Training Archive: stoneIn the 7 days ending 2007-02-18:
| [csv] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
| M | T | W | H | F | S | S | |||||||
Sunday Feb 18 | ||
| Note | |
| taking a small boat from Puerto Williams (southernmost town) to Ushuaia (Argentina, southernmost city). Even though we were far from open sea, waters were pretty rough in the very small boat, giving me just a glimpse of how it must be down at Cape Horn or in the Drake Passage you have to cross to get to Antarctica. Weather absolutely horrible, around 0 deg, wind and heavy rain/snow.
And it's a different world here in Ushuaia, every 10m signs are telling you that you're at the 'fin del mundo', in the southernmost city, blabla. Very touristic, people talk to me in english even if I talk to them in spanish (which I'm sure isn't that bad). Don't think I'll stay here for long. And I definitely know that going to Isla Navarino was a great choice! heavy waters on the boat (kind of hard to get a good picture without blur...): http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Saturday Feb 17 | ||
| Running (hiking) 4:00:00 [2] | |
| doing the second part of the trek in one long stretch. The weather had gotten really bad, rain and wind was pounding on my tent at night and in the morning. So it was kind of hard to get out and pack everything together, my little house had become quite cosy ;-) And the guy who sold me the tent really didn't brag about his material, this is good stuff, not a single drop of water inside the tent after days of bad weather, and standing in the wind like a rock. Same for the gasoline stove - with the goal to carry around as little weight as possible I had been a bit too optimistic about the amount of gas I would need, so eventually I was prepared to eat my pasta raw on the last evening... but the stove really is able to use up the last drop of fuel, and it's amazing with how little gasoline you can prepare a meal ;-)
Weather had gotten much worse now, at times it even snowed (and it's summer now and the mountains aren't high). Yes, this feels like the end of the world. There used to be tribes of indigenous people living down here, hunting seals and fish in the many canals around these islands. And doing that, they were almost naked, whereas we tourist need all the high-tech stuff to survive here. Talk about adjusting well to your environment! There are lots of beavers around here, you can see their dams everywhere. I didn't know it's possible to eat these animals, but in the evening we managed to get one for dinner. Tasted ok, but I won't open up a restaurant now with that specialty... snow: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Friday Feb 16 | ||
| Running (hiking) 2:00:00 [3] | |
| again leaving my base camp going to another nearby mountain. Met some other israelis on the way (there's a lot of them down here!). They didn't really seem to have much idea of maps and compasses, and said it's their second real trek they've done... and their stuff is already wet and cold... no wonder the carabineros have to go search people if they let these kinds of people out into the wilderness... but on the other hand, I don't think the carabineros have much else to do down here ;-)
Strong and cold winds were pounding the mountain when I went up there. I ran most of it, the last part pretty fast, feeling like Rocky in Siberia when he's training to take on Ivan Drago :-) Awesome feeling! Reaching Mt. Rocky, touching the sky: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Thursday Feb 15 | ||
| Running (hiking) 2:00:00 [2] | |
| took the light backpack and went up to nearby Monte Bettinelli to get closer and a better view of Cape Horn. The weather was again kind to me, not too cold and only some wind. This was the farthest south I've been so far, at a bit more than 55deg latitude south.
The temptation to shave off some more of those 35deg left is high, this place seems to have a magic attraction on me. Some day, I will go to the real end of the world. The 'cheap' way would be to get a flight down there, but I've never been someone to take the easiest way out, so for now let's just say it's a more long-term project I have (after having crossed the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, climbed Mount McKinley in Alaska, and skied to the North Pole as preparation ;-)). | ||
Wednesday Feb 14 | ||
| Running (Hiking) 4:00:00 [2] | |
| started the Dientes de Navarino trek. It's 55km long, all through rough and totally unspoilt sub-antarctic nature. Made sure I had a lot of food with me this time, learning from my experiences in the mountains. I told the carabineros I would be back on Saturday, so the plan was to do the first half today, then stay out in the wilderness for three nights (I don't like taking down and putting up wet tents) and do some tours with the light backpack from there, and on Saturday, do the second half. The map and route description were pretty good, haven't seen much better stuff around here. Still, people get lost once in a while and then the carabineros have to go look for them. Just a week ago, a group of israelis got lost because, it snowed for two days, they didn't have enough food, one of their tents collapsed...;-) So much about bad preparation... but they did have a satellite phone with them and calling to Israel, the carabineros down in Puerto Williams eventually heard about it and went to rescue them...
No rain when I started, but soon cold winds from the ocean and heavy rains pounded down on me for a while. Still, had some nice views of the wild valleys and mountains. And, not a single person around, total solitude. At times, when the wind stopped, there wasn't a single sound to be heard! No animals, no wind, no car, plane, simply nothing. Just amazing, this silence! The course was amazingly well marked, even though with the map I had it was impossible to get lost. Someone really did this work with love! After returning, I heard that one of the guys was a swiss who is living down here Puerto Williams and has a family here. The backpack did not feel heavy today, seems like it's just a matter of getting used to it. After about half of today's course and when the rains had stopped, I crossed a pass from where I was finally able to see all the way down to Islas Wollaston, some small islands, the southernmost of which is the famous Cape Horn! Finally, I had come to the end of the world as we know it!!! (it's not finished until 90deg south, but that's a different world down there). Absolutely awesome feeling, just me and purest nature down here in the middle of nowhere! For many centuries, and still today, Cape Horn was every sailors nightmare (or dream), due to high winds, very cold waters, and really heavy sea. Hundreds of ships and thousands of sailors have died here over the centuries. Now being down here, at least in sight of it, I could also feel this region's magic. It's hard to describe, it must be felt. And for a while I think about the first europeans to explore these regions, the were real rockers, not knowing what would lie ahead, maybe going straight to hell, withstanding whatever Mother Nature had to throw at them. Found a nice place to put up the tent on a peninsula on a small lake. Nice thing was that I could do it without rain and no wind, making things much easier (although I had tested putting it up by myself in very high winds before and would have been prepared for that case as well). In the evening, it was absolutely windstill and I could even see the sun, very nice sunset! And again, that incredible silence all around me like I had never experienced it before (or at least not noticed it). Later at night, I watched the millions of stars in the sky. I felt like the only human being in the universe. Cape Horn in the distance (the small mountains in the back): http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... A nice place to camp: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... sunset at the end of the world: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... oh, and this sunset is from about a month ago, I don't think I ever posted it. It's on the salt flat in San Pedro de Atacama in the north, and the most amazing one I've ever seen. It looked even better in reality! : http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Tuesday Feb 13 | ||
| Note | |
| took a flight from Punta Arenas down to Isla Navarino, south of Tierra del Fuego, but still considered to be part of the american mainland. The usual tourist's program includes Ushuaia, which is in Argentina on the other side of the Beagle Channel, and which is considered the 'southernmost city in the world'. Well, it's not quite true, there is Puerto Williams in Chile which is a bit more south, but I guess it can only be called a town ;-) It's actually a marine base of the Chilean army, to fight off all the bad Argentinians. My travelling guides didn't say much about Puerto Williams, but I've learned that this usually means there aren't so many tourists and in these places you get to see the really nice things. And since it did mention that there are some very nice trekking possibilities down here and I like to do things other people don't do (and going to the 'southernmost town in the world' and maybe seeing Cape Horn is also tempting, I admit ;-)), I decided to come down here instead of going to the famous Torres del Paine National Park north of Punta Arenas.
The trekking guide said 'due to the stark sub-antarctic climate and the exposure to the usually bad weather around Cape Horn, you should be prepared for high winds, rain and snow even in summer'... just the way I imagine the end of the world to be! But as we know, there is no bad weather, only bad preparation and equipment. When I arrived at the airport, I was a bit shocked to see that the plane would be really that small... so I threw in another pill against motion sickness... The flight was ok, though, very nice views! Met an american in the evening who is living down here a few months per year to do research on climate change in southern Patagonia and Antarctica. It's my dream to do something like that once myself. Step 1, learning spanish, has been taken care of. Step 2, finishing my PhD without any further delays, will be next. the plane: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... view from the plane: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Monday Feb 12 | ||
| Note | |
| travelling to Punta Arenas today. On the way, the bus driver suddenly stopped because he thought that somebody was smoking in the bathroom, which is not allowed. Unfortunately, the gravel on the side of the road was a bit soft... so eventually everybody had to get off and they needed some powerful machinery to get the bus on the road again ;-)
bus: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
