It's on the other side of the world, thousands of kilometers away, but Patagonia is inexorably part of our world. It's like a dream come true every time we fall asleep.
And this last Patagonia was an intensely thought-out adventure, planned down to the last detail (though everything is organized in that land, nothing is ever as planned), desired like a beautiful woman but postponed for reasons we all know. But then comes the moment when that dream grows and takes the form of the most beautiful journey, that of exploration.
The two red sweaters, Luca Schiera and Paolo Marazzi, have just returned from Patagonia: their expedition to the southernmost tip of the American continent re-explored the Campo de Hielo Norte, an immense glacier approximately 120 km long and 50 km wide, covering a surface area of over 4,200 square kilometers—three times the size of the province of Milan, to give you an idea.
We were talking about the unpredictability of Patagonia, a place where the objectives of an expedition " must be negotiated day by day" as Luca Schiera says, because everything depends on the daily challenge you face.
And so, once we returned to Italy, we met Luca Schiera, who told us how the expedition went, starting with the initial objective: " As often happens at those latitudes, things don't go as planned. This time, we wanted to cross the Campo de Hielo Norte from north to south to reach the great walls to climb among the mountains that lie in the endless expanse of ice. It was our third experience there, and we knew pretty well what we'd find, but from day one, there were plenty of unexpected events."
Here, the spaces are vast and the mountains have no names. Not yet. And for the Ragni di Lecco, these are lands that are part of the mountaineering group's chromosomes, and even in more recent history, the Patagonian walls have been cherished by dreams of conquest. In 2020, the Maglioni Rossi set out in pursuit of a magnificent unclimbed mountain, located simply with Google Maps, but were unable to reach it due to the labyrinth of crevasses separating them from its base. There are also positive years, like 2019, when Luca Schiera and Paolo Marazzi conquered a new peak in the heart of the glacier, naming it Cerro Mangiafuoco.
But every expedition is like starting from scratch, even if this year there was some support: "Yes, we have to thank the invaluable help of Andrea, an Italian climber who moved to Patagonia specifically to explore the Hielo. Thanks to him, we reached the shores of Lake Leones, from where we began ferrying all the equipment to the start of the glacier."
Listening to the story, you can sense the fatigue, but also the excitement of discovery: figuring out how to navigate terrain like that of the Campo de Hielo Norte is neither easy nor particularly safe.
What unexpected events did you face? It seemed like the most natural question to ask Luca: "One thing I learned in Patagonia is that you must always be ready to adapt to the forces of nature, which often manifest themselves in the form of a ferocious wind." Ferocious is an adjective that fits the description of Patagonia well.
"To cross the glacier, we had skis and a sled, where we stored all our gear. But as soon as we disembarked, the first surprise was a thick layer of fresh snow that made the climb to the Campo de Hielo beyond reasonable danger," Luca commented with the bitter taste of someone who would have done without that unexpected event. " So, after several consultations and an attempt at night, we descended the glacier, hoping for an improvement."
The following story speaks of long days spent in the tent buffeted by impressive gusts of wind, waiting for another window of good weather "which arrived and which we took advantage of."
A situation mountaineers know well: patience is needed in the mountains, because time and the weather are the order of the day. But at the first sign of improvement, the two Spiders set off again.
"Yes, we set out on a four-day tour. At dawn on the second day, we finally crossed the pass and from there we enjoyed a long ski descent to the Hielo. The rest of the day we spent pulling the sled until we reached the base of the first rock faces."
At this point the story gets to the heart of the matter: "On the third day, the countdown began: we had to be off the glacier by dawn to avoid getting stuck in bad weather," Luca comments decisively, aware that every decision is made with a reasonable element of risk.
Windows of good weather never last long enough, and navigating wild and unexplored spaces requires clarity and the ability to assess conditions. Meanwhile, however, Schiera and Marazzi have reached a mountain rising from the Hielo...
We then climbed an easy route, 300 meters up to 6a, from the summit we got an idea of the best route back and descended to our tent. After a short break watching the sunset, we set off again south. The idea was to skin around this group of mountains, hoping to find an easier route than the one we'd taken on the way up: we still had dozens of kilometers ahead of us, and we needed to conserve our energy as much as possible. We spent the whole night searching for crevasses under our skis and navigating with GPS and maps in total darkness on unfamiliar terrain. Not exactly an easy task...
A race to escape the approaching bad weather, certainly not easy on such difficult terrain.
«The plan was working perfectly, but the closer we got to the pass, the more the lack of sleep, combined with the constant stress of finding the safest route, was pushing us to the limit: we walked and climbed many times at night, but this situation was completely surreal.
Four days later we were on the shores of the lake waiting for the boat to return."
Patagonia is like this, long-awaited and dreamed of, and then suddenly close and possible, and in an instant it's time to take stock, laying the foundations for another expedition.
