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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u2018It\u2019s very wild and pristine,\u2019 he said, describing humpback whales breaching in fjords that even the park authorities didn\u2019t think had been visited in modern times. In places, the ground beneath the trees was so deep with forest litter it was like walking through a continuous pitfall trap. But taking to the water brought a different set of challenges: one night he was forced to move his tent when an iceberg unexpectedly beached itself just metres from where he was sleeping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This early experience planted the seed for an even more ambitious adventure. Instead of looking to Chile\u2019s famously crinkled coastline, it was a feature on the map much further inland that caught his eye: one of the most obscure but potentially most exciting lakes in Patagonia: Lago Greve. It sits in the mountains in the northernmost corner of Chile\u2019s Magellanes province\u2014home to Torres del Paine<\/a> and Chilean Tierra del Fuego<\/a>\u2014 and is so rarely visited that it has an almost mythical aura attached to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018It\u2019s almost completely unknown, even though it\u2019s the sixth largest lake in Chile and twice the size of Paris,\u2019 explains Tokeley. \u2018It\u2019s completely shrouded from the outside world because it\u2019s behind the P\u00edo XI Glacier, which is the biggest glacier in Chile.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A quick look at the map shows the reason why. As the condor flies, it seems as if the lake should only be a short hop from Villa O\u2019Higgins<\/a>, the town that marks the southern terminus of the Carretera Austral highway<\/a>. Unfortunately, the small matter of the Andes Mountains stands in the way. The peaks here aren\u2019t just just a mass of rocky peaks, they\u2019re topped by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field \u2013 the largest body of ice in the Southern hemisphere outside Antarctica. No wonder that Lago Greve is shrouded in mystery. No one could even tell Tokeley the last time it had been visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was clear that Lago Greve was no solo endeavour, and Tokeley was joined by his friend Jose Mijares, a Spanish adventurer, to put the plan into action. \u2018We spent a lot of time looking at satellite images at different times of the year, trying to work out if the lake freezes in the winter or if it’s too windy in the summer. Being pinned down by wind on the far side of the lake and not being able to move was a recurring nightmare that we both had for years!\u2019 he laughs. They were unsure if they would even be able to cross the P\u00edo XI glacier \u2013 until the Covid pandemic put the entire expedition on ice for several years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n When planning resumed, they learned that the lake had also undergone an earth-shattering event. A team of glaciologists in Japan discovered that in May 2020, Lago Greve had suffered what’s called a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood or GLOF. GLOFs occur in alpine lakes when a naturally occurring dam suffers a catastrophic failure. Almost overnight, the water level of Lago Greve \u2014which covers an area of around 240 km2<\/sup> or 93 square miles\u2014 dropped by a staggering 18 metres (60 feet). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Had there been any settlements in the area, they would have been swept away in a tsunami of glacial water, but Greve was so remote it had only been detected by satellite. The thought that Tokeley and Mijares could potentially have been on the lake when the flood happened hardly bore thinking about, but if they were able to reach it now, they would be the first people to see the aftermath of this almost Biblical event.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, at the close of 2024 with mountaineer Pablo Besser also added to the team, they were ready to set out. From their starting point in Puntas Arenas<\/a>, they travelled to Puerto Natales<\/a>, from where they caught a boat for a two-day trip up the fjords. Each of them were carrying nearly 60 kg (130 pounds) of gear for the three-week expedition.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last port of call was the tiny fishing hamlet of Puerto Eden, which is one of the last strongholds of Chile\u2019s indigenous Kaw\u00e9sqar culture. Its bay is frequently clogged with ice calved from local glaciers, and the fishermen pull so many king crabs from the water in season that they practically give them away to anyone strange enough to visit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From here it was a further eight hours by fishing boat to a trailhead. The vessel they chartered was called No Te Rindas<\/em>, which means \u2018Don\u2019t give up\u2019 in English \u2013 which all of the group took as a positive omen. \u2018We decided that this would be our motto for the trip,\u2019 says Tokeley. As the boat deposited them on the shore and slowly chugged away, they were finally on their own. Now, only P\u00edo XI glacier stood in the way of reaching Lago Greve.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding a path towards the lake was a constant challenge. Wherever possible, the group stuck to the land around the edge of the glacier rather than try crossing the ice itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018We\u2019d spent several kilometres on land until the mountain got too steep and we were forced onto the glacier. It was always tricky trying to find our way on the ice \u2013\u00a0 it was one step at a time. We\u2019d sometimes get lost in a maze of crevasses and have to go back and find a different route,\u2019 says Tokeley. \u2018It was very stressful.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n A major obstacle was an unexpected lagoon that was impossible to pass. The group were forced to inflate their kayaks early \u2013 and it was here that the puncture happened. Tokeley\u2019s kayak developed a large rip that had to be painstakingly hand-sewed, before covering it liberally with glue. The tear threatened to cut the expedition short before they\u2019d even reached Lago Greve, but miraculously the repair held true for the remainder of the trip.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It took over a week to make their way slowly across the P\u00edo XI glacier, regularly laying food depots for the return journey. \u2018We had to portage everything, essentially doing everything twice. We\u2019d carry our gear up and deposit it, go back and sleep, and then the next day we’d bring the rest up.\u2019 On average, the group made just two kilometres of progress a day. But after eight days of struggle, they finally got to see Lago Greve for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018The relief was mixed in with an enormous feeling of gratitude,\u2019 Tokeley tells me. \u2018On the far side of the lake, you could see glaciers tumbling down. And we were blessed by an amazingly calm weather window. It felt like stepping into another world.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n That sense of stepping out of time was only heightened by the dark tide mark around the edge of the lake from the GLOF, and even more unexpectedly, thick strata of seashells embedded in the mudstone more than 70 metres above the water. The group recorded everything to share with the glaciologist back in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In total, the group spent seven days on the lake, with the weather holding out as if to repay their efforts in getting there. The idea was to circumnavigate the entire lake exploring each of the arms and fingers that reached off the main body of water, probing into the mountains. But even with good weather, there were some risks that they were cautious to take.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018We were scared of crossing in front of the northern terminus which is about five kilometres (three miles) from one side to the other. Even when the water is like a mirror, you can still get caught by a classic Patagonian storm that just comes out of nowhere. Suddenly the wind picks up and you start getting blown towards that glacial face, and things can get really spicy \u2013 being blown towards calving icebergs.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n The kayakers were dwarfed by the landscape \u2013 and enriched by the knowledge that they were likely the first to ever paddle its water. The crag of Volc\u00e1n Lautaro loomed above them, the highest peak of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, whose glaciers feed into the lake itself. They kayaked across the front of the Greve Glacier, and penetrated into the forest wondering if the once nomadic Kaw\u00e9sqar had ever passed this way in previous centuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The extreme isolation of the lake meant that they would come across wildlife that had never laid eyes on people. There were rare huemul deer watching them from the undergrowth, and occasionally wandering out into full view with no fear of the visitors. An unusual bird encounter was even more rewarding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I nearly stepped on a Fuegian snipe,\u2019 laughs Tokeley. \u2018It\u2019s just a little wader really, marked a bit like a tiger. At first glance, they\u2019re pretty unremarkable.\u2019 But Fuegian snipes are very rare indeed. Their precise distribution remains unknown, but they had never been recorded in this part of Magellanes province. All the details of the sightings were shared with CONAF, the national park authorities, at the end of the expedition.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a week on the water, and having surveyed as much of the lake as they could, it was time for Tokeley and his companions to turn around and return to civilization. But the lagoon that had caused so many problems on the way in was determined to play them one last trick.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018It had almost completely frozen up. We would paddle over several hours, breaking the ice and then climbing up onto the icebergs and pulling our kayaks up, then making our way to a point where we could get back to the water and break more ice to continue paddling.\u2019 As he recounts this, even Tokeley sounds surprised at how they had to tackle this final challenge. But after six days\u2014two days faster than the outward journey\u2014the three of them finally made it to their rendezvous point at the head of the fjord. The same boat was waiting to ferry them back to Puerto Eden. And on its side was painted the same cheery motto that had carried them through the entire trip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n No Te Rindas<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do you do when your inflatable kayak gets a puncture while you\u2019re crossing a lake strewn with icebergs, and you\u2019re over a week\u2019s overland travel from the nearest town? That was the challenge faced by explorer and environmentalist Charlie Tokeley on his expedition to Lago Greve, one of the largest, most remote and least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":203362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[311],"tags":[336,161],"class_list":["post-203350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-and-inspiration","tag-expedition","tag-kayaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA plan and a flood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDon\u2019t give up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCrossing the P\u00edo XI glacier<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe first paddle on Lago Greve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEncountering Greve’s wildlife<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n