54 days, 526 kilometers, mountains, glaciers, rivers and plenty of storms. just a few keywords from our Southern Patagonian Ice Cap crossing in 2003. My Norwegian friend and expedition partner, Børge Ousland, and I were the first adventurers to cover this distance without outside support and depots. Børge and I complemented each other perfectly with our individual knowledge and experience; Børge, at this time, had already completed solo expeditions across the Arctic and Antarctica and was quite the ice-specialist and I knew the ropes in Alpinism. Amongst other endeavors, we had to abseil ourselves, including our equipment – more than 90 kilos per person – down a 600-meter face on Fella Reichert, this being the crux of our traverse. It took us 15 days to cover only 16 kilometers.
Read the 17-page travel report (PDF file) in National Geographic including many great pictures.
The Facts
The Southern Patagonian Inland Ice Field
- 526 kilometers
- First crossing without depots
- Fusion of mountaineering and moving in the arctic
- great teamwork
The complete route
Zoom into the interactive map (incl. our route) on nationalgeographic.com
