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The view that hooked us: El Hunco as seen from our first drive through Valle Chacabuco back in early January. Photo by Marty Schnure & Ross Donihue.

The first time we drove through Valle Chacabuco a month ago, we were instantly enchanted by one particularly beautiful valley reaching north up to a row of steep, jagged, glaciated peaks. El Hunco, we learned it was called, had no real trail, but used to have a horse trail that might still be visible.

This past weekend, we ventured up El Hunco for an ambitious overnight with five other friends from the estancia. Six hours of bushwhacking led us to a wide open, mossy upper valley with a stiff Patagonian breeze. We camped at tree line and set off exploring in the morning. After climbing up to a saddle between two jagged peaks, we were stunned by a completely new view: the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. Here is a glimpse of what we found.

Zapatilla de la Virgen or Maiden’s Slipper (Calceodaria uniflora). Photo by Ross Donihue & Marty Schnure.

Looking down at one of three glacial alpine (very cold) lakes. Photo by Ross Donihue & Marty Schnure.

Five photos in one: Marty climbs to the top of the saddle. Photo by Ross Donihue & Marty Schnure.

A view of Monte San Lorenzo, the highest peak in Chilean Patagonia. Photo by Ross Donihue & Marty Schnure.

Monte San Valentín rises up far in the distance from the Northern Ice Field. Photo by Ross Donihue & Marty Schnure.

Marty takes a moment to relax and enjoy the view. Photo by Ross Donihue & Marty Schnure.

Click on the photo below for a 360˚ view, including the edge of the Northern Ice Field!

Click on the photo below for a 360˚ view from the saddle we climbed to. Photo by Ross Donihue and Marty Schnure.

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{ Sunset in the Chacabuco Valley, Aysén, Chile, 9-10pm, January 30, 2013 }

Click on any photo to enlarge. Photos and video by Marty Schnure & Ross Donihue.

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The Chacabuco Valley at night during a new moon. Photo by Ross Donihue and Marty Schnure.

Marty Schnure and Ross Donihue are cartographers in the field producing maps for the Future Patagonia National Park in the Aysén Region of Chile. For more information about the Future Patagonia National Park, visit Conservacion Patagonica.

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The night sky in Valle Chacabuco is breathtaking — there is no light pollution, and on a clear night with a new moon the sky flickers with stars.

We made these photos over 20-30 minute exposures to show how dynamic the night sky is. To achieve the “star trail” effect we needed a sturdy tripod, a moonless night, and a deck of cards to pass the waiting time. Some of the surprises? The long exposure brought out intricate colors in the stars and the Milky Way that we couldn’t see with the naked eye. Some stars left orange trails, some blue, some purple.

The summer night sky from our camp. Photo by Ross Donihue and Marty Schnure.

By angling the camera south we were able to include the southern axis of the earth’s rotation, which you can see in the photo as the center of the circle where the stars aren’t moving. (If you are in the northern hemisphere you can achieve the same effect by aiming your camera north.) We had the best results when we framed and focused our shot at dusk before it got too dark to do so. We learned this the hard way (a couple of times) after waiting many sleepy minutes in the middle of the night only to find that the picture was out of focus.

We’ve had a lot of fun experimenting with night photography in Patagonia, especially star trails. Most of the shots don’t come out well, but we learn along the way and do better the next time. We’re grateful to National Geographic and all of our supporters: you motivate us to work harder and produce high-quality content. To all of you, thank you!

An adult guanaco (Lama guanicoe). Photo by Ross Donihue and Marty Schnure.

Marty Schnure and Ross Donihue are cartographers in the field producing maps for the Future Patagonia National Park in the Aysén Region of Chile. For more information about the Future Patagonia National Park, visit Conservacion Patagonica.

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We have fallen in love with the guanacos (Lama guanicoe) in the Chacabuco Valley. We’ve seen them playing, fighting, mating, defecating, relaxing, rolling in the dust, and just being silly. We have grown fond of guanacos not just for their charismatic features, but also for their convenient paths through the backcountry!

Adult guanacos stand 5-6 feet tall and have a similar appearance to a llama or an alpaca. Their diet consists of bunchgrass, bushes, fungi, and lichens. Here in the park, they are simply everywhere.

Whether they're bellowing to the herd, nursing, or twisting their necks around each other in play, guanacos bend their long necks in amazing ways. Photo by Marty Schnure and Ross Donihue.

Here are some fun facts about guanacos:

• Guanacos have communal “latrines” so be careful where you walk!

• Guanacos have a gestation period of 345 to 360 days — almost a whole year!

• Immature male guanacos live and travel in bachelor herds separate from the females and juveniles until they are 4 to 6 years old.

We’ve had a lot of fun observing the guanacos that hang out around our camp, especially the extremely cute young ones. Their funny antics are wonderful evening entertainment. Let us know if you’d like to see more guanaco photos!

A baby guanaco with its herd. Photo by Marty Schnure and Ross Donihue.

A young guanaco born just a few months ago. Photo by Marty Schnure & Ross Donihue.

Source: Chester, Sharon (2008). A Wildlife Guide to Chile. Princeton University Press.

[Update: We have postponed our trip up the Aviles Valley due to weather and a stomach virus. We will be rescheduling the trip soon.]

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Patagonia Wildlife Photos

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La Carretera Austral, Chile’s southern highway, is long, remote, mostly unpaved, and requires some planning to prevent running out of gas. Its corners can be sharp, blind, and atop steep cliffs. When a sign warns of falling rock, there will almost certainly be large rocks in the road around the next bend. It is the best route for making the 190 kilometer (119 mile) journey from the Balmaceda airport in Coyhaique, Chile, to the Future Patagonia National Park. 190 kilometers is not such a long distance, but on la Carretera it takes a long time.

We landed at the Balmaceda airport late Saturday afternoon, completing a tumultuous 24 hour journey by air from Boston. We breathed a big sigh of relief when all of our bags made it and our rental car was still waiting for us despite our being seven hours late to pick it up. The austral summer’s warm evening sun and the fierce Patagonian winds told us that our adventure had begun.

We spent our first night camping in La Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo, where we met a couple who had driven there from Washington State over the past 16 months (!) and a friendly park ranger named Julio. The pavement ended at about noon the next day in the tiny Villa Cerro Castillo. There we picked up three young Israeli backpackers and continued south on what had just become a rather slow, bumpy ride in a very full car.

A view of Cerro Castillo from la Carretera Austral. Photo by Ross Donihue.

We found a campsite on a welcoming family’s land in Puerto Río Tranquilo, where we rested for the night and enjoyed our first wood-fired hot showers. The next afternoon we reached Cochrane, a large town by Patagonian standards, where we bought food and fuel for the next two weeks. From Cochrane, it was just 18 kilometers to the park.

We have had nothing but clear, warm days since arriving at the Future Patagonia National Park in the Chacabuco Valley  (or ValChac, as they call it here). We’ve set up our base camp, which includes a small tent for sleeping, a large “office” tent, and a cooking shelter. The sun rises just after 6:00 am and sets around 10:00 pm, so we haven’t run down our headlamp batteries yet. We’ve become well acquainted with the guanacos that hang out around camp and the Southern Lapwings that signal our arrival nearly everywhere we go.

Look for the little orange tent -- that's our base camp! Photo by Marty Schnure.

We’re about to go out into the field on a 3-4 day backpacking trip to map the park’s newest trail up the Aviles Valley into the Jeinimeni mountain range. The trail team has just completed a crucial footbridge that makes the trail possible. We’ll head out after dinner tonight to camp at Casa Piedra, an old stone house at the base of the valley, so that we can start at sunrise tomorrow morning. We’d like to do the necessary river crossings early in the day before the snowmelt begins and the rivers swell. Only a few people have done this hike so far this season, and they have all had problems with river crossings. We are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure our safety during the hike and river crossings. We’re going out hoping to make it all the way up to Lago Jeinimeni, but are fully prepared to turn back if the river crossings are dangerous.

You can track our progress on our live map here.

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The Future Patagonia National Park. Photo by Beth Wald Copyright 2009.

Hello! We’re Marty and Ross, two young cartographers with a passion for visual storytelling. We make maps that tell stories about places and

serve as powerful communication tools to empower and propel conservation projects around the world. Through our work, we’re exploring the future of new-media cartography for conservation, communication, and education.

We recently received a National Geographic Young Explorers Grant to help fund our upcoming project, Mapping the Future Patagonia National Park in the Aysén region of Chile.

In January we’re launching our expedition to create a map-based visual portal for exploring the future park from anywhere in the world. Our goal is to tell the unusual story of the park through compelling cartography integrated with rich multimedia visuals and spoonfuls of educational content. We’re setting up our expedition and our final products to be valuable educational resources for classrooms all over, including in Chile and the United States. Right now we’re spreading the word about our project and leveraging support on Kickstarter – check out our project!

Be on the lookout for more posts from us soon. We’ll be posting here to give you a behind-the-scenes view of our expedition from start to finish.

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Conservacion Patagonica: Creating the Future of Patagonia National Park