Uncovering Patagonia

January 2009

Five-month expedition reveals wonders of remote Chile

Chilean explorer Cristian Donoso has completed an ambitious expedition to one of the most inhospitable and least known places on earth, the labyrinth of fjords and islands of western Patagonia . The journey, which lasted five months, took Donoso and his companions through stormy waters and across ice-clad ridges. The expedition has provided a unique window into the region that will help the world appreciate the wonders of Patagonia and encourage them to support protection of one of the earth’s natural treasures.

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

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The last day of navigation before mounting Campos de Hielo, entering the Exmouth Fjord in front of the Brüggen Glacier.

by Paul Jeffrey

Cristian Olonso

The daunting labyrinth of rocky islands, sinewy channels and icy fjords of western Patagonia has long made this isolated region of southern Chile one of the least-explored areas on earth. Nestled between massive glaciers that hug the slopes of steep Andean peaks and drenching storms that blow out of the southern Pacific, the harsh environment provides little to welcome those who venture near. Yet lawyer Cristian Donoso has embraced Patagonia ’s considerable challenges. In the process he has given the citizens of Chile and the wider world a glimpse of the region’s rugged majesty and a unique chance to learn about the imminent threats it faces.

An associate laureate of the 2006 Rolex Awards, 32-year-old Donoso planned and led a 155-day, 1,200-mile (2,000-km) odyssey through the region. The expedition had three separate stages between January 17, 2007 and February 24, 2008. Donoso undertook the initial stage of 47 days alone, carrying out the first navigation and exploration of a large lake formed through climate change. Four other adventurers accompanied him on one or both of the remaining two stages. They used sea kayaks to navigate the region’s narrow fjords and wild surf, then turned them into sleds that they dragged up and over glaciers.

The other participants in the expedition were Juan Pablo Ortega, a management engineer, kayaker and climber; Mario Sepúlveda, a climbing guide and champion cross-country skier; Ana Bartley, a marine biologist, climber and kayaker; and Roger Rovira, a Catalonian speleologist and kayaker.

The Trans-Patagonia Expedition, which proved even more difficult than Donoso, a veteran explorer of the region, had foreseen, is providing scientists and historians with a treasure trove of new information about Patagonia.

Most of the journey was across water, and in Patagonia the water is seldom calm. Donoso lost count of how many times he capsized as the team battled waves, wind and tides. As the expedition neared its end in February, heavy surf and a drastic change in the wind prevented the team from landing on the rocky coastline of Forelius Archipelago. The explorers had to spend the moonless night on their kayaks, clipping the boats together with carabiners, stretching a tent over their bodies and holding on to each other’s paddles for stability. When strong winds pushed them too far out to sea, they paddled back in the dark, using whistles to follow the kayaker in front of them, unable to detect the crisscrossing waves until they crashed over the kayaks.

 

A waterfall separates the Lamero Fjord from the lake to the south. The crossing required carrying gear for 200 yards to the Brazo Lastarria in the Seno de Barros Luco. This was a historic strategic bypass used by Puerto Edén inhabitants to avoid the open sea.

Donoso, who has been climbing Chile ’s mountains since he was a boy, and in 2002 crossed 300 miles (500 km) of Patagonia solo in a kayak, says the expedition produced several frightening moments, something he considers normal in such harsh conditions.

“Fear helps when you’ve got to be highly alert and concentrate for long periods of time in a scenario full of dangers. But fear that approaches panic is our worst enemy when we confront dangers,” says Donoso, who learned to confront some of his own fears when parachuting with the Chilean Army’s Special Forces.

Adventurers often get into problems when they lose patience, he says, saying the kayakers discussed the issue during a relatively calm moment the night they were forced to remain at sea.

“We talked about similar situations that expeditions had confronted, especially in the mountains. We recalled accidents that occurred during descents at night or in the middle of storms, when explorers succumbed to impatience and exposed themselves to greater danger by trying quickly to get out of a dangerous or a stressful situation.”

Another stressful night came last October as Donoso and his team descended to Greve Lake from the high glaciers of the Southern Ice Fields. They survived over a week of heavy snows that repeatedly buried their tents – and trapped them in one spot for four days. Once across the ice plateau, they had to lower the fully-loaded kayaks – each weighing over 200 pounds (100 kg) – down a snow-covered 2,000-foot (600m) cliff. The team had to do this in stages, carving out platforms in the snow to anchor their ropes as they descended.

Donoso had spent months preparing for the expedition by studying satellite photos of the region, plotting routes and possible campsites. So he was aware in advance of some particularly challenging stretches of the trip. Other difficulties took him by surprise, such as a 6-mile (10-km) stretch of jungle that the team had to cross as they portaged the kayaks and supplies overland from Lake Greve to another lake formed at the foot of the Guacolda Glacier. Donoso says the vegetation was denser than the Amazon rainforest. The team was already tired after almost a month of demanding work, and this stretch of the expedition was the most challenging psychologically.

“In order to make it through that part, we had to stay cheerful, determined and well organized as we worked together, demanding the most we could from our bodies,” he says.

In November, near the end of the expedition’s second stage, Donoso led the team into a series of caves on Madre de Dios Island, at times descending through underground waterfalls. Besides carrying out an initial mapping of the previously unexplored caves, the team took samples of a stalagmite that will be studied using radioisotope technology at the University of Trier in Germany.

Donoso, who calls stalagmites “climatic archives,” believes that the sample is likely to yield important clues about the history of the region’s climate, as well as insights into the nature of global climate change, a phenomenon the team members documented as they kayaked through lakes formed in recent years by the rapid shrinking of several glaciers.

The explorers carefully documented the region’s fauna, recording a previously unknown feeding tactic by a species of toad they found riding the waves on Lake Presidente Rios, utilizing the surf to trap and feed on mosquitoes. The explorers also found a colony of Magellanic penguins in the forest of Surania Island, not the usual nesting place for a species known to settle on the coastline; the birds’ smaller-than-normal size and improved walking skills may indicate the discovery of a new variety or sub-species. And Donoso’s team encountered several South Andean Huemules – the deer that appears on Chile ’s coat of arms – and carefully recorded their observations about this endangered species.

Donoso also documented several traces of the indigenous people – Chonos and Kaweskars – who travelled the region, often in canoes, for more than four millennia before Columbus arrived in the western hemisphere. Scholars of the region’s history are already examining Donoso’s reports on the remnants of tidal fish ponds built of rocks by the ancient nomads along the ocean’s edge.

Donoso hopes that the expedition, which started from the village of Puerto Edén , home to the last remaining Kaweskar community, will help Chileans better appreciate and protect the indigenous group’s few surviving members.

The expedition also discovered relics that may shed light on the 1741 sinking of the English frigate Wager on the north coast of the Guayaneco Peninsula. The ship’s fate was popularized at the time by the journal of one of the ship’s crew, John Byron, who survived with help from two indigenous groups who spirited Byron and three other survivors through the treacherous waters in their canoes. The ship’s sinking encouraged Spain to increase exploration in the area, accelerating what Donoso dubbed “the encounter of two worlds” in the remote reaches of Patagonia.

Donoso spent months gathering financial and material support for the expedition. In Santiago, where he shares a law practice with a partner who covers for him while he is exploring the wild, Donoso persuaded several companies to provide the expedition with its essential components, including kayaks, tents, clothing, communications gear, dehydrated food and other equipment needed to survive in the harsh environment. The financial support from Donoso’s Rolex Award was used to purchase two high-definition video cameras and other audio-visual equipment, as well as to cover insurance and customs duties. Donoso said the support from Rolex was “fundamental” in opening doors to other sponsors.

Portable solar panels successfully recharged their radios and satellite phones during the fleeting moments of sun, allowing the team to update their website almost daily. The explorers also used a backup wind generator. The only disappointment was the marine housings for the video and still cameras, which Donoso had to reinforce constantly with silicon, wire and tape to keep the saltwater out.

Donoso is now editing over 80 hours of high-definition video shot during the expedition; he will produce a documentary to be broadcast on Chilean television later this year. The video will show some of the explorers’ accomplishments, including the Patagonian peaks they were the first explorers to climb. But its main objective is to provide the general public with knowledge of the remote stretches of Patagonia while there is still time to save the rugged region.

“In order to protect this territory, we’ve got to know what’s there,” says Donoso, who reports that most Chileans have little knowledge of the region. “Our expedition has focused public attention on this territory, not in a neutral manner, but from a perspective that puts in sharp relief what the region – an undamaged fragment of our world – means for the present and future of humanity.”

Patagonia faces a number of threats, including new hydroelectric projects, mining and the massive logging of an endangered species of cypress. Yet Donoso is most concerned about the immediate impact of industrial-scale fishing. Salmon farming in southern Chile has been hard hit by a virus known as infectious salmon anaemia, forcing producers to venture into more remote areas of Patagonia in search of uncontaminated waters.

“We have demonstrated that there is still a frontier between the world that’s subject to our annihilation and the world that is still free from this,” he says. “It’s possible to integrate that other world with ours, conserving it as it is and approaching it in non-invasive ways, as in a great park that generations to come can have an opportunity to experience as we have done.

“Through the different media we’ve used, our expedition has brought back the surprise and fascination we felt in these spaces. By focusing public attention on the formidable natural scenery of western Patagonia , we are also focusing public attention on the forces that seek to destroy it.”

For more information and photos of the expedition, please visit www.incognitopatagonia.com/