When autumn arrives in Patagonia sometime between late March and early April, a transition is started. Every day the sun stands lower on the sky and soon the first frost arrives during the nights. Within a few weeks, and starting from top to bottom, the green summer leaves of the trees in the valleys change their colour to a vivid red.

In 2016, autumn in Patagonia was no different. And after I had already spent four months in Parque Nacional los Glaciares, I was ready to do what it takes to capture the changing landscape at its best. I decided to dedicate the whole month of April to photography and soon started a marathon of nights spent in my tent. And when I didn’t spend the night out in the park I surely got up for sunrise to reach the nearest point of interest to enjoy the soft morning light. Only if the weather was really bad I allowed myself to relax.

This kind of dedication is something I learned to appreciate relatively late in my career. For many years I was happy with whatever nature had in store for me. It took me numerous failed trips to learn that if I really wanted to step up my photography game I would have to start to set goals for myself. And – more importantly – I would have to stop asking myself the question that so far had destroyed many previous plans: “Is it really worth it?”. On this particular autumn morning in Patagonia I didn’t question my pre-dawn-walk. I felt the necessary commitment to do what I had agreed to do. And although a two hour walk in the dark gives you plenty of time to think, the only thing on my mind was getting there and setting up my tripod and camera, and framing Cerro Torre in the soft morning light.