BD athlete Drew Stoecklein explores the unskied peaks of Patagonia

Black Diamond athlete Drew Stoecklein headed down to South America in September to explore the bounty of unskied peaks in Patagonia. Below is his report, and to check out the sweet photos of the trip taken by Jason Thompson, go to: blackdiamondequipment.com/​en-us/​journal/​ski/​athletes/​video-bd-athlete-drew-stoecklein-explores-the-unskied-peaks-of-patagonia. ================================ This fall I had the opportunity to go down to Patagonia to generate an athlete filmed segment with three others: Chuck Mumford, Forrest Coots, and Jason Thompson. After months of planning and thousands of borrowed dollars (generously lent to us by Visa and American Express) we purchased our plane tickets and set off into the unknown. After we arrived in Patagonia, we realized that it might not have been a good idea to shoot our first film in a country thousands of miles from home, and with a group of non-Spanish speaking skiers. We also didn’t consider the challenge of trying to capture footage on an expedition in one of the harshest environments in the world. There was nothing that we could do except give it our best effort and set our sights high. Getting all the gear up to basecamp was nothing short of a nightmare. There must be a reason that most people use a small point and shoot camera and don’t lug in 4 DSLR cameras, 4 helmet cameras, 1 video camera, 3 tripods, 1 six-foot aluminum crane, 1 three-foot motorized dolly system, solar panels, and a laptop computer. After two …