GLACIERS. CULTURE AND HERITAGE. THE CULTURAL FOOTPRINT OF THE PYRENEAN GLACIERS

The Earth's glaciers are currently in clear retreat and in mountains like the Pyrenees, only small witnesses of ice remain with accelerated melting rates that indicate their near disappearance. The glaciers of the Pyrenees are a relevant natural heritage that has been recognized by different regional, national and international protection figures, but they disappear before our eyes. And as the ice decreases, the extensive cultural legacy contributed by vernacular societies, explorers, mountaineers, naturalists, geographers and artists emerges. It is a heritage that is both material, literary works, mountaineering descriptions, studies, narratives, paintings, drawings, maps or photographs, and immaterial, associated with symbolism, beliefs or ephemeral activities on the ice. A solid, diverse and enduring cultural image, which constitutes a deep corpus of knowledge and feeling around the Pyrenean glaciers. This book deals with that cultural dimension of the natural heritage, of the glaciers, through a journey from the discoverers, naturalists, mountaineers and explorers who trace the first routes, now disappeared but recorded in memory, write stories, map them, draw them, photograph them and study their extension and functioning.