Descending Rio Turbio, near El Bolson, Patagonian Argentina.
©2001 Jerry Dodrill

I was working for The North Face on the the Patagonia Exploration Expedition. We had been climbing in a remote valley in the Andes. It was a five day walk back to civilization and we were out of food. Perhaps these situations are why in Patagonia they like to say "necessity is the mother of invention." Some quick machete work, a few logs, a kids raft and a rope were all we needed. In seven hours, five grown men with big wall climbing, photography, and backpacking gear floated forty kilometers down class II Rio Turbio. We fashioned paddles from bamboo and emptied our water bottles to add more float to the nearly sinking Huck Finn style boat, which we christened "Raftagonia I."