Guillermo Barron
1954–2018 With the beauty of language, how does one speak of the dearest of friends? With the passing of Guillermo Barron on Feb. 19, our world lost a true leader. His narrative is of the life fully lived, of giving freely as a dedicated husband, teacher, friend, climber and mentor. Known in climbing circles for his trips across ranges in North and South America and teaching climbing at the Cadet Camp in Banff, he also made strong contributions as a surveyor assisting development projects for Cuso International in Sierra Leone and The Gambia. But underlying all of this was his true calling of philosophy, which would come to clarify and guide his life in all areas. Impacted by the Montreal Massacre in 1989, he would focus his undergraduate thesis on feminism, and would go on to earn a PhD in 2001.
He also earned the love and admiration of students and colleagues. Ross Mailloux and I were lucky to have met him as he was finishing his PhD, and we lived many adventures together in the wonderful years that followed. Mailloux said, “I count myself lucky to have met and been close to G. He made an impact on a lot of people and moved mountains to become a better person every day. I have never met anyone like him.”
Of Guillermo’s passing, Barry Blanchard wrote: “My heart is crushed. I’ve known few people who took their personal evolution as weightily. He had to grow, always, forever, he had no choice. And he had to live ethically, by his hard-thought, and won, ethics. Who quits a career over what they believe to be right? Guillermo. When he told his boss that his conscience would not allow him to survey land for Union Carbide after Bhopal, his boss assigned him to the job. Guillermo walked to his desk, wrote his letter of resignation and walked out. Pure heart that, pure heart. I was lucky enough to introduce him to rock climbing, and then got to tie in with him a lot. In his first year of mountaineering he climbed a mountain in each of the 12 months. Tears of joy on top of Robson, more heart. Climbing led him higher, eventually to philosophy, where his acute intelligence and laser wit caught up to his spirit. He enjoyed the view from the summits of his mind as well as the ones achieved through his climbing. I’m so very proud to say that I loved Guillermo, prouder yet in knowing that he knew that, and so very blessed to know that he loved me too.”
Guillermo had been challenged in recent years by a rare neurodegenerative disease but remained a force to be reckoned with, a source of wisdom, love and humour. Always leading, with the pragmatism for which we knew him for, with a rock-solid moral compass and thoughtfulness. As life and motivations for climbing changed, a reliable constant was the friendship we had together and the efforts made every year to still connect in the mountains or the cafes and just be together.
You lived a full life Guillermo, covered the real landscapes, where the real things of heart happen, always with a courage and integrity that makes us pause to consider what we claim to be our own. We miss you deeply, fully; you were someone, as Michael Ondaatje says, whom “…we contain…for the rest of our lives, at every border we cross.”—