2007 Lost Tower Expedition Live Updates

31 Dec Coyhaique, Patagonia

Well we are out and enjoying the fleshpots of civilisation. Showers, not walking in ski boots, not smelling Jo's sleeping bag, and eating something other than a one pot gloop.
 
We have had an expedition of extremes- many highs and some pretty deep lows, I guess one often goes with the other. The trip certainly failed to tick any of our stated objectives and in that sense was unsuccessful in most respects other than the most important ones- we ended up having a wonderful adventure, completed a difficult traverse on the icecap, tested our mental strength, saw places that few people on the planet lay eyes on, survived to tell the tale and are still firm friends!
 
It felt like we had to dig pretty deep to pull this one off- more mentally than physically- 25 days of bad weather will do that to you, as you see the trip you have planned for two years slowly slipping away in a windy rain cloud. We were so close to descending and flagging it on day 25 after yet another storm and another bout of watching our industrial size snow wall (our only protection from the legendary Patagonian wind- everything they say about the wind here is true) melt in the driving rain. It seemed as if, with another storm looming, it wasn't worth waiting it out. We had two days left before we were at the stage of not having enough days left to go forward and just enough food to go back down the way we came in. There is only so much hiding behind a snow wall in the rain one can take- and we had a long discussion about going down or staying. In the end we decided we had to stick it out to the last possible day- if only for our peace of mind and the knowledge that we had done all we could. Next day, after a wild night- the weather cleared and suddenly, unbelievably,we had our fine spell (although we didn't know it at the time!).
 
The next four days made it all worthwhile! A 30km traverse dragging our kayaks down the eastern side of the icecap, climbed the north peak of Cerro Largo, a large peak in the middle of the icecap, skied it from the summit and then headed east for four days (back in the rain), out of the mountains by foot and kayak, down rivers and lakes to Puerto Bertrand and the closest road end.
 
In the end it turned out to be an amazing self-supported journey on foot, skis and kayaks in a awe-inspiring and wild part of the world. It has been so very different to what we had originally planned but we are proud of what we have managed to acheive in the conditions that we have been dealt.

Anyway- we've now got a couple of weeks of lugging kayaks and skis around the public transport system of Chile, and then back to work.

30 December 2007
We have arrived at Puerto Bertrand and enjoying the modern comforts, bring on the Tea and shower.

29 December 2007
We have had a great day on the river today and managed to paddled 25 km to reach the shore line of lago Plomo.   It will be a long day on lake tomorrow with a glimbs of possibly finishing tomorrow or early the following day at a place called Puerto Bertrand.

28 December 2007
We are off the Nef glacier and heading down the Soler Valley. Our kayaks are now finally carrying us on the stretches that we can paddle, and we are carrying them on the parts we can not. We have four days of food supplies left but much more of a concern is our deminishing supply of Dilmah Tea! A great motivation for continuing at pace.

26 December 2007
Third day of good weather. We have climb the north peak of Cerro Largo Norte (to confirm exact spelling) peck this morning and Sean managed to ski off it. To say we a happy is a little bit of an understatement at the moment.

25 December 2007
We have blessed with 2 days of good weather as a great chrismas present. So we have got up the wall and currently camped in the middle of the NPI, which is pretty nice since we had almost given up on it.

23 December 2007
We are still in the same location and yet again huddled down in our tent, trying to avoid the storm outside. This morning we did manage to climb the 400 metre head wall and retreated quickly with the storm coming in quick on our tails. It will be a full day of setting up rope systems to get our boats and gear up the head wall. Now it is a case of the weather allowing us this time. Until then it is Jo's turn to cook so it is time to wake him up.

21 December 2007
Current position 46o 45.685’ S, 073o 16.633' W
We are well and happy enough and again on the glacier having dragged everything in one load. Although we are in a storm again today so it is rainning, snowing and really windy: which means we are not moving - but we did have a great day dragging boats yesterday. So we are just waiting to see what the weather does over the next couple of days. If it doesn't clear up that will be us and we'll have to turn tail; if it comes right we will make a dash down south towards the Nef Glacier.

18 December 2007
Jo is currently taking a load back up to the icecap while Sean is giving his back more recovery time. We have changed our expedition plans, unfortunately we are going to miss the lost tower a difficult discussion but one that is dictated a bit by our food supply and current position.  We still both wanting to get some travel on the ice we are going to travel in the same direction and head out on the same eastern side of the icecap.  We are expecting this option to take approx 14 days all conditions permitting.

15 December 2007
The tent in a suitable condition for us to continue. The weather has cleared up and looking like we are going to get a few good continuous days without rain. Unfortunately with all the good turns of events Sean's back is once again playing up. To say he is gutted is a bit of an understatement at the moment. Bitter disappointment at missing the gap in the weather and watching the supplies dissappear. Not sure of the outcome but will be staying here until Sean recovers.

13 December 2007
After a couple of stormy nights and days on the ice, we have retreated back down to Lake Leones. Now currently reviving ourselves by drinking tea! and licking our wounds. Once we finish maybe our 3rd cup of tea we will look at our tent and assess if we can make the repairs to a standard to survive back up high.  Time to contemplate and pray to the weather gods.  Still in good spirits but a little beaten by the weather.

10 December 2007
We are still at the west end of Lake Leones in the rain!  We have completed 3 carrys up high to the Northern Leones glacier. So all our gear including boats are up there. Now we are just waiting for the weather to clear up to go up high and access the edge of the icecap from there.  We have
had rain every day except the first 2 days and we are getting a little tired of rain.
We are both well tired of rain and going slightly stir crazy.

7 December 2007
All well, save and happy. Now down at the western end of Lake Leones.  We have carried one load up to the edge of the Northen Leones glacier and tomorrow we will carry the boats up through a 1000 metres of beech forest. Then we will move our camp up, which will be pretty close to the icecape.
Still going slow but pretty happy to be making progress and glad to be past the lake

3 December 2007
Current position 46o 43.199’ S, 073o 06.426’ W
We have reach Lake Leones after 5 days of Load carrying. Had a couple days of good weather followed by 3 days of rain:  currently we are hanging out in our tent waiting for the wind to drop before we can paddle across to the end of the lake and start heading up the ice cap.  (At least 2 trips).


25 Nov 2007
Well they say that flexibilty is an important ingredient in expeditioning- sometimes I think is it is THE most important ingredient. Certainly it seems to be a common thread on our trips- not sure whether that is disorganisation or a canny ability to weave and duck with the punches. Anyway, we have been slowly sheparded into a change of plan by a seemingly unstopabble inevitability. The hoops of paper-work and officialdom that we have had to jump through meant that it was impossible to book a ferry to our drop off point ahead of time, and when we arrived here in Puerto Aisen it transpired that the ferry we need, is full and we cant get on it. The next ferry is in seven days time- too late for us! This turned out to be just as well because we discovered that, contrary to prior imformation, it was extremely unlikely that the ship would drop us off where we wanted to go. At this stage of the trip, with 40 days food, fuel and climbing, kayaking, skiing and general Icecap camping gear- it would have taken us up to 10 days to shuttle all our gear to our start point- a quarter of our time gone before we even started. Sooooo we started looking for an alternative way to enter the icecap. As we were doing this- we finally got hold of a contact of a contact of a contact of a friend of a contact, who had actually set eyes on the Gualas Gl (our original planned entry to the Icecap), the first person we have tracked down that has seen into it, indeed had flown up it. His memory of his flight was thanking his maker that he didnt have to walk up the Gualas Glacier. Seems that he thinks the Gualas is very unlikely to allow access to the Icecap. So despite 18 months of info gathering and detective work- it just goes to show that it is inevitably a contact of a contact of a contact of a friend of a contact that holds the vital piece of beta- and that it is most unlikely that youll get that beta until you arrive. So in a curious way the bearuacracy seems to have saved us from grovelling up a horribly broken glacier for at least a week with our kayaks before turning around and grovelling all the way back down. More paperwork anyone........
So we have a new plan. Tomorrow we drive east to Puerto Tranquillo and then up into the Leones Valley, from which we will attempt to cart in excess of 200kgs, two bright orange Dagger kayaks and two excited but slightly decrepit climbers, up the valley, across the lake and 2000m up to the eastern edge of the icecap. No worries. This will put us slightly to the south and a ways east of where we would have popped out of the Gualas. From there we will try and head towards the central mountains to see if we can find our Tower, as always -weather allowing. The Leones access to the icecap was used in the 1960s by a kiwi expedition, amongst the first expeditions to the icecap. It will be very satisfying to follow in their footsteps.
Well the day after tomorrow the hard work begins. Next update from somewhere in the mountains.
Cheers
Sean and Jo.

21 November
Well, we continue the journey south. We are about to leave the oasis of Tren del Sur, a cosy hostel in Puerto Montt the gateway port to Patagonia. We have been sorting the food, and gear here, and packing and repacking in a desperate bid to reduce weight. Now we have most of our loads in one place they look desperately formidable. Our major concern at the moment is Sean´s back. He has put it out in Santiago and spent the last few days trying to loosen it up enough to contemplate lugging 100kgs of equipment over very broken glaciated terrain. Long stretching sessions, wam bathes and a masseuse have been brought to the cause and it is now much looser than it has been but still very niggly. Here´s hoping we can get a ful fix over the next few days.
We leave Puerto Mont on a ferry to Puerto Chacabuco and Puerto Aisen where we must liase with various authorities. This was a bit of a surprise sprung on us in our last minute permit. We had hoped to to go direct from Puerto Mont to Laguna San Rafeal. So we will have a few days in Puerto Chacabuco before getting another ship to our drop of point at the Gualas valley mouth.
We have been able to make contact with some great people here who have spent time on the icecap. It is amazing how difficult that seems from NZ but how easy it is once you make a critical cotact here in Chile. Anyway, people have raised their eyebrows when we have said we hope to ascend the Gualas Gl, but won´t predict it is impossible, so that is encouraging. We have been told that conditions are not so good this year- which is less encouraging, but we can only give it our best shot.


16 November

Well here we are back in Santiago. Its wonderfully balmy, the wine is good and the food plentiful. In fact neither of us is sure why we really want to head to a hurricane blasted, damp and cold icecap to eat dehy!!

Everything is slowly falling into place- we have a permit and transport arranged to close to our departure point. We still have to get final permission from the authorities in Puerto Aisen and need to replace the salami and cheese lunchpacks that were swiped by customs officials. They were so lovingly vacuum packed by the guys at Cryovac too! And cost a fortune in excess luggage charges!

Tomorrow we jump on a bus to Puerto Mont where we will buy the last of the food and then check to see if we can fit it all into our kayaks. From there it is on the ferry To Puerto Chacbuco and Puerto Aisen to get final permission and then we´re off into the wilderness. 

11 November

Two days to go until blast off! Jo has swapped the stress of his Emergency Medicine exams for last minute attempts to get everything done. Sean has filled three rooms of his house with equipment and food and is busy trying to work our how all that stuff is going to fit onto an international flight, let alone into two small kayaks.

We had a super-productive few days when Jo came over from Tassie a couple of months ago but despite that there always seems to be a mad, last minute rush to get the final details sorted before getting on the plane. We've vacuum packed 40 days of food, tried to work out the menu on the video gear and, most importantly are still negotiating the seemingly inevitable permit hassles. Up till now we have been too busy to really get excited and it won't be until we're tucking into the first airline meal that we'll really be convinced that we're away. I did have my first moment of waking up in a cold sweat a few nights ago- wondering what we will be confronted with when we first lay eyes on the Gualas Glacier snout.  Not long now till we find out.

The next update should be from Santiago where we will finally meet up and have all the gear in one place. There will be several days of sorting our gear and systems, finalising permits and plans and enjoying a few pisco sours before we commit to 40 days of dehy!

Adios

August 2007

With three months to go, planning is reaching a frenetic pace! Unlike our past Expeditions which have all had a fixed Basecamp, this trip is a mobile journey, which means lugging all our gear with us; food and fuel for 40 days, paddling gear, climbing gear, filming gear- our legs start to wobble just thinking about it. With this in mind, weight has obviously been at the forefront of our slightly worried thinking, and many evenings have been spent pouring over spread sheets trying to work out a way to reduce weight. This has been helped by some great new sponsors supplying lightweight gear for the trip (sees the sponsors page for links). Macpac and Bivouac have provided their usual amazing support whilst SPARC have provided a much needed financial grant- with the aim of inspiring Kiwis into more healthy living. SkiTrab and Scarpa have lightened our ski setups by a phenomenol amount while Mapworld have provided good, robust, but light GPS units for the inevitable whiteouts. Jonathans Camera and Video are on-board with the paraphenalia necessary for Doco production, and Dagger are supplying a couple of Approach kayaks that will end up being very confused by the lack of time on the water!

The other factor causing some concern was the lack of maps/photos of the icecap. This has been mostly resolved by Tim Kerr, a resident genius at the University of Canterbury, who has created fantastic composite SAT images and by the super-helpful Pablo Besser on the spot in Chile. Pablo has done several trips to the icecap, including a winter traverse, and has sent us some great images.

Jo is over from Tasmania this week for some frantic headscratching- we're just hoping we can fit all the gear into the Dagger Approach boats we'll be using as sleds.

We're off on Nov13th -wahoo.