. As for the Thomson, it is the northernmost River navigable by kayak in the world.

However, the jewels of the Arctic also include the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska , U.S.A. whose virgin summits and mountains contain the Brooks Mountain Range which borders the distant Beufort Sea . The mountain range is home to a well-rounded variety of animal life with caribous, musk oxen, Dall sheep, polar bears and grizzly bears. There is also the Beringian Refugium (North Yukon NP) in Yukon , Canada . When the first groups of human beings reached America from Asia, they found themselves crossing the Bering Straight, a land enclave that managed to remain intact during the two great glacial periods of North America: the Illinoisan and the Wisconsin . Today it is an area of remarkable archaeological and paleontological interest which plays a key role in studying the first Americans and is the only place on the planet where all three species of North American bears can be found together: the polar bear, the grizzly bear, and the black bear. Then there are the Pingoes of Tuktoyaktuk (Reindeer Grazing Reserve) in Nunavut , Canada . Pingoes are the resulting hills of glacial erosion and this is where they are most concentrated in the world. The best climb of the region is without a doubt up to the summit of Ibuyk Hui, the best known pingo, which makes for a marvelous vantage point over the tundra of the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula in the area of the Mackenzie River Delta. We finish off this cast of North American Arctic territories arriving at the south of the Polar Circle with the group formed by the Kluane (Yukon, Canada) and Wrangell-Saint Elias (Alaska, U.S.A.) national parks where we find the largest glacial cap located outside the polar regions as well as the Highest elevated volcano in North America, St. Elias. At 5,489 m in height, it was discovered by Spanish navigators in the 18th century while searching for the Northwest Pass. Also part of this group are Denali National Park (Alaska, U.S.A.) with Mt. McKinley at 6,194 m, the tallest summit in North America; Nahinni National Park (Northwest Territories, Canada) with the best examples of river canyons in Canada and where the massive, unique North American waterfall, Virginia Falls, is located in its original condition; and Wood Buffalo National Park (Alberta-Northwest Territories, Canada) with its 15,000 bison of the so-called forest subspecies, which makes up the largest surviving herd of these animals. It is also the only breeding grounds in the world for the extremely rare whooping crane. Where the Atabasca River feeds into the Great Slave Lake , we find one of the largest inland deltas in the world.

But do we also have the highest level of arctic nature in the world here in Europe ? The search will take us first to Iceland where Skatfell National Park is home to the largest European glacier framed by similar ecological conditions to those that characterized a great part of the European continent during the last glaciations of the Quaternary Period.

Iceland has extremely important colonies of sea birds. Later stopping at the Scandinavian Peninsula , we'll look at Swedish Lapland, the most extensive wild region that remains in the continent which contains five large protected territories: the National Parks and Reserves of Padjellanta, Sarek, Stora Sjofallet, Sjaunja and Tjuolta-Vuomde. All of these make up yet another unforgettable stretch of sub-arctic glaciers and mountains, alpine plateaus, waterfalls and peat bogs with substantial populations of lynxes, bears, wolverines, elk and reindeer that take refuge in the northern birch woods. In the Kola Peninsula, the Russian Natural Reserve of Kandalakcha which is integrated into various territories scattered around the White Sea, Russian Lapland and the coasts of the Barents Sea, we are presented with several more intact tundra and taiga areas inhabited by elk and reindeer; brown bears and wolverines; seals and walruses; and large colonies of sea birds.

As for Finland , its administrative border fails to reach the edge of the Arctic Ocean by a mere 12 km. Nevertheless, the northernmost of its vast lake expanses, Inari, is without a doubt, an arctic lake of Lapland itself. Its waters flow to the Barents Sea through the Pavikelva River that marks the border between Norway and the Russian Federation up to the village of Kirkenes . Another Finnish river of the Arctic basin is the precious Tanajokki, on of whose tributaries can be found in the Kevo Natural Reserve which makes up one of the most intact landscapes of all of Lapland .

In Norway , the best arctic territories are hidden away in it northernmost islands. The Svalbard (or Spitzenbergen) archipelago is of a surprising size, the same as that of Ireland . Its capital and metropolis is Longyearbyen with 1,200 registered habitants. It has a strategic base for the most adventurous who wish to reach the national parks of Nordvewt-Spitzbergen, Sor-Spitzbergen and Prins Karl Forlandet all of which are either on or near the main island where the great abundance of polar bears complicates traveling incursions. Even further Norway has two arctic islands: the solitary and forgotten Jan Mayen (halfway to Greenland) and Bjornoya (the Bear Island , a half a nautical day from both the North Cape and the Spitzberg isles.

In the European and Russian Arctic, to the East of the White Sea, other remote, forgotten lands of great ecological value can be found in the Kanin peninsula, the islands of Kolguiev and Vaygach and the Petchora River Delta, all of which are comprised within the borders of the Autonomous Republic of the Nenetz. Some of the main breeding grounds for migratory birds that pass through southern Europe every year set up their summer home here, making it an important location for the entire continent. In addition we have the enormous double-islands of New Zembla (which separates the straight-fjord of Matochkin Shar) populated by a few small Samoyed clans, and remarkably reminiscent of the first atomic tests both above and below ground carried out by the soviets during the Cold War Period. There is evidence that the surrounding sea was used as an atomic graveyard by the Russian navy. As for the so-called Franz Josef Land , it is the northernmost archipelago of the entire Russian territory and also of any territories attached to the European continental block. Despite being 85% covered by glaciers, the total of 191 islands boasts an endemic plant life that is quite rich especially in terms of lichens and mosses which are so varied that they have earned the name of Cape Flora on Northbrook Island.

The rest of the Arctic belongs to Asia and Russia . From the Kara Sea to the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Straight, the Arctic coast of Siberia is covered in geographical accidents and extensions that still have a lot of surprises in store in terms of environmental exploration. Between the Yamal and the Gydanskiy peninsulas, the enormous Obi River feeds into the open sea. Between the Gydanskiy and the Taymir peninsulas, the majestic Yenisey River does the same, coming from distant Lake Baykal and Buriato , Mongolia . Both Rivers carry their waters into the Arctic through estuaries nearly the size of the Amazon's. In contrast, further east, the other large Siberian Rivers (with the exception of the Khatanga River) take on the form of deltas when they feed into the arctic with the extraordinary case of the Lena River in northern Yakutia, one of the final areas to be explored on the planet according to scientists. Some scientists have also asked that the entire Taymir Peninsula be declared a nature reserve for its exceptional environmental and geographical values. It is the northernmost part of continental land on the planet (in Cape Cheliuskyn) where the landscape ranges from arctic tundra and cliffs to the northern boundaries of the wooded taiga, passing through humid, marshy regions, forgotten lakes and distant river currents. 15% of migratory birds in Siberia reproduce in this area. Huge herds of wild reindeer migrate through the tundra here each spring.

In the Byrranga Mountains , the massif musk oxen dominate the landscape which they share with polar and brown bears, Siberian sheep, wolves and northern lynxes. Here is also where the last mammoths of the planet survived, prehistoric woolly elephants that came within 3.000 years of our own age. In Taymir Lake , the largest of the Asian arctic lakes, the extremely rare red-breasted geese breed. And along the Novaya River , the northernmost taiga forest regions of the world can also be found. The current Great Natural Reserve of the Arctic is without a doubt, not enough to guarantee the preservation of future generations of such a divine arctic paradise. Wrangell Island , the New Siberia Archipelago and Chukotka and Kamchatka peninsulas are also just as essential for conserving the arctic world. The last geography. The true ceiling of the world. One of the great jewel regions of planet Earth.

Juan Gabriel Pallarés

July 27th, 1989 an expedition group of six explorers set of to try to take the most difficult route across the most remote continent on the planet: Antarctica . After seven months of traveling and having covered 6,500 km, the expedition reached the other side of the continent thereby making it the first group of human beings to hike the route accompanied by dogsleds along the length of the Antarctic Peninsula during winter, crossing the isolated area of Inaccessibility.

Who were these men? They were Will Steger (U.S.A.) and Jean Louis Étienne ( France ), who had run into each other by chance in the Arctic in 1986 and who shared the same dream of making the first non-motorized crossing of the Antarctic. However, even more important to them than their adventurous spirit was their concern for the natural environment and for peace. Their expedition was to serve as an example of international cooperation, drawing the world's attention to this unexplored land and its mysterious environments.

The feat was going to be expensive, with an eleven million dollar price tag, but the greatest investment would be in human terms, since it would involve creating an appropriate team with each member of the expedition making some special contribution.

Will Steger, a professor of science in the United States , had been the leader of an expedition to the North Pole with no provisioning drop-offs in 1986. Jean Louis Étienne, a doctor specializing in athletic medicine in France , had completed the first solo-expedition to the North Pole in 1986. Victor Boyarsly was a Russian scientist, a veteran member of six Arctic and Antarctic projects whose main duty was to guide the team and supervise the various meteorological observations taken. Qin Dahe was a Chinese specialist in glaciers and meteorology who had spent two years in Antarctica working as the director of the Great Wall station, and in Casey station as a guest specialist. Geoff Somers, from Great Britain , was an expert in maneuvering and handling dogsleds who had spent three years investigating the Antarctic for Britain . Keizo Funatsu, 32 years old and Japanese, with four years experience in dog sledding, was the youngest member of the expedition.

As in other expeditions, such as ones led by Amundsen, Scott or Peary, this international effort required complicated planning, starting with obtaining sponsors, preparing logistics and route maps, contacting different governments, etc. It was about showing that six men of different nationalities and cultures could work together towards a common goal in the hardest conditions on the entire planet.

We expected our expedition to draw the world's attention to cooperation in exploring this "seventh continent." One of the most important aspects was also the fact that the Antarctic Treaty which has governed the Antarctic since 1959 was going to be revised in 1991, leaving open such important issues as scientific investigation, mining, military presence and territorial claims. The harsh yet surprisingly delicate environment of the Antarctic should be preserved in its grandiose and uniquely pure state.

Our route covered the longest diameter of the continent, 1,400 km, setting off from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, crossing through Ellsworth and the Thiel Mountains towards the South Pole. From there, it crossed the zone appropriately known as "inaccessible area" towards the coldest place on earth: the soviet scientific base Vostokk. And finally, it headed up to the Antarctic coast and the soviet scientific base Mirnyy,

Few predictions could be made about the weather and the snow despite the great technological advances since the time that Roald Amundsen reached the pole in 1911. There was a lot about the Antarctic that we wouldn't know until the very moment that we reached certain places. We also knew that the 1,400 km wide inaccessible area had never been crossed on foot and that the peninsula had never been crossed during the winter.

The Trans-Antarctic Expedition, made up of six men, three sleds and forty dogs, officially set off at daybreak on July 27th, 1989 . The first week set the pace for the following seven months of the journey. Will, Keizo and Geoff were responsible for the dogs; Jean Louis was left in charge of radio communications and as a doctor in case of emergency; Dahe busied himself with conducting concrete scientific investigations each day (he would gather snow samples for future analysis) and I took the helm of the expedition as an explorer.

f we wanted to the complete the crossing as we had planned, we would have to cover at least 30 miles a day which turned out to be especially tricky for Dahe, who had never skied before. This ended up being particularly interesting to representatives of the media when we made our presentation before setting off, and when they asked us how we could risk taking a man who had never skied before on such a large journey with us, Will Steger answered that "seven months is enough time to teach a Chinese professor how to ski." It turned out to be true, and by the end of the expedition, Dahe turned out to be better than a billion Chinese.

Communicating was also going to be a difficult challenge; we decided that our official language would be English. At that time, I only had a very basic level in English and I expected that Dahe would speak it even worse than I did, but Dahe was surprisingly one of the best speakers since he had learned it quite well during his stays at Casey base in the Antarctic. Despite the challenge, we really didn't have many problems in understanding and from the beginning we started coming up with nicknames for each of us. They immediately began calling me "Magic Touch" because I tended to use all my strength for everything, from making soup to pitching tents, often destroying whatever I touched. On the eleventh day, the temperature to -16º and the wind was blowing some 25 meters a second - our first hurricane - which proved a considerable obstacle for our hike and it forced us to spend two nights inside the tents without moving.

Geoff Somers had flown to the Antarctic the previous winter and has placed 12 food crates along the length of our route to the Polo. The Average distance between the containers which were marked by 3 meter poles with blue flags was about 250 -300 km. Each one had enough to feed the men and the dogs for two weeks. Although Geoff had the exact location of the crates, there were four that we didn't manage to find, but we went ahead anyhow since we had enough in the sleds for some four weeks. That way, we would only have to ask for a provision drop by plane if we didn't manage to locate the following containers.

Our connection to the world was by means of short-wave radio and, other than that, we had an " Argos " transmitter via satellite that could send our position daily to the NOAA satellite in polar orbit. We would get our coordinates (if the propagation of the radio wave was correct) through our radio channel. The satellite beacon would also allow us to send short messages if all other means of communication failed. During the first months of our journey through the peninsula we had blizzards with winds up over 35-40 m per second on and off each day. Trying to set up a tent with wind like that was pretty complicated, so we tried to do it between Will, Geoff, and me. During one sudden gust of wind, the tent went flying towards the Weddell Se, but we recovered the fearless tent frame nevertheless; Geoff managed to climb on top of it and Will and I were able to grab its post. This was a definitive example of international cooperation.

At that point we had already established a set daily routine. I would share the tent with Will, Jean Louis with Keizo and Geoff with Dahe. Every two months or so, we would change tent mates which turned out to be quite conducive to keeping morale high and to improving our friendships. I started off each morning with a snow shower every single day regardless of how cold or windy it was. I would pop naked out of the tent with only Gore-Tex socks and my watch on, and afterwards I would go over to every tent to give them the forecast. My colleagues would immediately leave the comfort of their sleeping bags. After a breakfast of tea and cereal, we would get the sleds out from under a layer of snow, tie up the dogs and travel until one o'clock .

During the entire trip we had little time to talk and we enjoyed the opportunity to get together to eat even though the wind often kept up from be able to talk. On the rare occasions that the sun was shining during lunch, the Antarctic seemed like a very peaceful place. But then the next day it could look like exactly the opposite.

Day number 62 of the journey, we had the worst weather I had ever seen in my life, with intense snow, fog, strong wind.and as a result, Keizo's dogs refused to go on. Four of us had to push the sled to get them started. And to think, we still had two thirds of the journey left! We met in Jean Louis' tent in order to discuss the issue. The first thing we decided was to part with any extra equipment as soon as possible and we also commented that a group of fewer men and dogs would lighten the load and speed up the pace, but none of us was willing to give up. Geoff said that, since the expedition had been planned like this, it should go on in the same was, either achieving its goal or not. I added that after a short rest, the dogs would probably get back to their usual rhythm and we would improve our spirits. And so, we decided to continue together no matter what happened.

The first week of November, we arrived at Patriot Hills (the camping base for the Adventure Network International), located 80º to the south. From there, the South Pole was only a thousand miles away. We met another expedition in the Patriot led by the legendary mountain climber Reinhold Messner who was trying to cross the Antarctic from Patriot Hills to the coast of Ross Sea with Arved Fuks. The journey from Patriot Hills to the Pole was relatively uneventful ignoring the strong winds and the low temperatures. It took us a mere 32 days to cross the stretch.

At noon on December 11th, we sighted a dot in the sky that turned out to be a large cargo plane that was landing at the Pole. The base was still beyond the horizon, but the plane touched ground at the exact point that we were skiing towards. The time was right. We approached the geodesic dome of the of the American Amundsen-Scott station. From the buoys of the station we could see the actual Pole itself - a tall post topped by a mirrored ball -. The staff on base, more than sixty people, was waiting to greet us at a temperature of 25º sub zero. We became the second expedition led by dogs to reach the South Polo, seventy-eight years and three days after Amundsen managed the feat for the first time.

We set up camp and enjoyed the warm welcome of congratulatory messages from our friends and family as we received them by radio. After three days rest, we embark on our trek yet again.

The highest spot along our journey, the Vostok base, was more than 1,200 km above sea level, and we had to cross the Inaccessible Area which no one had ever traveled on foot before. On January 18th, we arrived at Vostok where we were greeted with fireworks by the forty workers on bas. I knew many of them myself, specifically the director of the Station, Alex Sheremetyev, who was a good friend. They had prepared a Russian-style welcome for us with champagne and a nice sauna. We spent three unforgettable days in Vostok where all of us - the team and the dogs - were truly able to get a good rest. Vostok is the coldest place on the planet where it reached the incredible temperature of 89.3 degrees below zero in Julio of 1983. While we were there the temperature was -48º.

The temperatures just kept dropping at the rate of almost a degree a day. On February 6th, the temperature was recorded to be below -54º. Nevertheless, we continued on our famous Vostok-Mirnyy road, used by Russian trucks to supply the Vostok base with provisions twice a year.

March 1st, when we were two days from Mirnyy, the storm decided to take revenge. As we always did on such occasions, we tied up the skis and poles a few meters from each other between the tents. Keizo, our youngest member, got lost between the marking posts while he was looking for his dogs and had to bury himself in order to stay alive. All of us spent thirteen hours looking for him until we finally found him. He had done the right thing - just stay in the place where he found himself and not stand still in order to stay warm -. The happiest moment of the expedition was when we found Keizo alive.

The storm died down the next day, and, finally, on March 3rd, 1990 , after 221 days and a trail of 6,500 kilometers, we reached the other end of the frozen continent. There were some hundred people waiting for us, among them my wife, Natasha, who had flown in to surprise me. As I hurried over towards her with my skis, I finished the most important expedition of my life.

Víctor Boyarsky

March 4th, 1891 , a young fan of exploration, poetry and photography gave his first conference in the headquarters of the French Alpine Club - the southwest division - in Bordeaux . It was the first time he spoke in public, and he had just joined the club in that same year, and, despite living a thousand miles away from the Pyrenees - in Charly sur Marne - he was invited to deliver the club's annual conference, the "main event" of the first semester according to its president with the suggestive theme, "To the Lost Mountain of Tucarroya." Lucien Briet dazzled those present with his fluent speech and no less than fifty slides of his pictures, quite impressive for that time period. A year before, the locals of Gavarnie - a small town of the Central French Pyrenees, on the far side of the Ordesa Valley - had been surprised by the presence of a tourist, never before seen in those whereabouts, who would hike across the mountain in every direction taking pictures of the landscapes, the peaks and the valleys.

It's not at all surprising that Lucien Briet was fascinated by what was hidden on the other side of the French slope on his first incursions to the Pyrenees: the Tucarroya gap - where a mountain reservation had been inaugurated the year before - which opens up an incredible view of the Lost Mountain massif and on its north face, one of the most important glaciers of the Pyrenees with ice walls and seracs that had been abound for over a hundred years. Its quite possible that the impact of reaching the border through this route, as Ramond de Carbonnieres, the father of Pyrenees mountain climbing, did a hundred years before, inspired Briet to enter Spain - something which hardly any other French explorer had done, only summit seekers and bear hunters - and to become the great "discoverer" of the Pyrenees of Aragon and of the Huesca province.

A Romantic in Search of Inspiration

Lucien Briet was born in Paris in 1860, a city in the middle of urban restructuring that substituted the old metropolis of narrow streets that were insufficient, dirty, and unhealthy although picturesque with the Paris of wide avenues and boulevards, endless facades, lighting, wide sidewalks, trees and kiosk;, the Paris that is today well-known by tourists. Orphaned by his mother at a very young age, his father was remarried. Lucien didn't get along well with his stepmother and was brought up by an aunt with her money which allowed him to study something similar to a liberal arts degree and to get along quite well. No friend of military service, he deserted and fled to Belgium for a period of time. He returned to France and the Counselor of War condemned him to the Foreign Legion which brought him to North Africa . His aun'ts economic means not only allowed him to study but also, most likely, to work very little and to dedicate himself firstly to poetry, then to photography and, what interests us most, to his travels to the Pyrenees of Aragon mainly after 1903.

What brought Lucien Briet to visit the Pyrenees for the first time in 1889? On the one hand his reluctance to conform, his textbook abstinence and his restless spirit, but on the other, most probably, his search for inspiration for his poetry which he considered "laborious excursuses in versification." Effectively, Briet was a poet, but he must not have had much success at imitating French Romantics. And it was most likely this desire to imitate that brought him to seek inspiration in the mountains of the south, as had previously done Victor Hugo, Chateaubriand, George Sand, Alfred de Vigny and Flaubert during the mid-19th century. He found no inspiration - it's unknown whether he even continued to write verses - but he was, in fact, excited by some landscapes, villages and different people, all of which only added to his affinity for photography, the discipline of his that was still in its initial stage of development.

His Travels to the Province of Huesca

Between 1890 and 1902, Briet, who lived in Charly sur Marne, in the Aisne region, traveled sporadically - on three or four occasions - to the Area of Gavarnie, passing over into Spain . His visits were isolated; he climbed peaks and got to know valleys: Ordesa, Barrosa, the town of Biesla , Tola, Lu Munia peak. These trips allowed him to get to know the lands of Spain , still considered as adventurous terrains, "wild lands." During the 19th century, the Pyrenees were already a very important tourist destination for French travelers, particularly associated with tourism related to thermal springs and the beginnings of mountaineering in the Pyrenees, as opposed to climbing more commonly done in the Alps. Thousands of tourist and explorers reached the thermal water sites and later tourist villages first by stagecoach and later by railway as Briet did, on a 27 hour journey from his residential town. Numerous travel guides, some of which were quite thorough, tell of those who have traveled to the Pyrenees since 1850. But there are only "the Pyrenees " in general, a slope: the French slope. The other side didn't exist yet, in many cases there weren't even any references. The list of 19th century books on the Spanish Pyrenees is minimal. It's as if Europe stopped along the divide, as if an unknown abyss were waiting on the other side for any unsuspecting traveler with the nerve to trespass it. But it was just the opposite for the habitants of either side of the border where commercial, cultural and family contact went back for hundreds of years. For them, exchanging merchandise - including contrabands - or grazing pastures for livestock was a way of mutually supporting everyday life. A lot of names from the same etymological roots are common on both sides of the boundary to this day: Labordeta/Labourdette; Piedrafita/Pierrefitte; Barrau/Maisonave, etc. Lucien Briet discovered Spain . He was the first traveler, explorer or onlooker to enter the province of Huesca beyond the two or three days' hike that others dared to take. Briet discovered Aragon and became addicted to its land.

Starting in 1903 and for nine consecutive years, until 1911, Briet planned his own expeditions to the province of Huesca each varying from thirty to seventy days. They were methodical expeditions in which he kept a detailed record of everything, took and reflected on barometric readings (302 in 1910!) and took pictures on 18 x 24 cm glass plates of the landscapes, houses, villages, people and ravines as no one had up until then.

Throughout these years, Briet primarily traveled to three areas in the province of Huesca: Ordesa Valley and the neighboring area of Lost Mountain; the entire region of Sobrarbe - Aísna, Boltaña, Bielsa, Tella - and within this region and near the current Somontano de Barbastro, Briet discovered the Sierra de Guara, the Vero and Masún ravines - today a paradise for "ravine-ists" who have colonized the "dark lands" for miles causing a lot of deterioration to the environment and putting their lives in danger -. In 1903 he went to the valley of Pineta and went down into Aínsa through the narrow pass of Las Devotas which he described in an article published in the Royal Geographic Society Bulletin in 1905 as well as in an offprint in the same issue. That year he made it to Escuaín and explored the gorge of the same name - Briet was also a spelunker to a certain degree -. In 1904, with a base in Boltaña, he traversed part of the Sierra de Guara, went through los Oscuros el Vero, made it to Alquézar, and on his return trip to France, he was surprised by the pass of Bujaruelo being completely covered in snow. The following year, his long journey was hindered by bad weather and some type of illness that forced him to spend several days without much activity. He dropped down through the Sierra de Guara along its easternmost side, arrived at Sierra de Gratal, closer to Huesca, spent a few days in Apiés - about which he ended up writing a publication - and visited Huesca and Barbastro. In 1908 he was greeted with honors in Boltaña - the Diario del Alto Aragón, a newspaper from Huesca that still exists to this day had published extracts of his writing, "Along the Río Ara" - and he began to be considered as a special citizen of Aragon. He also dedicated that same year to visiting Sierra de Guara, Castejón de Sobrarbe, Samitier, Abizanda, el Vero, Alcanadre ravine and Rodellar, a journey with which he was completely satisfied: 142 pictures and 217 barometric readings. Various writings also resulted from this trip.

The Royal Geographic Society asked Briet to write a monograph on Ordesa Valley . 1909 and 1911 were Briet's two most important stays in Ordesa Valley . He took over 100 photographs the first year, and most likely many more the second year. The trip he took in 1911 is his last to Alto Aragón. In his aunt's will, who had financed his exploration, it stated that he had to get married and have descendents in order to receive his inheritance. Briet spent the last ten years of his life - he died in 1921 at 61 years of age and in utter ruin - "surrounded by manuscripts, his minerals, his memories, but above all, surrounded by an incredible collection of photographs that must have dispelled and revived his nostalgia for moments here and there." Effectively, Briet's photography collection is impressive for the time period: 1,600 photographs, of them some 900 from Alto Aragón, material that - along with his manuscripts - are miraculously preserved in the Musée Pyrénéen in Lourdes, thanks to the quickness of his founder, Luis Le Bondidier who "saved" them when they were about to be sold to a junkman almost immediately after his death.

Lucien Briet's Bibliography

Lucien Briet left numerous writings describing his travels. The most important catalogue of writings on the Pyrenees includes 41 bibliographical references to Lucien Briet, more than half of them on Alto Aragon, from reference to his first conference in the French Alpine Club in Bordeaux in 1891 to the second to last edition of his most famous book in Spain, "Beautiful Sights of Alto Aragón" in 1977, an original reproduction of the first edition carried out by the regional council of Huesca in 1913 which wasn't commercially released.

But of the 41 references, many are fragments, offprints, chapters or translations of one of them. His cited book, "Beautiful Sights of Alto Aragón," edited three times, contains Briet's articles that have been translated into Spanish and previously published in the Royal Geographic Society's Bulletin: "The Valley of Ordesa," "Along the Río Ara," The Escoaín Gorge," "Las Devotas Pass," "Travel to the Ravine of Mascún," "The Pyrenees and Spelunking" - Briet was also a spelunker - and the barometric measurements of his various campaigns. In their own time, these chapters were initially published in French. Briet collaborated with numerous specialized French magazines and between one tour and the next - between each summer - he was invited to give conferences accompanied by his projections in quite a few French geography circles.

Lucien Briet's "discoveries," a hundred years later

Briet was known as "the singer of Ordesa." Effectively, his many visits to the Valley, his references to it in texts, the monograph he published in 1911, all made Ordesa Valley 's designation as a National Park in 1918 - the second in Spain after Covadonga - was in a large part due to the recognition the region gained because of him. Briet wrote, " Ordesa Valley 's most interesting aspect is how it recalls the bewildering architecture of the most renowned canyons in the Americas , not for its size, but for its colors and style. It creates a sense of unique, enrapturing surprise that makes it a wonder in itself; with its personal and unmistakable stamp, perhaps due to the variety of cliffs, natural amphitheaters, waterfalls, pastures and woods that it contains in a relatively limited space. Its charms have been sung to every tune, have been extolled, if it can be said so; not even travelers who came with spirits captivated by the memory of the charms of Colorado have been able to resist getting excited by the Cotauero; it isn't worth bemoaning the lack of a practical path that separates Ordesa Valley from the ordinary flock of tourists since it has preserved the unexplored beauty, the sublime freshness that the grand scenes of nature offers to the eyes of the well-traveled beings that stumble upon them.

Nowadays, the ordinary flock can easily make it to Ordesa National Park . Around 500,000 people visit it yearly, nearly all of whom come through the traditional entrance of Torla, despite the fact that currently, with a size much larger than it initially was including Pineta and Añisco Valleys , the neighboring areas of Lost Mountain , other entrances and accesses are possible and worth the effort to distribute visitors in a more sensible way. Nearly all visitors come in the summertime - a public transport system from several parking lots near Torla limits the amount of individual cars -. But fall and spring are also quite delightful for any demanding visitor: recommended for anyone with the necessary precautions if planning on walking the upper mountain area; and in the winter, only for specialists since snow covers the valley above 1,300 meters.

Other spots that Briet traveled through in Alto Aragón have gone off in just the opposite direction. The region of Sobrarbe has one of the lowest population densities, if not the very lowest, in the entire state and in Europe with 2.4 inhabitants for every square kilometer. The province of Huesca suffered a loss of rural population like no place else after the industrialization processes in the 60's. It has more than 200 abandoned villages in the province, ghosts of their own past, most of them in the region of Sobrarbe, in la Sierra de Guara in the area that Briet visited. Some left for a lack of work due to the emigration to industrial centers in the bigger cities - Zaragoza, Barcelona, Huesca, Sabiñanigo, Monzón -, others as a result of the large hydraulic works that flood towns and lands making living in villages impossible, or simply expropriate the town itself forgetting to develop local industries to stabilize the population, others for such surprising aspects as "the school concentration" leaving towns with no children and no schools. When Lucien Briet passed through these towns, the region of Sobrarbe had already begun a slight demographic decrease since 1860 when it had boasted approximately 25,000 inhabitants, but still maintained a similar figure. In 1960, the region had already lost half of the population it had 100 years before. But between 1960 and 1970, the region lost 40% of its population, and currently, 60%, with little more than 6,000 inhabitants distributed throughout 2,500 square kilometers. "We have no school, no priest.what are we supposed to do here?" "There used to be four families here who already left before the seventies because the land that they had couldn't support them. But afterwards, when they took the school, the children left and so did the joy of the town.and little by little, everyone took off." Lavelilla, Asín de Broto, Jánovas, Lacort, in the Ara river basin, and many other towns in la Sierra de Guara, traveled, described and photographed by Lucien Briet are now abandoned ghost towns, some of them belonging to the administration, others to hydroelectric companies, others in the hands of residential speculators and promoters who have begun to stretch their paws out at Sobrarbe as they have already done - and with ghastly results - in Aragón Valley, in Tena Valley and in Benasque Valley. A magnificent book that has already been cited, "On the tracks of Lucien Briet" by José Luis Acín takes a glimpse at the places this legend described and photographed 90 years before. Hundreds of photographs taken from the exact same spots with a time span between the two of over eight decades and descriptions of the routes, towns and landscapes reflect how abandoned these lands have become.

Traveling Briet's trails

Fernando París