Tuesday, May 15th, 2007. The Transpatagonia Expedition.
On September 2007, a team led by Cristian Donoso, a Chilean mountaineer and photographer of 31 years, who also lawyers on occasions, will set off to cross by kayak 2,039 kilometres of the central part of western Patagonia. The expedition will travel overland for 150 kilometres – including 22 kilometres across glaciers -, dragging their kayaks with provisions, behind them as sledges.
The Patagonia offers formidable obstacles to navigation. The Northern and Southern Ice fields on the East, make any attempt to traverse it by land impossible; a coastline of cliffs of bare granite or covered by tundra and a compact jungle will result often in uncertain landings; the permanent rain and the violence of the hurricane winds will add hazard to the crossing of open seas, lakes and rivers.
The expedition which has received a Rolex Laureate Award, will include Rodrigo Fernández, a Chilean geologist, paddler, and antarctic explorer; Mariela González, a Chilean teacher of physical education and a skilled kayaker, who will act as paramedic; Kai Salas, a French archeologist; Richard Vercoe, an American naturist and kayak instructor; and Alan Warild, an Australian speleologist.
The Transpatagonia Expedition will be devoted, for five months, to the scientific exploration of Western Patagonia’s fjords and glaciers areas. While doing so, the team aims to visit uncharted territories and ascend unclaimed peaks. When no suitable campsite will be found, the expedition members will sleep suspended from the cliffs rising out of the frigid waters.
Due to the length of the expedition, the explorers will resupply twice by a boat from Puerto Edén, a small indigenous village where the Chilean Navy keeps a base. The team will carry sophisticated first-aid equipment as in case of a serious injury or illness, the supply boat that may come to their rescue would take three days to reach them.
The team will also attempt as well to seek the exact location of the shipwreck of the frigate Hms Wager, who when led by Lord Anson, was shipwrecked when it struck rocks in 1741 on the north coast of the Guayaneco Archipelago. Last year, a team of British divers from the Scientific Exploration Society in Dover who were led by Colonel John Nicholas Blashford-Snell OBE, discovered ashore a 4 meters long, piece of framed hull that the Carbon 14 analysis dated as contemporary to the Hms Wager. The Transpatagonia Expedition will aim to locate the guns and the engraved ballast of the frigate.
Incidentally, when the Hms Wager shipwrecked, the survivors decided to divide the crew in two teams, one would try to reach Rio de Janeiro, the other, would attempt to sail North and meet Spaniards. This last group was led by the Honourable John Bryon. Byron who the second son of the 4th Baron Byron, had joined the navy at a young age, and had gained the rank of Midshipman in the service on board H.M.S. Wager.
Later on, between 1743 and 1748, Byron was a castaway on a desert island in the South Seas. Raised to the rank of Admiral of the Royal Navy, in 1765 he took possession of the Falkland Islands. In 1769 he was appointed governor of Newfoundland.
Known as Foul-weather Jack because of his frequent encounters with phenomenal bad weather, Byron was the father of John Mad Jack Byron, who in turn fathered the poet Lord Byron.
[Ignacio Wenley Palacios]
in Expedition
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