Written by Sarah Turner

A VSU student has spent the last seven months exploring the most pristine and untouched corners of Patagonia.

Brian Deye is currently interning in Patagonia where he is the cartographer for the 11th Annual Patagonian Expedition Race. His job has been to create accurate maps over glaciers, icy lakes and mountains.

After testing out several different majors when he first came to VSU in 2006, Deye, 25, has determined his major in environmental geosciences.

He is a member of the fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and is also a member of the Geoscience Student Society.

“As I was getting closer to graduation, I started looking for internships,” Deye said. “I was looking at adventure races since they are in need of people to design maps and that’s when I discovered the Patagonian Expedition Race.”

The Patagonian Expedition Race has been called the “Last Wild Race” and has also been honored by National Geographic as one of the “10 Great Races in Amazing Places”.

The race is an eco-endurance adventure race that was started to increase the international awareness regarding the fragile environment of Chilean Patagonia.

The race is comprised of the three classic adventure racing challenges including: sea-kayaking, trekking and mountain biking.

Deye, alongside the race founder and director, Stjepan Pavicic, have traveled on expeditions to chart and create the course for the teams competing in the race.

The race consists of between 10 and 20 teams. Teams fly in from around the world from places including: Germany, Japan, USA, Australia and South Africa. The race course is kept secret from the competitors until 24-hours before the race starts.

One of Brian’s fellow interns explains that the race has a new obstacle on the course.

“For the first time in race history, the course will cross El Campo de Hielo Sur, the third largest ice-field in the world,” Kim Saavedra, Nómadas International Group intern, said. “However, this part of the trek, Brian will have already completed twice before the competitors reach it.”

Deye has had a long term passion for the outdoors.

“For my high school graduation, my dad and uncle took to me to my first fly-in-fishing outpost trip to Press Lake Canada,” Deye said. “We flew in on a bush plane that landed on water; it dropped us off in the middle of the wilderness in Ontario, Canada then picked us up a week later. It was then, that I decided that i’m meant for the outdoors.”

The 10-day-race began Tuesday

To follow the day to day results of the race go to www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com or like them on Facebook.