The Last Ice Merchant of Chimborazo

The Last Ice Merchant of Chimborazo

The Ice Men of Chimborazo

High in the Ecuadorian Andes, where the air is thin and the sun bites fiercely, a centuries-old tradition once thrived. For generations, men known as hieleros—ice merchants—would undertake a perilous journey up the slopes of Chimborazo, a massive inactive volcano straddling the equator. Their mission was not conquest or exploration, but the harvesting of ancient glacial ice to sell in the markets of Riobamba and surrounding towns. This was a profession born of necessity, predating modern refrigeration, where nature’s frozen bounty provided relief from the tropical heat and preserved perishable goods.

A Deadly Ascent for Frozen Treasure

The work of the hieleros was grueling and dangerous. Accompanied by donkeys to carry their harvest, they would climb for hours into the thin, cold air to reach the edge of Chimborazo’s glaciers. There, using little more than pickaxes and shovels, they would carve blocks of ice from the frozen slopes, each sometimes weighing up to 40 kilograms. To prevent the precious cargo from melting during the descent, the ice blocks were wrapped in long, tough straw-like grass for insulation before being loaded onto the donkeys. The journey back down the volcano was equally treacherous, requiring sure footing on loose scree and icy paths as they transported their frozen cargo to waiting markets below.

The Last of His Kind

For a long time, the hieleros were a respected, if arduous, part of Andean life. At its peak, about forty ice merchants made the regular trek up Chimborazo. Their glacial ice served many purposes—cooling fruit juices, making ice cream, and preserving fish in the absence of artificial refrigeration. However, the advent of electricity and factory-made ice in the 20th century began to erode this ancient trade. As modern cold storage became available, demand for the natural ice from Chimborazo’s glaciers dwindled. One by one, the hieleros abandoned the climb, until only a single man remained committed to the tradition.

For many years, Baltazar Ushca was known as the "Last Ice Merchant of Chimborazo," continuing to make the ascent twice a week long after his peers had stopped. His solitary climbs became a living link to a bygone era, a testament to the endurance and cultural traditions of the Andean people. Ushca’s dedication kept the memory of the hieleros alive, even as the world around him changed. Before his passing in 2024, he stood as the final practitioner of a profession that had once been vital to communities in the shadow of Ecuador’s greatest peak—a quiet end to a remarkable human adaptation to one of the planet’s extreme environments.

This is one episode in a much longer story. For the full account of Earth's extreme environments, read “Extreme Places” by Carl Sanford on MixCache.com.