Baltazar Ushca

Since colonial times, the indigenous people of the Andean mountains have ascended to peaks that reach 5,200 meters above sea level. There, they crush gigantic blocks of ice that carry on their backs to sell them later in the fairs of Riobamba and Guaranda. The film shows the living conditions of the communities that live from this activity.

Chimborazo, Ecuador. At 6,267 meters high, in one of the world´s highest volcano, the Chimborazo, Baltazar Ushka has been working for more than thirty years now. He works chopping ice out of the glacier, later to be used to cool fruit juices at the popular market in Riobamba, Ecuador. This documentary travels through time in a circular way, to create a life´s portrait of the last Chimborazo Ice Man. It's the second part of the most famous and award-winning documentary in Ecuador: Los Hieleros del Chimborazo. 1980.

For the last 53 years, Baltazar Ushca has harvested glacial ice from the tallest mountain in Ecuador. His brothers, Gregorio and Juan, have long since retired from the mountain. This is a tale of cultural change in a small indigenous community and how three brothers have adapted to it.