Saturday, February 25, 2012

Torres del Paine

Continued from http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2012/02/patagonia-portage.html

So what do you do when you have been knocked out of the race after 2 days of racing. Well for one it was a full day boat ride back to Punta Arenas. That was pretty cool and we passed some incredible sites along the way.

On the boat back to Punta Arenas

Early monring on the deck of the boat
The southernmost point of the mainland Americas
Incredible waterfalls coming off the glaciers

Friends with the captain and crew

Once back in Punta Arenas we decided that we would take the bus to Puerto Natales and do what is one of the most amazing trips - Torres del Paine. Torres del Paine is a spectacular mountain range in the far northern tip of Patagonia. It is known for 2 fabulous hikes, the loop and the W. The loop normally takes 10-12 days and the W normally takes 5 but it can be done in 3. We planned to do it in 3.

The bus from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales is probably the only thing that is a rasonable cost, about $10. It is a 4 hour bus ride, and once you get to Puerto Natales there are LOTS of very nice hostels. We stayed for one night in Hostal Geminis (about $14 per person) and that included breakfast. We booked the bus ride to Torres del Paine ($24 round trip) and the next morning we were off.

The park has an entrance fee of about $20 which is well worth it, even thought everything in the park does cost extra. We started the hike heading to the spires. It took us a few hours to get to the first refuge (Refugio Chileno) where we made camp, lightened our pack and headed up to the spires. They were incredible (attach pictures) On the way back Julie and Joe decided to head back to camp, but I was itching for more so jogged up to Campamento Japonese. A climber there had fallen in scree and broken some bones and the park rangers had sent most of the day trying to get him out. I dd not want to be another gawker so I headed back to Chileno.

Starting up the hill in Torres del Paine
Just a shot of me on the rocks
The beautiful lake and spires
A great spot for a picture

The glowing sunrise
Without me in the way
The Florida Orienteering sticker at Refugio Chileno
With new friends David and Emma along trail

We met some nice friend there from Santiagio, they were British teaching in Santiago, David and Emma. They were just finishing the W and David had blistered pretty badly on his feet so I helped patch him up with Leukotape. I also noticed (incredibly) that in the window of Chileno camp there was an old Florida Orienteering hotline sticker!

The next morning the sunris was incredible as it made the spires literally glow. After a good breakfast of peanuts and coffee we headed off on the long hike to Campamento Italiano. This was a pretty boring and long stretch, but once we made to to Campamento Italiano we were rewarded with French Valley and the ever present avalanches on the far side of the valley. The huge rumbles as the snow slid off the glaciar and down the mountain were fantastic. We sat and watched and filmed this for a while, but it soon got dark and we had to head back to the camp site. This was a very large and shaded camp site. It was also very crowded. One of the camps at the top of French Valley was closed, so folks could only stay in Italian Camp for a single night. I have no idea how they kept track of this. This was not really a full featured camp site and the next morning we made for Refugio Grey.

Hiking up the rocks to French Valley
Watching the avalanches in French Valley
Campamente Italiano at dusk

This was going to be a long day of hiking. We stopped for lunch at Los Cuernos, a really nice refuge along the trail that served food (only $6 for a soda!). We made it to Camp Grey early afternoon and after setting up the tent I decided to head up the mountain to see the glaciar. I was able to jog (no pack) most of the way and a quick scramble on the rocks placed me at a wonderful spot above the glaciar. I met some folks there and we chatted for a while and took picutres.

Climbing down to Grey Glacier
A nice view from above
Refugio Grey - a nice spot

By the time I got back to the camp I had found that they were going to turn on the hot water at the camp for a few hours at 6 PM. I immediately got in line for the chance to be clean and have a nice hot shower - I also washed some clothes that were beginning to get pretty rank.

We found that instead of hiking out we could take a boat from Camp Grey to the Glaciar and Hotel Gray. The glaciar was amazing and the hotel was amazing. Because of language barriers (very few park workers speak any English at all) there was a lot of confusion about how we would get back, but that all sorted out and that evening we were back in Puerto Natales.

Icebergs floating around
On boat Salt II in front of glacier
A bit of a better shot.

The next day we did some shopping, which was fun because every other shop in Puerto Natales is an outdoor shop with really great gear. Mostly I got some cool stuff for my wife and kids. That day we headed back for Punta Arenas, I was curious how the race was going, and tired and happy from camping which I love.

A little Milodon shopping

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Patagonia Portage

Continued from http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-am-going-to-do-full-blog-post-on-it.html

This portage will definitely go down as one of the epic portages of all time. When we got to PC3 we were told that we would be able to continue. It was 3:30 (cutoff was at 2:00 PM) and we were dead tired. Our first order of business was to recharge our batteries and get our wits about us. We did spend way too much time deciding on a course of action, but that also coincided with our rest time. In the end we decided to take a risky gamble and use the small creek shown on the map east of PC2 rather than attempt to go straight towards the first lake..

The map - we progressed from right to left.

We portaged along the beach to the mouth of the creek and were glad to find that it could be paddled. We were able to paddle almost 500 meters before we hit our first beaver dam. This was still good progress, but because the creek winded all around we were not making good progress towards our end goal - just progress along the creek. We could tell that we were not the only team to try this route, there were signs of another team, scrapes on trees, mashed down areas and footprints. This route was risky time-wise, but it was also less physically demanding than the direct portage across the turba.

From Patagonia Videos


As we progressed up the creek, the dams became more frequent. We worked the boats up and over each one. Dustin was now fully recovered and working hard with Joe to push the boats over the dams. Because we were in the water for most of this we kept our wetsuits on, but now we found that they either had holes in them or were leaking. Probably the prior. When a dry suit gets a hole it not only becomes a wet suit, it also fills with water that has no way out. My feet and legs were surrounded by what felt like 10 pounds of water. Everything on this island had thorns and tried to grab you. Even though this section was very slow, it was incredibly interesting. The creek was at times cloaked in dense lush forest, it would then open to a flow through grasslands, and then give way to an eerie landscape of dead trees. All the while beaver dams blocking the way every 200 meters or so.


From Patagonia Videos

We eventually made it to the small mapped lake.

From Patagonia Videos


We paddled the lake to the far side where we had another mapped stream. This turned out to be very clogged, so we backtracked and did a short 400 meter portage to a second lake that was parallel to the lake we were on. It was now starting to get dark. We knew we were alone (completely alone) on this island. The only other humans were racers that were very likely past PC3 and on to PC4. We paddled towards the south side of the island with one small stop for me to read the maps and determine where we would take out. We headed for the final take-out on the south side of this lake on Dawson Island. From here it would be the GREAT portage up and over what in Florida would pass for a mountain. The other teams had left us some nice boat paths to follow, so this was a great help - especially considering it was quite dark.

From Patagonia Videos


We pulled the boats in twos, we pulled in fours. It seemed like we never stopped pulling the boats. These were Necky Amaruks, they weighed about 90 pounds. Add about 40 more pounds per person and you have some serious weight to pull. I congratulate all the teams that were able to hammer this portage.

See the Beaver dam - we had lots of those
Resting for a minute in the Turba
This was PC3 - a welcome sight

We can now add one more element to the portage, Turba. Turba is a reddish-orange spongy moss. Imaging portaging boats over dry sponges and you have the effect of Turba. As you portaged over the grass and evergreens the boat would slide. You only dealt with the weight of the boat and some friction. You would then see Turba ahead and you prepared for your momentum to simply stop. One two three PULL, One two three PULL. Past 11 PM, 12 PM 1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM,... Finally as the sun came up I could see the final hill where we would switch to portaging downhill.

By this time Dustin had no confidence in my navigation and thought I was lost. I explained where we were and how far we had to go. After some team arguments Julie made the call - we would sleep. It was 5:30 AM, we still had almost 2 km of portaging and there was no chance of making the cutoff. We were too tired to put up the tent, we simply collapsed on the Turba (at least the soft turba was good for something). The sleep proved to be a great recharge, but now we had another issue, we were out of both food and water. The food was important for energy. Julie took charge and we all pooled our food and split it so that we could get as much as possible per person.

Water was a different matter - we were all dry in the throats, we had not passed a water source all night long. There were 2 small beaver ponds close to us. The water was dark and foul smelling. We added 3 times the amount of iodine we would normally add and used the last of our Gatorade to kill the rank flavor. The one bladder was going to have to last the team to the PC. Since this was shared water, you knew that every bit you drank was water other team members would not have.

We had one section that was the final push up a major hill. It looked impossible. We first carried all the stuff in the boats to the top - making the boats much lighter. We decided to have all 4 of us push and pull each boat up the hill. We pulled, the top got closer. We got the first boat up. We headed back down and with our spirits lifted by the success with the first boat. We got the second boat over the hill - we were almost there.

As we crested the hilltop we saw a nice route leading to the Fjord and a clearly visible lone red tent (PC3). We still had some ups, downs, and ever present Turbato go over - but we were there. Dustin found a pack of Skittles in his pack that gave all of us a huge sugar boost. We pulled and finally we got there. We were greeted by the 2 girls manning the PC, they were starting to get worried - it was after noon and we had been out a long time.

All that we cared at the time is that we had done it. It had been a 22 hour long portage leg for us. Had we been allowed to contnue (paddling now) we would have gotten in the boats and started paddling. This was not to happen - we found out that we were the second team pulled from the race (the Brazilian team Go Crazy never made it to PC2). It still felt like being the first person being voted off the island. Of course we were still a long way from Punta Arenas. Little did we know the ride back to Punta Arenas would be an adventure unto itself.

Next http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2012/02/torres-del-paine.html

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Patagonia - The Start and Paddle

The Patagonian Expedition Race started at 2:30 AM with a mass bike start that headed south from Punta Arenas. As we rode down the beach and through the southern part of the city we saw plenty of spectators,photagraphers, and some curious onlookers. We were soon out of the city lights but on a wonderful paved road with a light tailwind. The lead teams were literally flying, we settled into a strong 18 mph pace and watched all the other teams slowly pull away from us. The bike ride was only about 45 miles, but 45 miles wearing a full expedition pack is a feat beyond most normal humans. For expedition racers it is just a warmup.


There really was no navigation required to get to CP1, yet we still managed to miss one turn and have to go back when we reached a water crossing. A little time lost, but nothing major. We arrived with 2 other teams and as 4 teams were hitting the water. We needed to take our bikes apart to pack them, stage our water gear, select a boat and go. Being a new foursome this was not as coordinated as you might see with a more seasoned team, but we still managed a fairly fast transition. As I put my packed bicycle where the TA crews would take it, I noticed team Norcal returning on their boat. They had a boat with a faulty rudder and were coming back to switch for another boat.


When I finally got everything ready to select our boats that was one of only 2 boats left. I figured we would do some quick repairs and hope for the best. We had to cut the foot straps, and retie them so I could reach the foot pedals, unfortunately that made them quite short and I was pretty crunched up inside the boat trying to keep my feet on them. The water was still calm and I could do without a rudder if had to. I was uncomfortable, but not terribly so, and I estimated the crosing would take us less than 4 hours. 


To make this part short the water did not stay calm for long. The wind coming from the east was calm on the east shore, but in Patagonia winds come fast and strong, and only a mile out the waves started picking up. By 2 miles out we had 4 to 6 foot chop, but that was still quite manageable. What was a different problem was that I was having a very hard time keeping my foot on the pedals, being so crunched in the boat. When my foot would slip off the pedals of the rudder, I had to open the spray skirt, reach down with my hands, pull the pedals back, reset my feet, and then try to keep them solidly on the pedals.


Another mile and the seas truly got rough and we were taking waves over the boat. These were sea kayaks and they were very stable (Necky Amaruk). As long as we did not take water, we would still be OK. About that time I started feeling the water around my calves inside the boat. My first though was that we had a hole, but Dustin soon felt the culprit. Instead of his spray skirt going up around his back, it was pushed down, kind of the difference of having your shirt tucked in or not, and water was pooling in his spray skirt and running into the boat. He tried to pull it up, but it was solidly tight and had seemed to form a suction ring holding it down.


Then, almost suddenly it got rough. We did not get the usual single large waves from one direction, we got the dreaded cross chop. In cross chop waves come from 2 different directions at angles. When 2 waves combine you get a double peak, and a double trough. They add. As we paddled and bobbed we would see Joe and Julie, and then they would disappear into a trough only to reappear a few seconds later. Kind of a big roller coaster. We would be OK as long as the waves did not start topping and crashing, we could easily keep the water of the top of the boat and prevent the pooling in the spray skirt, and leaking into the boat. Then the wind picked up. The side effect of wind is cresting and whitecaps. By the time the water in the boat reached my hips I was concerned. 


As we were fighting this situation, the Navy chase boat went by and headed for the calmer water in the bay near PC2. 


We were now paddling a half full kayak in heavy wind, 10+ foot  waves, and oh yea, now the rudder had decided to completely fail. I could not open my spray skirt to fix it, and the rope to pul it up was seized. The rudder was stuck in a right pushing position. We did not want to go right. We wanted left. I was concerned and Dustin was really concerned. We knew the Navy boat was probably near and as long as we could use the sat phone we would be able to call in a rescue. We signaled for Joe and Julie to stay close and shouted have the sat phone ready. Our response was they did not know where it was. Dustin shouted back to me, did I know where it was? I had never even seen it, so that was no help.


So the situation was simple, we were in high seas, in a sinking kayak, with a faulty stuck rudder, which was leaking in the Straight of Magellan, with just aboving freezing water temeratures, and did not know the location of our safety gear. That was when Dustin yelled back that his dry suit was also leaking. At this point Dustin was very concerned and let all of us know. He was pretty emphatic that he would like to make it back home to his wife and children. I assured him that I would also like to make it home too. By my estimates we were 3 miles from the closest shoreline, visible but not quite reachable.


Try this experiment, take a bucket, fill it half way with water, and move it back and forth so the water sloshed back and forth. Once you have it sloshing, try to stop it. The water wants to keep moving. This was our boat, and the problem with this is that that sloshing water wants to tip the boat over. This is really only a problem in a boat if something is sloshing the boat back and forth, like waves. The first time I felt the boat trying to tip over I became quite concerned again, the next few times made it perfectly clear that we would need to do something.I wondered how the other team, the Brazilian team of Go Crazy was faring with the same situation. I knew that by now the lead teams had like reached PC2 and were well on their way. Paddling a boat full of water is very slow, and even more slow when you have to correct direction every 4th or 5th stroke. My best estimate was 3 hours to make shore if we could stay afloat. 


************************************   PART 2 *********************************************


A good friend of mine, Dana Allen, a firefighter told me to people get into trouble when they write checks their bodies cannot cash. What this means to adventure racers is that all those endless hours of training are money in the bank when your body needs it. We pretty much had 2 choices - the same choices you always have in a sinking boat; get to shore or fix the boat. 


I could see that we had about one mile of paddling and the whitecaps stopped. We did what we had to do, we paddled as hard as we could. Even then it took almost an hour of all out paddling to make that mile. This however gave Dustin a chance to open his spray skirt and use the bilge to remove some water. In a few minutes I could feel the water had gone from my waist, to my hips, and then further down on my legs. We were still fighting  the boat, but not as much. We kept paddling, the shore got closer. At this point Dustin was wasted, I could see the immense fatigue the sprint, the cold, and the adrenaline had left behind. He pumped more water out of the boat and we kept going. Another hour passed, we were making slow progress, the wind and waves were still fighting us, but the end was in sight. After a forever of paddling our boat hit ground. Julie and Joe had beached before us and helped us out of the boats.


After making landfall, I tried to stand and realized I was so tired I literally had to crawl on shore. Dustin was not in much better condition, but he had the added problem of the leaking drysuit. Joe checked and the waist zipper had not been secured completely. As soon as the water passed his waist in the boat it had rushed into his suit. This was ice water, so if you want to simulate the experience simply get in a trash bag and dump a bucket of ice water in it. He was shivering and miserable cold, but he had not settled into hypothermia (yet). Strangely I felt a sense of pride that he had overcome so much.  


After about 10 minutes of simply lying on the beach I felt my strength return. Joe and Julie had helped Dustin out of his dry suit and into dry clothes. Dry clothes and a spot to rest out of the wind started to do wonders for him. Our wet gear and suits were hanging on bushes and drying in a 30 to 40 mph (cold) wind. I got some food from my pack and ate, and started to feel my strength return. We let Dustin rest. We were not going to be able to take the boats out the beach we had come in due to heavy surf, so Joe and I scouted a spot we could launch and portaged the boats to it. 


Once everyone was lucid and somewhat warm, we had a little team meeting. I pointed out our location on the maps. The remainder of the paddle should be sheltered from the wind as we would follow the shoreline to PC2. We had no choice, we suited up, got back in the boats and launched back out into the hostile sea. 


This time the seas were friendly. As we turned the corner and headed to PC2 we had mild waves and a slight tailwind. It was only about 6 more miles. We were going to make it, though we would miss the 2 PM cutoff. A group of penguins swam to our boat and greeted us into their wonderful harbor as we approached the PC. We could see 4 sailors on the beach in fatigues. I could make out the form of Stefan - the race director. He asked us what happened, and we explained our problems. He said we had missed the cutoff, but asked if we wanted to continue. There was no pause when we all answered YES. He let us know we needed to leave the PC immediately, and head out on the next leg, the portage.


We all needed rest and rest badly. This was not going to be an option. It was 3:30, we had missed the cutoff by 1 1/2 hours. We needed to get moving. What would have been a pleasant 3-4 hour paddle had become an 8 hour ordeal. We gathered up our gear and strength and headed down the beach dragging our kayaks behind us. We were facing what would probably be the most difficult portage in adventure racing history. Still the other teams had done it - we could too. 


Team Go Crazy from Brazil was the only team that had entered the water behind us. They never made it across but were safely rescued (from the reports that we got).



On our little private beach on Dawson Island


Dustin was cold and tired, but soon recovered.



Glad to be on land


More pictures of teams at http://www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com/en/gallery.php?id=6


NEXT UP - http://eaglinar.blogspot.com/2012/02/patagonia-portage.html










Monday, February 13, 2012

Notes from Patagonia

Well we are all here in Punta Arenas. Dustin and I made it in around midnight Saturday night and Julie and Joe followed (due to a delayed flight) around 4 AM. It takes about 30 hours to get here so it is a pretty long trip.

We checked in on Monday with a bunch of other teams. The gear check was extensive. We had to show every piece of gear on the gear list http://www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com/en/races_2012_equipment.php We were missing the 5 fishhooks from the medical kit and had to find a place to purchase them. Other than that and a couple of trips between race HQ and the hotel we got it all done.

Next came the skills check. First we all had to paddle out into the straight of Magellan, capsize our kayak, and get back in use a deep water entry in less than 5 minutes. The water is about 38 degrees so Dustin and I did it in about 45 seconds. We were wearing dry suits so that did keep us pretty warm, they just dont have much insulation.

After that we watched a rescue demonstration where the French team paddled out and were rescued by a Chilean navy helicoptor. I think the Navy was mostly proud of their coptor and rightfully so as it was pretty cool. We did our ropes test that was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. We ascended up a pole, transferred to a tyrolean, tracersed to a second pole and rappeled down. It was incredibly windy on the ground , but intense on the pole. It was taking people a lot longer to do it than they had expected mostly becuase they set the ropes so you had to pass over a rop on the way up and on the way down. That is always slow.

The opening ceremony was really cool. All the folks I know from the US and the movie (which you can download on iTunes though I have the DVD and studied it extensively) were there. Almost everyone seems to come back to this race. The cermony was fun, but the big thing was getting the maps at the prerace at 11 PM. We got to see the course. This calmed Julie down. It made me a bit more nervous as I could tell what we would be facing.

Course
75 km bike to tip of peninsula with a 2:30 AM start
25 km paddle across straight of Magellan. The start was timed so we would have favorable weather conditions for the paddle.
10 km portage on island
25 km paddle in Fjord lake to CP4
20 km paddle across another straight though we will only be allowed to cros if conditions are favorable.

The next 2 sections are a short trek meaning about a day and a long bike meaning about 2 days

Then the long trek. These are legendary, usually taking 3 to 4 days. Most parts of this trek were inaccessible last year and the organizers spent all year with volunteer crews opening them up. 3 major mountain passes, peat bogs, beavers (yes they have a big problem with beavers), snow, forest, navigation, you name it, but in the end we get to the Beagle Channel.

After that we paddle 40k to the base of Mount Darwin, turn north and paddle to one of the most incredible glaciers in the world. When asked how long it would take they said 2 days. Why? Its into a headwind which here means you dont move very fast. Teams might paddle in the morning and have to camp in the afternoon and evening so they can avoid the winds.

That is it. We dropped off all our bags that are now heading to the different drop locations. Five food bags and 3 gear bags. The checkpoints are all manned and the people are there and waiting already. We are all in our race clothes. I miss my family so make sure to give Linda your support. Ill have some incredible stories in about 10 days.