The expedition is over after 36 days in Chile. The links below will help you understand what we went through during the 26 days we called the South Patagonia Ice Cap our home. Thanks for all your support and interest in this project.

The maps below are regional overviews of where the trip took place- take a minute to get oriented. Also, take some time to learn about the proposed trip using the buttons on the left. Then enjoy some incredible photos!

This map details the various transportation methods we used to get all that gear from the USA down to the South Patagonia Ice Cap. This may have been the greatest challenge........

All of the blue links below lead to a photo- use your back button to return here.

Actual GPS locations of Camps and Objectives:

Other post trip documents:

Click on the image to view a map of our actual route on the glacier. This is a LANDSAT image from 1986 that we used as a basemap.

And now, the rest of the story.........

We arrived from Santiago on January 9th, very tired and very hungry. It was a successful trip- no lost toes or fingers and everyone was in good spirits the entire trip. There is so much to tell I don't know where to begin but suffice to say it was the adventure of a lifetime. We did not climb Cerro Lautoro- snow conditions were so poor this year that we were not able to use the skis until day 12 instead of day 3. Our progress was severely hampered for this reason. However, all of our personal goals were met- high adventure at the end of the Earth!

Santiago-Puerto Montt

    We arrived in Santiago with all of our luggage- hard to believe- and David picked us up at the airport in the minivan that Ski Total arranged for us. We headed off to the beach and spent the day getting tents ready. Monday morning Kyle headed off to pick up the permit at DIFROL and then he and Bart bought airplane tickets for PuertoMontt-Coyhaique-Santiago. With the van loaded, Dave and Audrey along with the GEOCAP team left for Puerto Montt.

Puerto Montt-Puerto Yungay

Enjoying a pleasant ride through the Lake District, we arrived in Puerto Montt at last and had a huge seafood meal at Angelmo, the scenic port town across from Chiloe. The next morning we say good-bye to David and our new friend Audrey and fly to Coyhaique, excess baggage and all. Not wasting a moment, we hit the grocery store and stocked up on a months worth of food, or so we thought. Karl and Kyle then visit the Carabineros (Police) and the Army headquarters to finalize our permit. The next morning we leave with Sigfriedo in the rented 4x4 truck and head for Tortel.

Typical scenery along the Carretera Austral.

Arriving in the town of Cochrane at noon and having the last big meal we will see for awhile we decide to buy a little more food (great idea!). Tortel is not reachable by boat we find out until Sunday so we head further south along the Carretera Austral to the military outpost of Puerto Yungay.

The river outpost of Vagabundo- from here you can go by boat to Tortrel on Sundays and Tuesday, but not on Friday.

We have made arrangements for a ride on the Carabineros boat for the next day- a coincidence that they were visiting while we were there. Saying good-bye to the best chauffeur I have ever had in South America, we found ourselves at the end of the Earth.

Puerto Yungay to the Glacier Jorge Montt

After a late night of pool and good base cooking, we did some GPS work for the ferry service by surveying in the location of the camp and docks for navigational exercises. It was a pleasure to get to know several Lieutentats and a General during our brief stay; their help and professionalism made quite the impression on us. The Carabineros boat arrived and took us and all of our luggage on the 3 hour trip over to Caleta Tortel through the Mitchell Fiord.

The Carabinero's boat and our hosts.

Upon our arrival in Tortel, we secured the services of Juan Nahuel to deliver us to his small cabin at the bay where our approach glacier entered the sea. We stayed with his family and left early the next morning in the good ship San Juan.

Don Juan Nahuel and sons make the final preparations on the boat.

A sunny day and calm seas greeted us and made our 5 hour trip through the fiords surrounded by glaciated peaks, one of the trip highlights. We arrived to a bay choked with icebergs which we successfully navigated and finally made landfall below Juan's cabin.

Approaching the Glacier Jorge Montt on the San Juan.

Do you remeber the movie Titantic? We felt very vulnerable as our wooden hulled vessel plied the water across the Bahia Jorge Montt.

A quick turnaround  found us heading up the trail to Camp One the same afternoon. We had personal gear in our packs and made rapid progress with the horses carrying most of the other equipment. Out total load at this point was close to 700 pounds for 35 days.

Wet boots started here........

  Moral was high, and we were making good progress towards the actual icecap. Our phone began to show battery problems- a blown fuse was the culprit and we found a good workaround which let us stay connected to the Iridium system.

The start of our Iridium problems. Good to have your own rocket scientist on the trip.

Basecamp was bliss- beer, food, a beautiful lake, and camping on grass.

We spent 3 nights here from 12/05 to 12/07

Camp 1 (Basecamp) to the Camp 2

The next morning we awoke to the first sounds of driving rain and wind- this would be our life for the next thirty days. We packed the first load and headed up towards the glacier and Camp 2.

The load humping up the valley was torture-3 hours of vertical scrambling and stream crossing.

Route finding was difficult but we managed to reach the glacier and establish Camp 2 on a good level spot. We were very disappointed by the lack of snow. Everywhere we looked we saw open crevasses and huge blue ice fins.

Our first view of the route we were going to take up the glacier.

A few photo highlights from the rest of the trip:

Camp 5- finally skiing.........