The Mountains of Fog & Fury
Exploring Chile's Little-known Cordillera Sarmiento, 1992
Gordon's first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was to photograph veteran Andean explorer and writer Jack Miller and four of his friends climbing first ascents and mapping the unexplored Cordillera Sarmiento, a storm-battered range at the southern tip of the Andes, surrounded by a maze Pacific fjords. It would prove to be one of the loneliest and most beautiful places he had ever seen, but the team quickly learned why no one had gone there before: the world’s worst weather, beset with winds of the Furious Fifties and clouds so ever-present that the mountains didn’t even show up in satellite pictures of the time.
But that was part of the lure and the challenge. Together with Colorado climbers Peter Garber and Tyler Van Arsdell, Rob Hart from Montana and a rising South African mountaineer, Phillip Lloyd, the team camped two months there, sometimes tented atop a meter of sodden moss in an almost impenetrable rainforest by the ocean and sometimes in snow caves dug into the icecap not far above. In all that time less than ten days were dry and calm enough to venture outside and once, up on the glaciers, a gust hurled 200-pound Pete uphill in the air like a feather. The team was often soaked to the bottom of their sleeping bags and many days were a non-stop struggle to keep tolerably warm, fed and entertained while waiting day after day for the next break.
In the end, though, the suffering was worth it. Even in a downpour the almost impenetrable surrounding forests seemed enchanted, with wind-gnarled beech trees and a profusion of bushes, moss and delicate plants that covered every inch of ground and even tree branches all the way up to tree line, not far above. And when the clouds did part the team scrambled all of their wits and muscle power to climb and ski down several the highest and shapeliest summits, gazing out at a vast wilderness of ice, mountains and fjords from a vantage that no one had ever seen before. Gordon came home with enough pictures to earn a 15-page feature in the magazine, gain the editors’ trust and launch himself as a go-to photographer for assignments that were cold, miserable and dangerous.
Gremlin’s Cap is available as both a fine-art print and a Mini-Print.
Mountaineers ascend "Gremlin's Cap" in Chile's Cordillera Sarmiento, a previously unexplored Patagonian range. - Handmade Mini-Print, including matte, mount and frame, featuring photography by Gordon Wiltsie.
This image is part of: Adventure & Exploration - Set of Mini-Prints
If you enjoyed this post, consider joining our newsletter to be informed about new projects, posts and products!
Mount Vaughan, Antarctica - Mountaineer surveys route on Mt. Vaughan in the Trans-Antarctic Range. - Handmade Mini-Print, including matte, mount and frame, featuring photography by Gordon Wiltsie.