A frontier is a place that’s both physical and metaphorical. Our ongoing series, Dispatches from the Frontier, shares encounters and insights from life on the ranch, where the inner and outer wilderness converge.

Dispatch from John Hauf, Founder and Director

It’s April 27th, and as if to remind us of where we are on this year’s turn around the sun the morning is cold, and a mist rises from the surface of the lake. Soon, it’ll be time to finish filling the woodshed in anticipation of winter’s lower temperatures. Myth or not, the claim that Eskimo languages have an unusually large number of words for “snow” makes me wonder why we only have one word for firewood.

Our firewood stacks usually consist of five different tree species. We have stacks of seasoned and of unseasoned wood with different densities and moisture content. There is split wood, round wood, large and small diameter logs, all with slight variations in length, and then there’s the pile of “leftovers” that burn just fine yet won’t win any prizes for aesthetics. It hardly matters once the firebox door is closed and warmth fills the house.

We all love the lenga beech, of which our wilderness ranch is favored with abundant forests, for when seasoned it burns hot and leaves little ash in the tray. For winter we keep on hand some stacks of larger Antarctic Beech, or ñirre. Feed two of these logs to the woodstove before heading to bed, and you’re sure to have a warm kitchen when you wake in the morning.

WE ARE CURRENTLY BOOKING TRIPS AND ENROLLING PROGRAMS FOR THE 2019-2020 SEASON AND INVITE YOU TO GET IN TOUCH TO PLAN YOUR ADVENTURE.

John Hauf founded Patagonia Frontiers in 1999 to connect people with wilderness through education, conservation, and adventure. From our wilderness ranch home, Patagonia Frontiers offers multi-day trekking, horseback trips, mountaineering, and education programs in the heart of Chilean Patagonia.