Day 1 when we arrived to the campsite (yes - campsite) was a trek up to the Grey Glacier lookout, the Patagonian wind was out in full force, and the terrain was a little tricky when dealing with wind gusting as much as it was. By the time we got to the lookout the wind had picked up even more, and the rain had joined in, so it was a question of a couple of quick snaps and get out of the weather. The glacier was beautiful though, not quite as dramatic as Perito Moreno, but i doubt much ever will be. There were beautiful blue icebergs drifting down the lake, it was quite surreal to see yet another huge wall of ice.
Our campsite was at the Refugio used by a lot of hikers, and they had a bar - we were all so cold that it seemed rude not to go and drink some red wine... Several bottles later between us it was to the tents we went. What followed was a night that reconfirmed that I do not ❤️ camping... The wind was so strong it felt like we were going to be blown away!
Having survived, the next morning was the start of our full day hike to the French Valley. These hikes are all part of the renowned 'W' trek through the park. We started off in clear blue skies and sunshine on day 2, the terrain was a little rougher again, and once we got to the valley we saw what we had travelled to see, the beautiful hanging glacier. There was a rocky moraine that we could climb to get to the best viewpoint, an additional 90 minutes scrambling up rocky slopes in weather that was deteriorating rapidly. I made the decision to skip that section and enjoy my hike back to camp, Andy made it to the top and came back a couple of hours later a little bedraggled, the weather turns very quickly here, and they were all very cold and wet when they got back.
Night 2 was spent in a private campsite run by G Adventures, we had a gorgeous dinner, and were spoilt with hot showers and panoramic views of the Torres del Paine, which would be our hike on day 3.
We had been warned that this was the hike with the biggest uphill section, they definitely weren't wrong. 90 minutes climbing the hills on what was a beautiful hot and sunny morning took its toll on a few members of the group. The effects of hiking in the wind and rain the previous two days had caught up with us, and when we got to the halfway point to the Torres del Paine lookout, several of us decided that we had gone far enough. The gamble of continuing the hike is that you don't know whether the towers are visible until after you have scrambled up the moraine for an hour... Our view was beautiful from the Refugio, so we decided to savour the moment rather than push ourselves to exhaustion. The disappointment of getting up there and not seeing them (particularly as I have mentioned before - we are not hikers!!) would have been too much.
This certainly felt like the right call when we were on our way back and could see the weather closing in behind us...
We made the most of having been very active for a few days when we got back to Puerto Natales by gorging on amazing burgers... Exactly what was required at the time!
No comments:
Post a Comment