The 2003 Andes Trip was a success made sweeter in that it came after horrendous weather conditions in some of the most serious mountains I’ve ever traveled in. In the end we persevered against international border hassles, seemingly endless winds and a serious lack of good information. At times it seemed like we were going to get nothing done, but in the end our team pulled it off. Seldom has success tasted better!

It was a hard trip, but we all came back safely and better friends. To quote Messner, “Mountains are neither fair nor unfair. They are just dangerous.” To have found a beautiful moment and safely flown it to the limit with a good team is more than enough for me.

Text by © Will Gadd *
Photos by © Christian Pondella
The material in this page is property of its owners, the team at “Andes crossing 2003”. All rights reserved.

*The Team is preparing a film about the experience, and it should be ready during the summer.
Many of Christian Pondella’s excellent photos are up at www.ojinternational.com/andes.

On December 6th (2003) Chris Santacroce, Othar “OJ” Lawrence, and Will Gadd landed in Santiago, Chile, to attempt to cross the Andes from Chile to Argentina in their paragliders. They met the rest of the crew there: cameramen, logistic support, and photographer.

The pilots spent a week flying and acclimatizing on the western side of the Andean Cordillera, but the conditions were very windy. “Down in Santiago the winds are OK, but up high the clouds look like wind-shredded cotton candy every day” writes Will. The recon crew gives a clear report of the route: “It sucks. If you landed in there with the wind we saw you would probably die”. The pilots are confident that they will find the right day to do it, and exercise patience. On December 15th, the expedition is ready to try and cross the Andes from near Santiago to a town south of Mendoza on the Argentinean side of the Andes, but they will still have to wait some more days to make it. They start up in the Maipo Canyon, to the south-east of the city. The following text is part of what Will wrote about those days.

Dec. 15th: “The howling wind (HW for short) has been our constant companion for ten days; if it isn’t blowing hard then it’s blowing really hard. Othar, Chris and I left Pat, Christian, and Shanti and David Owen at the top of a pass called Portillo de los Piuquines (sp) and hiked together down into a wild, wonderful valley on the Argentina side of the pass. We had hoped that perhaps it would be less windy there, but the HW continued and so we slid down some snow fields and then hiked for about eight hours with our paragliders and bivy gear. We were frustrated that we couldn’t fly, but the place was really amazing--it’s hard to be pissed off when the scenery is composed of 20,000 foot plus peaks! We saw a few lone Condors with their wings tucked in for extra speed in the crazy wind as we hiked and waded numerous ice-cold glacial "creeks" and navigated off the best map we could find (…) We were pretty sure we could hike across the Andes following the big river drainages but not too sure...

The temperature extremes in the Andes are just that; way below freezing at night, scorching in the sun during the day, freezing in the shade. It’s impossible to dress well here; I have never felt such extreme temperature fluctuations.

We eventually crossed into Argentina officially at a very courteous border station and re-united with our crew, who had driven hundreds of miles around to meet us. (…) The wind continued to howl as normal, but the three days of hiking and experiences with great people left us feeling satisfied.

We did finally manage to fly a bit that day in the foothills of the Andes, but as soon as were out on the flats heading back toward Chile the wind started to howl and continued to blow all the way back to Portillo, a ski resort on the Chilean side of the Andes. That night it blew hard enough to wake me up several times while sleeping in the hotel...

Although the hike was a great experience, we’re not here to be the first to walk our paragliders across the Andes. The trip was worthwhile in that we learned a lot about the terrain, refined our bivy systems, and proved that no matter where we land we can get out, but we’re all sick of the wind and not flying in the real “heart” of the Andes. I desperately want to go XC and see these mountains from up high!”

Dec. 19th: “In the morning we got up early to try and fly but the wind was still blowing... By 9 it had mellowed a bit, so we drove up to the top of the ski area and did a flight on the shady side of the valley, another small step in learning more about the Andes. About 11:00 the wind was still OK, so we did one more flight. Chris and I managed to stay in the air and film each other for a while before I landed, but Chris hooked into the day’s first real lift and soared around for almost an hour before landing in strong winds, going backwards at times but in control. His flight really fired me up; for the first time all trip we were actually flying in the heart of the Andes!

That afternoon the wind blew hard, and Othar decided he had had enough. The mountains here are crazy wild, and all the time waiting for good conditions and paperwork was enough to sap anyone’s enthusiasm... OJ also felt that two people flying would be safer than three, so he started packing.

That evening the wind died a little, so Chris and I said adios to OJ and headed up the hill to see if it was possible to fly. On launch at 6:00 p.m. it was windy, but perhaps OK. Chris hucked off into the wind, and after a few minutes I followed him. Suddenly we were climbing like mad, and we both briefly thought, "AAAHH! Did we just totally blow it?" But no, it was perfect. Windy occasionally, but beautiful, smooth clean lift. We flew away from Portillo and up into the air, climbing to about 4,000m up the side of a wild peak. PERFECT! It was smooth enough that we could actually shoot video of each other and a Condor that came out to play with us. I radioed Chris and asked, “Hey, wanna go get arrested?” We weren’t sure about our paperwork, but sometimes it’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission… Soon we were over 4,000m and the only thing to do was start heading toward Argentina. Chris and I had agreed to fly as a team no matter what, and I felt stronger for his good judgment.

I could write thousands of words about the flight, but the short of it is that we flew across into Argentina in the most perfect evening conditions I have ever experienced. A sailplane pilot in Santiago had told us that in the Andes you have to choose your moments, and this was obviously the moment. David, Shanti and Pat on the ground kept us advised on the winds, while Christian and OJ boarded a bus to Santiago... Our ground crew had to turn around at the border to get their passports so Chris and I made the decision to fly on with no ground wind reports. This might not seem all that important, but I had never seen a single day in the high Andes where I thought I could safely land a paraglider in the crazy valley winds. It was easy to remember the wind blowing us off our feet on the hike last week even as we soared up the sides of huge peaks and watched Aconcagua appear, lit with stunning evening light. We hoped from massive peak to massive peak, at times in strong wind but nothing really insane. We had to carefully work our way up the peaks, the lift was good when you found it but it was evening mountain flying. Several times we were stuck soaring in the wind only a few hundred feet from the valley floor. We weren’t next to the road at this point, but after walking across the Andes we knew we could get out from anywhere.

Finally we hooked into perhaps the last good climb of the day and soared up a huge peak just on the border between Argentina and Chile. A group of climbers camped high watched us soar past in the evening light; what did they think of the crazy pilots so high so late and obviously flying across the border? Later I learned that many of the guards on the Chilean side came out to watch us, and they knew about our efforts and were rooting for us. Big dreams fire everyone up. As we topped at over 4,200m on the border there was only one thing to do: hook a turn and dive into Argentina!

At altitude the conditions were absolutely wonderful, but as we glided from 4000+m toward the already shaded valley on the Argentinean side of things I was very, very concerned about the lower-altitude valley winds. Chris and I glided together and yelled back and forth in the perfect light, then dropped into the valley. The tail wind was strong, about 20 to 25 miles an hour, but we landed cleanly near the mouth of the Rio Horcones, and laughed ourselves silly over a perfect flight. We had spent almost two hours in the air, flying in the most stunning evening conditions I can ever remember. To climb up out of the valleys and suddenly see the highest peaks in the Andes at shoulder-level was a perfect moment. Chris said he “f elt like a baby bird that’s just fallen out of the nest.” I fully agree; normally I feel strong and sharp in the air, but each flight in the Andes made me feel small and inexperienced. It was a short flight, maybe 30K, but to fly over the very back of the Andes in such conditions is a massive gift, made sweeter by knowing how extremely rare such conditions are!

We tried to fly the next day near where we landed after our flight, but again it was howling. I started to feel that we had been even luckier with our moment.

That night we drove back up to Portillo and Chris flew again, but had to B-line stall and take some pretty aggressive maneuvers to avoid being blown up the wrong valley. Somehow in all of this he managed to get the best POV footage I’ve ever seen. I had already decided it was too windy to fly, but Chris somehow made it work. His comment was, “Ah, I think you wouldn’t have had any fun. I didn’t.” He had pushed just a little bit, and the Andes pushed back hard. The next morning I flew to get more POV footage despite it seeming a little bit windy, and I too had a less than enjoyable flight and a bit of a rough landing. After watching me take deflations and get tossed around in the air Chris packed it in and walked down. Every time we pushed just a little bit the Andes slapped back really hard; the conditions were nothing outrageous, but everything in the Andes is bigger, more powerful and just flat-out on a wilder scale than any mountain range I’ve ever flown in. What would seem safe enough in the Rockies or the Alps may be lethal in the Andes. After the experiences, pro and con, that Chris and I had gone through we decided to call it quits while we were still ahead. We had experienced the Andes on foot, in the air and ultimately done the first crossing of the Andean Continental Divide on paragliders”. (W.G.)

Final comments:

I flew a Gin Gangster and Sup Air X Alps harness. I took a Gangster as I wanted a bomb-proof relatively light glider with good performance, but in the end I came to appreciate this glider for far more than that. It’s the first DHV 2 glider I’ve flown in about three years that I really felt performed well and was a joy to fly; it thermals very well, stays inflated and is just a great glider.

I had used the Sup Air harness in the X Alps and was very happy with its ability to carry all the bivy gear and still fly well, it’s a great product I’ll continue using.

I may go back to the Andes to fly again, but it would be hard to top the experiences we had, and I have this feeling that walking away from the gambling table while we were up thousands of good memories may be the best move.

Will, Chris and Othar study the route to cross the Andes flying

Part of the pilot's training was to make the route by foot.

Andean launch

Will and Chris crossed the Andean border in some of the most perfect evening conditions they had ever experienced.

Flying over the Inca Lagoon at Portillo (Chile), next to the border.

"Everything in the Andes is bigger, more powerful and just flat-out on a wilder scale than any mountain range I’ve ever flown in", says Will.

"To climb up out of the valleys and suddenly see the highest peaks in the Andes at shoulder-level was a perfect moment"

Othar surrounded by kids. Behind, the Andes.