Across patagonia
By By Derek Cheng
To prepare for her 4630km, unsupported ride across Patagonia on a unicycle, Anne-Sophie Rodet had to become familiar with a few basic outdoor skills that she had never done: making a fire, and using a camp stove. So she took to the Canadian Rockies for five days in the snow to see how she would fare on her own.
She survived. She even slept with a hot water bottle - with boiling water heated successfully from her camp stove - to counter the chill of the mountains. Born in France but calling Vancouver home, Rodet, 38, is believed to be the first person to cross Patagonia on a unicycle.
During her 169-day journey, she endured gale-force winds that prevented her from even mounting her steed. She spent the night in ditches, in tiny, wooden bus shelters, in her tent swallowed up by the vast Patagonian pampas. She negotiated barking stray dogs, kiss-requests from strange men, and four times lost control of her bike and grounded, once cutting her face when her helmet smashed into her nose and the road met her mouth.
But at her most unhappy and desperate, she was touched by the kindness of strangers. "It wasn't just about the kilometres," says Rodet. "It was the people I met, the challenge, the adventure. The whole experience. If it was just the distance, I don't think this would be the area I'd choose, fighting the wind and the rain.
"But down there, there aren't many cars. Just yourself, and nature. It was good to have time for myself to think and just enjoy. I met a woman who had been traveling for two years, and she said she had run out of things to think about, but for me, I never had that problem."
"Down there, there aren't many cars. Just yourself, and nature. It was good to have time for myself to think and just enjoy. "
It wasn't the first time she had embarked on a onewheel mission. An accomplished unicyclist, Rodet started learning when she was six years old after following her brother in trying a circus activity.
She was the 2010 American Champion in Mountain Unicycling (MUni) Technical Downhill and the 2012 World Champion in MUni Obstacle, 30 and up. In 2007 she and nine other unicyclists rode with a support vehicle from Slovenia to the south of France, via Croatia, Italy and Corsica, covering 1000km.
"It was great, but I didn't meet any locals. So I started to think about doing one on my own, and being able to meet people, carrying all my stuff. I didn't have much experience going on my own, camping. I had never used a camping stove before my trip in the Rockies."
The gear for her epic journey included a tent, water bottles, a basic tool kit, and an MSR rocket camping stove. But the most important piece of kit was her unicycle: a 29" wheel, a front and back rack, two gears, a handlebar, and a brake lever. It also had some unique branding, with an inscription on the handlebar reading "Uni Girls Kick Ass!"
But she needed mental toughness as much as anything physical, facing headwinds up to 130kmh
"I couldn't even mount the unicycle. Even pushing my unicycle in front of me, I was having difficulties because the wind would just push it into the ditch. Walking was such a fight, so I was just hiding from the wind and waiting and waiting.
"Many cyclists I met going the same direction just gave up. I thought, 'Am I really crazy?' They were all taking buses and I was only on one wheel. I started wondering if the whole trip was even possible. Does the wind ever stop? Was I going in the wrong direction?”
Rodet is no purist and, in the face on unrelenting winds, she accepted a ride from a kind driver who took her 20kms into the city of Rio Grande.
"But then I met this cyclist in her 60s, and she said to me, 'I never give up and every time people offer me a ride, I always refuse'. It pushed me to do the same."
Similarly ferocious winds attacked her as she crossed the sweeping terrain that leads to the famous Fitzroy range, near the Argentinian township of El Chalten. Trying to make any headway was futile. She crawled into a wide depression in the land, where she could hide from the gales by lying flat. Every so often, like a curious chipmunk, she would poke her head up to see if the winds had relented. When they didn't, she nuzzled into her little dip in the land for the night.
In the morning, she rode on and arrived at a farm, where the workers immediately offered her a drink, a meal, and a bed for the night. The next day, when she finally arrived in El Chalten to stunning views of dramatic granite peaks, she was again overwhelmed by local generosity.
"I was welcomed by a family who open their doors to travellers, even though they have almost nothing. They loved to hear stories of travellers. Without them, I would not have stayed that long in El Chalten.
"Being there really opened my eyes to how easy it was to open your door to strangers, and how fun that could be."
A few days' hiking in the Fitzroy range and a fourday side-trip to see the Perito Moreno glacier, a 30km-long field of ice, were the only respites she had from her gruelling schedule. On a good day she would ride 50kms; on a bad day, 25kms or fewer.
Her maximum speed was 30kmh, but she had no desire to go any faster, especially as she struggled to stay upright in the constant air-drag of highway trucks.
She survived two bad falls, the first when she hit a rock in the road as a car passed her at the same time. The car stopped and the driver rushed out with a first aid kit, as if he drove up and down the road just to provide medical help to whoever may need it.
Her second injury was on a downhill stretch of gravel road. "I was braking too hard and I ended up being too far over my unicycle. It was still going and my legs weren't touching the pedals anymore, and then I flew backwards on my backpack. I hurt my knee, but not too badly." As she journeyed north, she had to negotiate about 1000kms of the infamous Carreterra Austral, a 1240km-long gravel road that winds through the mountains in Chile.
But her worst days were yet to come. If it hadn't been for the presence of her husband Justin - who joined her for 10 days on a bicycle as they cycled over the Andes from Argentina back to Chile - Rodet may have quit. rained and rained and rained. I was soaked, and trying to fight the wind like that was so draining." They stopped for a night when they saw a wooden bus shelter. It was too miserable to put up the tent, so they hunkered down and spent the night with candles in the three-walled shelter, with Justin's lengthy legs dangling off the bench.
Once she had crossed the Andes, Rodet knew it was just a matter of time before she would complete her journey. She followed a 500km stretch of highway - riding 111km in one day - and then headed to the charming coastal city of Valparaiso.
"For 4000km, I didn't have any flats, but in the last 600kms, I had four. It was really the end of the tyre. It was like glass, worn thin."
She had been mostly on her own, but as she entered Santiago, a small victory posse of 10 riders came out to ride into the city with her. Among them was her best friend Leanne, who cycled with her for the final three weeks. should step outside of their comfort zones more often. "The hardest, craziest moments end up being the best."
Since her Patagonian adventure, Rodet has unicycled with a friend across the European Alps - 500km of trails with 25,000m of elevation gain. She followed that up by riding from France to Iran with Justin on a solar back-to-back recumbent pedalling-rowing trike.
When they finally made it to the border, Chilean officials saw how tired they were and offered them a room.
Their latest adventure is being parents to a baby girl, Andina, who will be a constant reminder of their time in Patagonia. She is named after a little girl they met at the toughest time of the journey – the day after spending the night in the bus shelter.
“We were soaked and cold, fighting the wind to make progress, and there were no villages or houses along the road," Rodet says.
“Finally, we saw a house. The woman who lived there, the wife of the park ranger, saw us and invited us in for some warm tea. She had a 2-yearold daughter named Andina. The name resonated with us. That’s how we named our daughter.”