Kei$ha on the radio....at the seafood joint in Puerto Montt.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Expedition Life
Before I left, people asked me, ¨what are you going to do in the mountains for 30 days¨
to be honest, i kind of had no idea.
expedition life was simple, but busy. here's a typical day:
6:00 - Alarm goes off. Lay in my sleeping bag for five minutes and then get on all my layers after sleeping in long underwear. Its 30 degrees outside, and its my turn to cook breakfast this morning.
6:15 - Finally get my contacts in and put on wind pants, rain pants, two puffy jackets, a wind jacket, gloves, and a hat. Slip on crocs with my extra warm wool socks.
6:20 - Start the stove, and put on some water. Some for oatmeal, and some for hot drinks. Coffee, tea or cocoa in the morning is a big deal. I brush my teeth and get my body ready for the day while the water heats up (bandaging fingers or toes, putting on sunscreen, etc.)
6:40 - Water is ready - save some in a thermos and start the chocolate peanut butter oatmeal recipe.
7:00 - Foods ready! Wake up my two tent mates with breakfast and drinks. We gulp it down and start packing camp.
8:00 - Camp is packed - we do one last round of mate for some quick energy. Pack weight is somewhere between 40-60 pounds including personal clothes, a tent, a kitchen, fuel, climbing gear and some extras. Group gear gets divided up.
8:30 - Meet the group. We get a route briefing for the day and split into 3 self-sufficient hiking groups. There are no trails where we are, so we pick a landmark on a horizon, talk about potential routes, and try to find a path from here to there. There are some rough maps but the most detailed topo maps have gradients of 100m (333 ft.) which can hide a lot of obstacles... so we have to use our eyes and our judgment.
10:00 - Break for food and water. We take breaks about every hour. Instead of eating lunch, we snack constantly between breakfast and dinner. The going isn´t too hard (feels like a leisurely jog), but after 4 years in the office my muscles are complaining about the ups and down with this pack...
10-4 - Hike, break, chat, learn about the local ecology and geology on the go, and snack snack snack. People on the group are from diverse backgrounds and its interesting to hear everyone´s story. Sometimes the terrain is intense enough that we have to focus on just putting one foot in front of the other.
4:00 - We make it to the landmark and notice that other groups got here a little bit earlier and are scouting out camp sites. Look around to find my other tent mates and join them to start setting up camp.
4:15 - I´m on cook duty tody so I set up our kitchen, fetch water, and start some hot water while my tentmates set up the tent.
4:45 - Tent´s up, and after throwing the gear in the tent we sit down and relax with some mate and swap stories about the day.
5:15 - Meet with the group for class. Today it´s about river crossings but the topics are pretty diverse and cover the whole range of expedition topics (leadership, decision making, reading maps, risk management, food management, to name a few). The thread through all of this is be conservative, and don´t trade a 1% chance of an evac because you want to keep your feet dry. The goal is long term survival.
6:30 - Break for dinner and OHO (officially hanging out).
6:45 - I get started on some pasta, while my other tentmates are either chopping cheese and salami or mending themselves or their gear. Things on the to-do list include patching ripped tents or gear, washing feet, going No. 2 (takes a while...) and fixing cuts, broken skin and blisters.
7:30 - Food is ready! Conversation comes to a halt while we devour our food.
8:00 - I take some pictures around camp while my tentmates help clean up. It stays light till about 10 or 11, and there are lots of opportunities for great shots if the weather is right.
9:00 - Savor some cocoa (more on food later) that a tentmate made while chatting about the day, what it´s like being in the wilderness, and joke around about the terrible garbanzo beans another tent group made.
10:00 - Crawl into bed and read a little before falling asleep. Probably have some lucid and surreal dreams (everyone did - I guess being in the wilderness does that to folks? Most of mine had something to do with home) before waking up with breakfast in bed and realizing I´m still in Patagonia.
to be honest, i kind of had no idea.
expedition life was simple, but busy. here's a typical day:
6:00 - Alarm goes off. Lay in my sleeping bag for five minutes and then get on all my layers after sleeping in long underwear. Its 30 degrees outside, and its my turn to cook breakfast this morning.
6:15 - Finally get my contacts in and put on wind pants, rain pants, two puffy jackets, a wind jacket, gloves, and a hat. Slip on crocs with my extra warm wool socks.
6:20 - Start the stove, and put on some water. Some for oatmeal, and some for hot drinks. Coffee, tea or cocoa in the morning is a big deal. I brush my teeth and get my body ready for the day while the water heats up (bandaging fingers or toes, putting on sunscreen, etc.)
6:40 - Water is ready - save some in a thermos and start the chocolate peanut butter oatmeal recipe.
7:00 - Foods ready! Wake up my two tent mates with breakfast and drinks. We gulp it down and start packing camp.
8:00 - Camp is packed - we do one last round of mate for some quick energy. Pack weight is somewhere between 40-60 pounds including personal clothes, a tent, a kitchen, fuel, climbing gear and some extras. Group gear gets divided up.
8:30 - Meet the group. We get a route briefing for the day and split into 3 self-sufficient hiking groups. There are no trails where we are, so we pick a landmark on a horizon, talk about potential routes, and try to find a path from here to there. There are some rough maps but the most detailed topo maps have gradients of 100m (333 ft.) which can hide a lot of obstacles... so we have to use our eyes and our judgment.
10:00 - Break for food and water. We take breaks about every hour. Instead of eating lunch, we snack constantly between breakfast and dinner. The going isn´t too hard (feels like a leisurely jog), but after 4 years in the office my muscles are complaining about the ups and down with this pack...
10-4 - Hike, break, chat, learn about the local ecology and geology on the go, and snack snack snack. People on the group are from diverse backgrounds and its interesting to hear everyone´s story. Sometimes the terrain is intense enough that we have to focus on just putting one foot in front of the other.
4:00 - We make it to the landmark and notice that other groups got here a little bit earlier and are scouting out camp sites. Look around to find my other tent mates and join them to start setting up camp.
4:15 - I´m on cook duty tody so I set up our kitchen, fetch water, and start some hot water while my tentmates set up the tent.
4:45 - Tent´s up, and after throwing the gear in the tent we sit down and relax with some mate and swap stories about the day.
5:15 - Meet with the group for class. Today it´s about river crossings but the topics are pretty diverse and cover the whole range of expedition topics (leadership, decision making, reading maps, risk management, food management, to name a few). The thread through all of this is be conservative, and don´t trade a 1% chance of an evac because you want to keep your feet dry. The goal is long term survival.
6:30 - Break for dinner and OHO (officially hanging out).
6:45 - I get started on some pasta, while my other tentmates are either chopping cheese and salami or mending themselves or their gear. Things on the to-do list include patching ripped tents or gear, washing feet, going No. 2 (takes a while...) and fixing cuts, broken skin and blisters.
7:30 - Food is ready! Conversation comes to a halt while we devour our food.
8:00 - I take some pictures around camp while my tentmates help clean up. It stays light till about 10 or 11, and there are lots of opportunities for great shots if the weather is right.
9:00 - Savor some cocoa (more on food later) that a tentmate made while chatting about the day, what it´s like being in the wilderness, and joke around about the terrible garbanzo beans another tent group made.
10:00 - Crawl into bed and read a little before falling asleep. Probably have some lucid and surreal dreams (everyone did - I guess being in the wilderness does that to folks? Most of mine had something to do with home) before waking up with breakfast in bed and realizing I´m still in Patagonia.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
In the Mountains...
Mountains and valleys... by the time you get to Patagonia the only flat space is what´s been cut by rivers and glaciers. Here´s a taste of the scenery...
High in the cordon near San Lorenzo - surveying the Rio Salto, which we spent most of the next day crossing.
Sunset over the Rio Salto... heavily braided and nowhere near its peak flow (judging by all the boulders and gravel).
Class time near the summit of San Lorenzo.
Sunset over the southern Andes, taken from the high glacier of San Lorenzo.
Rope teams on the snowfield... wet Patagonian weather makes for some outstanding rainbows.
This Chilean rancher (poblador) on my flight today...
...had an ENTIRE SHEEP CARCASS in his checked baggage.
How do I know this? Because the bag broke and the legs were poking out on the baggage conveyor belt. Going round and round...
How do I know this? Because the bag broke and the legs were poking out on the baggage conveyor belt. Going round and round...
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Back from the wild
Back from San Lorenzo after 5 weeks of learning how to live in the wildnerness with NOLS, while keeping our fingers crossed for a summit attempt..
My buddy Plavs had a cool idea - take daily pics and see what happens.
So this is what 30 days in the wilderness looks like:
Before:
5 weeks in the wilderness, a snowstorm, 2 glaciers and 53 pounds of camp food later: (with a couple of years of office life thrown in the mix)
My buddy Plavs had a cool idea - take daily pics and see what happens.
So this is what 30 days in the wilderness looks like:
Before:
5 weeks in the wilderness, a snowstorm, 2 glaciers and 53 pounds of camp food later: (with a couple of years of office life thrown in the mix)
Will be updating more often now that there are internet cafes nearby...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)