Klemens & Birgit, vanlife in South America

Background for a vanlife trip

Where do you come from? What do you do professionally speaking?

We both are from Innsbruck (Tyrol, Austria). Klemens is a mechanical engineer and I am a medical doctor.

How did you discover mountaineering/climbing? / What did your parents do?

First of all, we discovered the mountains and the joy of being outside (hiking, travelling..) through our families (parents, uncle..). But neither my nor Klemens’ parents are climbers. With all the mountains around our home climbing and mountaineering seemed to be the next logical step to explore all these beautiful places.

Do you practice any other sports?

We enjoy more or less every mountain-related sports like ski touring, mountain biking, hiking and of course rock and ice climbing.

I really like to swim, but Klemens prefers water in its solid-state (preferable vertically)! But to be clear about it, we perform all of these sport at an average level.

Why do you do what you do?

We love the mountains and travelling, but the best is to combine these two things like we are doing now. Both might require some commitment, but what you get out of them is always worth it. At first, they could be both intimidating but make you grow as a person. Both might be hard sometimes but also will show you in what wonderful world we live in.

Where inspiration is coming from

Who were/are the people who influenced you?

As we mentioned before we think our families and their way of raising us had the greatest impact on us, although they were not climbing, they showed us to appreciate the outdoors and nature. 

What are your favourite setups/brands?

We don’t have a favourite brand. But we really like the gear of Arcteryx, Scarpa and Atomic and that’s why we asked them if they want to support us on our trip. And luckily all 3 of them said yes.

What books/ documentaries/ movies do you find particularly interesting/ inspiring?

Phew, that’s a hard question!

What comes to our minds first: we recently enjoyed the youtube series “The fifty project” (Cody Townsend), “The Smiley’s project” (Mark and Janelle Smiley) and the short movie “Life coach” (Renan Ozturk).

A few interesting books like the book and life of Oswald Oelz (a doctor and alpinist) were really inspiring for us.

It is hard to break it down into a few 😀

The organisation for a vanlife expedition

How do you organise your expeditions?

We wouldn’t call our trips “expeditions”. They are more a combination of travelling by car and doing the sports we love. We didn’t do much research before leaving home (probably because we spent every minute finishing our truck 😀 ). The area we are planning to travel to is enormous and offers so many mountaineering opportunities that we plan as we go along.

What did you do to plan? (I imagine preparing the truck was one thing :)) – physically, mentally, financially…

We started to think about this adventure in 2015 when we returned from Kyrgyzstan. We bought the car 2016 and really got serious with restoring and converting the truck in 2017. So 2 years before we actually started our trip.

Converting and restoring the car down to every single bolt was a huge task, especially because we did everything on our own and for the first time.

The first year Klemens was more or less working alone on the car while I was working my butt off in the hospital to save the needed money for the trip. The 2nd year we both worked on the car fulltime, as I already quit my job and the car was still not done at that point. For me (Birgit) it was mentally the hardest thing to spend all that time in the workshop.

So there was not much time to spend on the rest of the planning. Not to mention preparing physically 😀

We literally packed the car a few hours before leaving. It was a mess (and we were too) 😀

Besides building the car, everything else can be organized quite fast, as you don’t need any Visa and so on. Just a Container/ship for the car, travel insurance, a couple of vaccinations and a plane ticket. Easy!

Have you been able to observe any signs of climate change during your trip? What/ where?

It is “easier” to observe the changes in Austria /Tyrol’s. As we know the landscape and places very well, we can witness the glaciers’ dramatic melting. But of course, it is shocking to see old pics of the glaciers, here in Patagonia, how they looked a couple of years ago and see how they look now.

Also, we heard stories from the locals about new heat records every year (in Antarctica), which influences the environment, i.e. here in Ushuaia, the glaciers are shrinking. In recent years there are mosquitos down here, which have not been here before.

The vanlife trip experience

Have you done similar “trips” / “adventures” before? If yes, where?

Oh yes, as mentioned before in 2015, just after I (Birgit) finished my studies, we bought the only 4 wheel drive car we could afford – the small Fiat Panda – and converted it into a camper to live and sleep in it. We drove towards east through Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan. That really was a great adventure, especially at that time, when the “Vanlife” community was still small.

Why did you choose the Pan-American Highway?

Our last trip led us to Kyrgyzstan. At that time we were travelling with an old, tiny Fiat Panda. We really loved that kind of travelling. So on our way back, we started to dream of the next adventure. As we wanted to travel longer, it came up to explore a new continent. We have already seen a bit oft he east, so why not go to the west next time? And the Panamerican Highway offers everything, from a great variety of landscapes to many possibilities to ski, climb, hike.

How long did you initially plan to be on the road for?

We don’t really have a time limit, so there is no “need” to be back at a certain time (except when we empty our bank accounts ^^). But initially, we had in mind to travel for 1 – 1 ½ year. On new years eve, it will be exactly one year. But we definitely don’t feel like going home now, so we think we will continue our trip for a few more months.

What pushed you to drop your jobs for some time?

Our last trip’s goal was to reach Kyrgyzstan, and we realized that it is a pity to rush through all these beautiful countries. So this time, we wanted to spend more time and not be tied to a schedule. The only way to do that was by quitting our jobs.

What was the major challenge so far?

To be honest on this trip, we haven’t had to face any challenge. We just have been to Argentina and Chile, and these countries are well organized and used to a lot of tourists and their own cars. There are many infrastructures, and it is quite relaxed to travel here (especially compared to our last trip). Maybe the challenges will come up when we get further north.

What has been the best moment of your trip so far?

For sure, we had many great moments, but maybe to experience the granite towers around El Chalten firsthand was the most special moment for us.