Andean plane mystery / Geographical

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How do you engage people on a big scary issue like climate change?

This February filmmaker I headed into the Andes with two other British mountaineers to try and find the 1947 crashed plane Star Dust. In 2019 it’s emerging from the glacier-ice on 6570m Tupungato due to global warming. Told for the June 2019 issue of Geographical. 

“So you want to travel to the Lancastrian?” From a mid-winter Bristol suburb, my call has rung through to the Refugio Plaza military base, high in the mountains southwest of the Malbec-growing hills of Mendoza, Argentina. Sergeant Casado of the 11th Mountain Regiment listens to my request.

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Greater Patagonian Trail / Outside online

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Boy, I’ve been cooking this one a while!

Outside magazine commissioned a feature length story about my adventures on the mend bendingly beautiful Greater Patagonian Trail mid 2018.

The route links the cactus-pocked high Andes of Santiago to the lakes and snow capped mountains of El Chalten Patagonia.

Big thanks to my friend Jan Dudeck, the creator of the trail, for helping it get to press. Plus the team at Outside for using my photography in the story and making it pop!

Dive in.

Read more from my personal adventures on the GPT here.

 

Search for Star Dust / Rab

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In February 2019 I led a three man 15-day expedition into the central Argentinean Andes. We were on the search for the crashed 1947 plane Star Dust. Discovered in the year 2000, nobody it seemed had been back since. Our expedition sought to reach the aircraft at the foot of 6570m Cerro Tupungato’s glacier and record any new evidence emerging from the ice due to climate change. 

Rab equipment were on board from the outset of the expedition; agreeing to outfit, sponsor and carbon offset the adventure. I wrote this piece for their blog on a cold night close to 4000m. Accompanying pictures from trip videographer Jimmy Hyland.

Enjoy.  

Link here to Rab blog (opens in new tab)

The bike raid that time forgot / Red Bull

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This March I sneaked down into the Araucanía region of southern Chile. It’s a land of crushing waterfalls, hanging glaciers, splurging volcanoes and ancient rainforest. The trails are stalked by pumas and the skies are patrolled by 3 metre wingspan condors. 

There was a bike raid too – FireFlies Patagonia. I shared the story and photos with Red Bull. (Some excellent shots too from my friend Xisco Fuster!) ?

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The 3000km Trespass / Geographical

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It takes some careful pitching of ideas and an understanding editor to let you write about a 3000km trespass.

Since late 2017 I’ve been on the trail of this story – both on the ground in the Andes and in the halls of government as Chile prepares to pass a new “right to roam” styled access law. 

The Greater Patagonian Trail – as its creator Jan Dudeck calls it – is a 3000km network of animal tracks, arriero cowboy paths, indigenous peoples’ trails as well good ol’ deep-backcountry bushwacking linking Santago with the climbing mecca of Fitz Roy in deepest Patagonia.

This is the first publication from my year of adventures on the GPT, and includes conversations with Jan Dudeck about the trail’s creation and future development.

There’s a lot at stake with this project. And the trail’s character (somewhere between the Revenant and Reese Witherspoon’s Wild) is not for everyone. 

But if done right – the GPT could have far reaching consequences of environmental protection; promoting sustainable lifestyles and improving economic prosperity in the Andes.

Extract from Geographical’s February print issue below.

Read the full article now published online here.

Continuing reading by subscribing at Geographical magazine.