Erin Bastien: In Search of the Hidden Glaciers

Posted on Thursday 5th February, 2015

In December, Erin Bastian, Lee Franklin and Mike Burnett embarked upon a thirty-three day self-supported expedition through the wilds of Patagonia. Here is the video of their journey.

The journey they covered is shown on the map below.

 

Moments on the map ...

Pío XI Glacier

A bluebird day at the end of our first week, just as we reached the Pío XI Glacier. We could see it in all its glory and watched porpoise hunting around our camp whilst we cooked on an open fire. The first time Lee had ever seen a glacier and a good one too.
King crab day

After just over three weeks eating only freeze dried food, we were passed by a local fishing boat, which came over to greet us through the wind and chop. They were friendly and generous, giving us each a king crab for dinner that evening. Lee then quickly paddled to the next available landing spot to delicately unload these giangantic crabs from between his legs, where the fishermen had loaded them (to his shock). We cooked up a feast – the best tasting food I have ever eaten.
 

Crazy corner

After an enjoyable morning in the sunshine the weather took a swift change for the worst. Suddenly we were holding on to our paddles for dear life. With nowhere to land, we were totally committed, our only option to paddle for ten long kilometres down and around the corner to the shelter of the first inlet we could find. It was a hairy afternoon, but we released we could survive a force 10 wind, just.

Estro Peel

For five days we paddled up Estro Peel, hoping to make it through the narrow gap into the very top basin. We knew that this would be the closest we could get to the Patagonian Ice Field, to see glaciers flowing down steep mountain sides right into the sea. Navigating the channel was pretty exciting as lumps of glacier were funneled down with the currents. We had to dodge icebergs as big as houses whilst paddling upsteam into the top basin. Luckily our nimble kayaks were manoeuvrable enough to weave in and out of the crazy ice traffic.

Write up courtsey of Erin and Palm.