The final day of the Wild Goose Chase.


The trail wound through a valley of black volcanic gravel.

"Thus spoke Zarathustra" was my preferred soundtrack for this day.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.


Moon walking


The day was fine and clear.

The following day we waited in the freezing cold driving rain for 5 hours before our lazy, incompetent Danish logistics guy picked us up.
(Thanks Jesper :)

Total sense of humour failure.

Sunset over Laguna Verde.




I´ve had worse days...

Wild Goose Chase...

Our first real project for the expedition was to conduct a waterfowl survey of the lakes and waterways of Southern Lanin. The purpose was to assess the impact of the introduced American mink on the populations of ground nesting waterfowl.

We trekked for 10 days counting birds at nominated survey sites. Most of the trekking was along established trails, but many had not been used for some seasons and were well overgrown.

We didn´t see another person the entire time.
The weather was perfect and the scenery was stunning. The lakes and rivers were thick with trout.



The only downside was that we didn´t see many birds.
Either the American mink is cleaning up .... or the birds have headed North for the Winter.

I do hope it´s the latter.....

Lanin One.
Me Zero.




Another time big fella....
Another time....

Summit Attempt.


On the 3rd day of mountaineering training we attempted to summit Volcan Lanin.
It was a tough day.

We slept in a refugio about halfway up the hill.
Just a little hut bolted onto the side of the mountain.
Insulated against the cold and battering wind.




Up at 3.00am for a carbo loaded brekky of mashed potato and hot chocolate.
We climbed for 6 hours but never even looked like making it to the top.
The hot weather made the surface unstable and rocks were tumbling down from some steep cliffs near the top.

At least the weather was nice and the views from the top were stunning.
Just over the border in Chile, other volcanoes smoked quietly and ominously.

At 12.00 we turned back and headed back down to base camp at Tromen.
I learned that you cant necessarily climb these things just because they are there.
There is a bit more to it than that....

VT and me on the way up

Lanin National Park.


A huge National Park in Nequen province about 2hrs North of San Carlos de Bariloche.
The dominant feature is the Volcan Lanin: at 3770m the highest peak in Patagonia.
Not extinct, but "inactive" .... whatever that means.



At Lanin we underwent 10 days of expedition training.
Wilderness first aid, stetcher theory, Emergency evacuation, communications protocols, Navigation, Surviving the cold, Technical Mountaineering, Crevasse rescue and Ultimate Frisbee (because what good training program doesn't include Frisbee?)



Mountain Thong?

The Andean Condor



So this is the Andean Condor.
Vultur gryphus for you sciency types.

It weighs in a hefty 15kg and has a 3m wingspan.
It can live up to 70years and eats dead things.


It is actually more closely related to the storks than the eagles and vultures.
Who´d have thunk it?

Condors spend their evenings in communal roost sites known as Condoreras. This makes them easy to count. I counted over 70 birds at one condorera.

The condor population is reasonably healthy in Patagonia and they have an active breeding program to repopulate other parts of South America where the condor once lived.

They are majestic, fascinating and awesome birds.
Cute they are not.