Written by Katrina Brace (University of Vermont)
Video by: Will Green (Seattle University)
From our basecamp in Cochrane we drove to the end of the Carretera Austral on October 5th. Three hours into our journey we boarded a ferry across Estero Mitchell (about 45 min) and then drove another three hours to Villa O’Higgins. Villa O’Higgins is a very small little town where we spent two nights preparing for our next two weeks on Glacier Chico on the East side of the Southern Patagonian Ice field.
Lago O’Higgins and the Southern Patagonia Icefield. Photo by Katrina Brace.
For this adventure, we set up a temporary base camp at the estancia (ranch) of a local man named Misael. To get there, we boarded a boat to cross Lago O’Higgins. It’s a private boat for the people who live around the lake, subsidized by the Chilean government. It leaves Villa O’Higgins twice a month because there are no roads to for the campesinos to access their estancias, and most people do not have their own boat. The boat ride was about six hours to get to Misael’s estancia.
RRCS Conservation Scientist Adam Spencer enjoys the morning ride on Lago O’Higgins. Photo by Will Green.
We had beautiful views on Lago O’Higgins the whole way looking at the mountains, glaciers, and icebergs. There was even a moment where we got a peek of Mount Fitz Roy in the distance, standing tall above all the other mountains around.
While crossing Lago O’Higgins, our students got a glimpse of the famous Mount Fitz Roy. Photo by Katrina Brace.
We spent one day at Misael’s preparing for a four-day expedition towards Glacier Chico. We set out on a mission to find signs of huemul deer in a new valley, accessing it over the Paso del Diablo (Devil’s Pass) along the southeastern side of Lago Chico. We packed enough food for a four-day journey plus one emergency dinner meal and set off on our adventure.
Day one:
For the first day we enjoyed beautiful sunny weather and an easy-going nature hike to a campsite called Los Mosquitos. We hiked 10km south alongside Lago Chico with beautiful views of Glacier Chico to the South and Lago O’Higgins to the North. Lago O’Higgins is a beautiful blue/ turquoise color that is exactly what one would imagine a glacial lake to look like, while Lago Chico is a brownish cloudy color. This is because of volcanic ash on the glacier from a recent eruption of Lautaro Volcano (the highest peak of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field) getting dumped into the lake as Glacier Chico melts.
A Snowball’s Chance Over Devil’s Pass from Round River Conservation Studies on Vimeo.
Along the trail there were lots of cow trails running along side and through it. It was hard to tell one from the other at times. We had a point where it seemed our group lost Shay and Mateo, two of our three instructors, and we spend about an hour before finding them along with actual trail once more. We made it to Mosquito’s in decent time, setting up our tents in the sun and build a fire. Los Mosquitos campsite used to be an estancia, and the poplar trees are still there along with remnants of the home of Luisa Sepulveda, one of the founders of Villa O’Higgins. She lived to be 115, as the local legend goes, and was one of the first to bring cattle into the Lago Chico area.
Day Two:
Today we did a day hike down to Glacier Chico and back to Mosquito’s – about a 16km round trip. It snowed on and off throughout the hike, the flurries an excitement to everyone. We hiked through Open forests that were very green and had minimal understory cover, dominated by the native Lenga tree. These forests were fragmented by burned patches and bogs. We then entered a Red Crowberry-dominated shrub land. The Red Crowberry is a high alpine plant, about 4-6 cm tall and is a deep maroon color. It carpeted the hillsides all the way up to a rocky moraine where we stopped.
Glacier Chico’s terminal wall hovers over Lago Chico. Photo by Katrina Brace
Here we looked down to the glacier about 600m below us. We did not spend too much time here because of the wind, but Glacier Chico is beautiful. It extended out into Lago Chico from the Southern Ice Field like an arm. There was volcanic ash on top of the glacier, which allowed us to see the flow of the glacier through the valley. We could distinctly see all of the crevasses along the glacier, contrasted to the vivid blue color where it met Lago Chico.
Lagos Chico and O’Higgins meet at the terminal moraine once tilled by the Chico Glacier. Photo by Collin Campagne
On the way back to Mosquito we practiced doing plant transects. For transects each person has 3-4 plant species to look out for through 250m sections and record the abundance of each of their plants. I was in charge of monitoring Lenga (a native tree), Viola del Bosque (a violet that had a yellow flower, which was not currently in bloom), and Naussavia Chocolate (which is an alpine plant that grows in higher elevation so I did not see it) for abundance. We did this for 3km while searching for a photo-monitoring site of plant succession from the retreating Glacier Chico but had no luck in our search and returned to Mosquito for a delicious dinner of quesadillas.
Day Three:
The third day out was the start of our big mission. We were hiking over el Paso del Diablo looking for Huemul sign (tracks and scat) and doing plant transects as we hiked. It was slow going with the plant transects and a cold snowy day.
As we came up over the pass the wind picked up and the snow was turning to sleet and rain.
Over the Diablo Pass, the rain turned into sleet and then snow. Photo by Charlie Southwick.
There were a few small lakes up in the pass and we spent a long time looking for a Refugio that was supposed to be next to one of them. While eating lunch in the pouring rain on the side of the trail, Charlie and Alex went out as scouts to check at a fork in the trail for the Refugio and they found it!!!
Our savior in dingy tin armour! The Refufio Rio Diablo where we huddled for warmth. Photo by Katrina Brace
The Refugio was basically a little shack with some rusty medal in the corner, a half broken window with a bench propped against it to hold a piece of cardboard over the hole, and a few seats. There was a lean-too style bunk behind the table where 5 people could have fit on each level to sleep. The whole inside was probably 3m x 5m, so it became very crowded with twelve people squeezed inside, but it was our little perfect refuge from the cold and wet outside. There were remnants of a fire spot in one of the fefugio corners, which we attempted fashioning a chimney over and built a fire. This turned out very poorly, smoking everyone out of the refugio and back into the cold until the smoke cleared.
Inviting darkness of the Refugio and a quick steam of warm dinner. Photo by Charlie Southwick.
The Refugio is sometimes used as an Argentine military outpost so we were lucky not to encounter anyone there; but not surprising in this remote place. All nine of us students slept inside the Refugio on the bunk while out instructors braved the wind outside in their tents (much less crowded and smelly – and no mice!).
Day Four:
The next morning we woke to a dusting of snow and braved the cold continuing on farther into Argentina and down into the valley. This was definitely a tough day. It rained and sleeted on us all day, letting no one stay dry. We were sometimes on a broken trail and other times bushwhacking through bogs, and shrubby or forested areas. It’s one thing being wet and another thing being cold – but being wet and cold (and I mean wet through every single layer for two days) is not the most pleasant, but everyone was really good at keeping group moral up throughout the day. It was clear at times that some people were getting very cold so we would try to stay moving or poorly joke about it being “chilly in Argentina” because we had an on-going joke about it being “chilly in Chile.”
We eventually came to the next pass after getting off route a few times, and doing multiple river crossings. The pass turned out to be impassable due to a lot of snow and the poor weather conditions, so we had to back track downhill and re-cross the biggest stream (about 4-5m wide). There was a big debate on whether to cross the stream in the morning and set up camp where we were currently or to cross the stream and set up camp on the other side. We crossed the stream even though there was a chance that we might have to go back if we couldn’t find the trail in the morning.
Setting up camp in the developing snowstorm, students huddled around 2 fires to dry gloves and stay warm. Photo by Will Green.
After setting up tents in the sleet we proceeded to build not one but two fires to keep warm while cooking and eating dinner in the wetness, some of us partaking in the deep squats practiced by the Yagán people – an indigenous people who lived in Tierra del Fuego, dove for mussels covered in seal fat, and set the large pyres that gave the island its name “Land of Fire.”
Day Five:
The last day of our expedition we made a long haul for Misael’s. We had not hiked much the days before because of plant transects and having to back-track, so we decided to just hike the 20km back to Misael’s. Our only goal of the day was to make it back to Chile where everyone was convinced there would be sun. No one wanted to spend another night in wet and cold Argentina.
Crossing back into Chile we were met with sunshine and warm spring weather! It was an amazing feeling to step into the warmth and know I would be able to dry out my clothes and tent. In the back of my mind I had though that it was most likely still snowing on the Chile side as well. I guess Argentina really didn’t want us there so it forced us out, back to Chile, with heavy snow and rainy weather somewhat like a form of natural border control.
An iceberg off the O’Higgins Glacier drifts by the estancia after students trekked 20km back to warmth. Photo by Katrina Brace.