Expedition Summary and some reflections

23/7/09 - As I write this, Rob and I are back in Coyhaique enjoying a couple of days of relaxation before returning to Australia. These transition times allow for recuperation and reflection before once again having to deal with the demands of ‘normal life’ back home.

We have not achieved what we set out to do, which was to travel up the Jorge Montt Glacier, access the South Patagonian Icecap and head south before dropping off via the Uppsala Glacier in Argentina. In the 19 days we had in the field we travelled a total straight line distance of about 15 kms, establishing 5 camps along the way and doing each leg of the trip 3 times on the way out and 3 times on the way back, taking the total distance travelled closer to 90 kms.

It took us 9 days to reach the furthest point of our journey. Here, given the weather conditions we had already experienced and those predicted for the coming days we decided that the time we had available would not allow us to complete our planned forward journey. Instead, in order to remain responsible for our own progress we would have to retrace our steps and return to our starting point.

There was food and fuel enough to do more had we the flexibility to stay on. Our load consisted of camping gear, food and fuel for 24 days. This included mountaineering gear (rope, crampons, ice axes, snow stakes, avalanche beacons and probes), skis, snow shoes, sleds, communication gear, cameras and our little mascot Pablo (named in honour of our boat captain). In total this was about 80 kgs each. We did not weigh the gear but each load we carried during the forward and return journeys was around or more than 25 kgs).

We experienced three days without rain or snow and two of these were the final days of the return journey. We spent 3 days in our tent not moving because of rain or heavy snow combined with low visibility. First light each day was close to 8.00 am and on the clear days the sun rose above the surrounding mountains by about 9.30am. Sunset each day was at about 5.00pm each day and by 6.00pm it was dark. During the first week there was a full moon. Its light was certainly helpful on the couple of days when with headlamps we were still shuttling our loads into the evening.

My sense of the remoteness of the expedition includes understanding that the village we departed from is also remote and that infrastructure that we take for granted like sealed roads, phone coverage and the availability of mechanics to repair broken vehicles are absent. Tortel, a small village on the Baker Fiord 400 kms from Coyhaique has a car park but no roads. People who live in Tortel access their homes, shops and workplaces by boat or a grid of wooden boardwalks and connecting stairways. The roads are mostly unsealed and travel over several mountain passes, pass alongside huge lakes and rivers and travel is very slow due to the pot holes, mud slides and corrugations. Our trip out included putting on chains twice, stopping for a vehicle coming from the opposite direction to be hauled back onto the road after it slid off the icy road surface and breaking a steering arm on our vehicle making it immobile. Quick and effective organization by our support team meant that we needed to wait only 4 hours for a pick up so that we could continue our journey to Tortel. It needed two days however, before the damaged vehicle had been hauled off the road, loaded onto the back of a truck and transported to the nearest mechanical assistance). At Tortel the motor launch that was to transport us to the end of the fiord needed repairs. Waiting a day for the repairs to be completed delayed the start of our journey. We then spent two days on the boat. The first involved travelling to the end of the fiord and carrying an inflatable rubber boat across country for half a kilometer from the motor launch to northern end of Lake Jorge Montt. Icebergs in the southern extremities of the fiord considerably slowed the progress of the boat. After camping onboard overnight the first half of the following day was spent transferring our gear to the waiting inflatable at the edge of the lake, then crossing the several kilometers to the southern edge of the lake before pack hauling the gear over a scrubby ridge to a smaller lake and then on to our first campsite. The very wet conditions – it rained all day – and the tangled, prickly, very dense bush meant that travel was slow, uncomfortable and needed full concentration to route find and keep from falling. It took a full 5 days, including breakdowns, delays and 24 hours of continual travel, to reach our first campsite alongside the stream that would lead us to the Jorge Montt Glacier. Fortunately there were no breakdowns on our way back.


Reflection of a more serious kind:
One of the questions that we asked ourselves during the trip was ‘should we have been able to do more?”. Out on a glacier or up in the mountains, days and kilometers away from other people, its easy to have doubts and to start ‘second-guessing’ yourself. We did have conversations about whether or not we should be out in the rain and snow trying to find our way further up the glacier, asking ourselves what others would have done in this situation and where lay the boundaries between responsible, conservative judgment, foolhardy ‘progress at any cost’, and just being ‘wussy’. Even now, only a few days away from being out there I am starting to forget how physically hard and mentally taxing it was to break a trail through the deep snow – with every step sinking in snowshoes up to your knees - while ferrying heavy loads of gear from one camp to the next. That fading memory makes it easier to gloss over the workload and to judge our effort as less than we wanted.

After leaving the field we have had conversations with a several people and these have provided a different perspective on what we achieved. Those people include Ben and Jaya from the Patagonian Mountaineering School, Olaf, a surveyor with years of experience traveling in remote areas in Patagonia and Mario Mendes, a member of the Carabinieri in Tortel. The info we discovered includes:
· The weather conditions during the period of time we were traveling were exceptionally warm for the time of year. While we were on the glacier the daytime temperatures in Coyhaique reached 18°C when the norm for this time of year is 5°C or lower. Freezing levels were very high, as was the level of precipitation. This was bad luck for us and for our plans.
· There are very few expeditions on the South Patagonian Icecap and fewer still that are successful. Any journey here is a serious undertaking in an area that is remote and can often become inaccessible. Perhaps one in five expeditions succeeds and achieves what was planned. Many end as ours did, with weather foiling the attempt. Others are brought to an end by injury or equipment difficulties. Groups often spend many days, up to 30 or more in some cases, tent bound as they wait for conditions to improve to the point where further progress is possible. We were lucky as our weather conditions were better than that.
· Almost 2/3rds of expeditions require evacuation by helicopter due to injury, illness or other problems. This is a huge undertaking as the closest Chilean helicopters may be up to 400 kms away.
· It often rains in the area around the fiord at the base of the Jorge Montt Glacier. The effect of the westerly wind on the ocean and fiord is such that it has an intensely precipitous microclimate. The term wet snow has taken on a new meaning for us – wet like we have in Australia but much, much more of it. My boots soaked up more water while walking through the snow than when standing shin deep in the creek!

These bits of information have provided a context for our experience that leaves us feeling quite proud of what we achieved.
· We managed to stay warm, dry, well-fed and relatively comfortable in cold, wet conditions
· Deciding to turn back didn’t feel ‘wussy’. Other people more experienced in glacier travel may have opted to continue traveling when we chose to remain in the tent and ultimately to retrace our route, but they too would also have been severely hampered by the snow conditions and visibility on the glacier. We managed ourselves well, worked effectively within our competency level, and extended our experience and level of skill in a physically very challenging area that was previously unfamiliar to us. We also had fun, enjoyed the experience, and maintained an awe and deep appreciation for the harshness and beauty of our surroundings.
· We successfully managed our loads of gear up the access valley, out onto the glacier and back again, and kept ourselves safe as we went.
· We planned our exit from the glacier and completed it by returning ourselves and all our gear to our starting point without requiring any external assistance. (Many thanks to Patagonia Mountaineering School for taking on the role of logistics coordinators – they managed the boat bookings etc beautifully).
· We enjoyed being there and are really happy that despite being tired, wet and uncomfortable for much of the time we could still appreciate being in a very remote part of the world. As we moved deeper into this environment, with its spectacular glacially derived geology, unique flora and fauna and perverse, unpredictable weather ‘hospitable’ was certainly not a word that came to mind. But it still felt that it was a privilege to be there and able to experience its moods and beauty on such an intimate, personal level.