Originally shared on Instagram on November 26, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
By April of 2015, I had made it to Patagonia. Standing here with Fitz Roy rising in the background was one of the most exhilarating photography, hiking, and climbing adventures of my life. I had arrived just a week after running the Patagonia Marathon in San Martín de los Andes, and even after that race, this wild corner of the world still humbled me.
This shot was taken in the heart of fall, when the entire landscape shifts into deep golds, rusty oranges, and warm yellows. Patagonia in autumn feels ancient — rugged, unforgiving, and unbelievably beautiful. The wind cuts right through you, the trails stretch on forever, and the mountains don’t care who you are. But that’s exactly what makes it magic.
I eventually made it up into the snow-covered peaks of Mount Fitz Roy and captured some of my favorite photographs I’ve ever taken — up in the ice, inside the silence. But this image is the one I needed to share first. It’s the moment where everything felt new and surreal… like I’d finally stepped into a place I had only dreamed about.
Later in the trip, I ended up connecting with a group of guys from Australia and England and we hiked the W Circuit together in Chile. I’m still connected with most of them on Facebook. That journey — the conversations, the exhaustion, the views — became its own kind of unexpected gift.
By my birthday that year, we were drinking beers in a wooden hot tub heated by a fire underneath, staring up at the southern sky. I remember seeing the Southern Cross constellation for the very first time and thinking: This is one of those moments I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
Patagonia changed me. It still does every time I look at these photographs.
Explore more photographs in the gallery or continue reading the Photography Journal.