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The wind and rain slammed against the hut all through the night and had continued into the morning. Day 2 looked fairly easy on the map. A stoll down back the way we had come the previoous day before branching off around lake Nordenskjold to take us to our hut under the cuernos (horns). No probs. We'd nailed it the day before, we were on form.
The plan had been to have a sleep in, and have a leisurely breakfast, before cruising off and taking our time. A spot of sitting in the sun by the lake and all that sort of malarky. The weather had battered that. The wind and rain was absolutely thumping it down. I was gutted for the people going up to the towers.
We sat at breakfast and watched the rain pounding against the window. We also played spot the leak to assist the staff in the hut to keep the floor dry!
It eased off a bit so we decided to get the full set of waterproofs on and go for it. If we were going to get battered by the rain all day better to get to the hut for the
night earlier and try and dry off a bit.
To be honest it wasn't too bad and we made our way out of the valley. Looking around it appeared that each valley had its own weather system. The valley the hut was in was experiencing wind and rain but we were moving towards sunshine! As we exited the valley and began the descent towards Laguna Inge and Lago Nordenskjold the rain eased off and the sun kicked in. Layers came off. Its bizarrely common in Patagonia to be applying sun cream whilst it rains, this was our first experience of it which was a little weird, although not unpleasant.
The night before the americans had been telling us about how strong the wind was. I'd rejected this out of hand on the basis that americans drive virtually everywhere and therefore a door being shut quickly probably feels like a hurricane. The wind was a bit strong, but nothing special and we took the opportunity have a quick rest in the sun. All good. It was clear though that the wind was picking up, you could hear it ripping across the lakes and the trees around us were taking
a right beating.
After a choc bar break we got going again. Louisa was in front when suddenly she got smashed by a huge rush of wind. The wind span her round and she began running towards me completely out of control. I immediately switched into auto-pilot and my rugby league training came to the fore. I set me feet and readied myself. As she came towards me i dropped my should and drove it it, slamming her onto her back! Despite the tackle taking place in south america sky sports rugby league commentator Mike 'Stevo' Stephenson (other sky sports rugby league commentators are available) could be heard shouting, 'Whoa what a hit, she'll feel that in the morning, don't worry about that!'
Whilst the evidence of some serioulsy strong winds was clearly building i remained unfazed. I had survived a tough childhood which had including participating in the sporting activity of athletics. Not normally associated with bruising encounters, this is not the case if you grow up in south cumbria where the only athletics track is on Walney (pronounced Wanley) Island. The back straight is so windy Chris Boardman (allegedly) used it to improve his aerodynamic position
Views a plenty
Monte Aimirante Nieto for the hour record. So brutal is the wind that primary school children have been picked up by the wind and ended up in Ireland. I was born ready.
The ground was pretty dry which meant that when the wind did get up all the grit got wipped against you, not pleasant, but as there's nothing you can do, best foot forward and all that. It was about this time as i was recounting one of my many frankly hillarious stories in order to improve morale when another gust of wind came our way. Picked me out. And knocked me to the ground. Impressive and annoying.
We battled with the wind trying to keep our footing and periodically being smashed to the ground. I believe its refered to as being character building.
The next major obstacle was a significant river crossing. Our hut mates from the previous night had informed us to go high where its easy to cross without getting wet. Alas, the sun appeared to be melting the glacier above faster than you could say 'i wish i'd brought my wellies'. We changed out of our boots and put on our trainers and inched carefully
across the river. The wind was wipping up the spray so we got completely soaked. The sun made the temperature bearable however, and when we got to the other side we changed back easily without feeling frozen.
Despite the wind and the river crossing we were feeling pretty good and making decent progress. The weather inevitably then deteriorated and it began to rain heavily. The wind got worse. The cloud came in. It snowed. Alright it didn't snow, but it might as well have done. The visions of us strolling along the lake shore, were replaced by looking at the few feet of earth in front of you as you slogged onwards, trying to keep your footing as the wind rushed in from every conceivable angle.
We got to the top of a small climb, at which point i got dumped by the wind and ended up in a hedge - not happy. As we crested the hill the cuernos were struggling into view. One of the finest sights on the entire trip and i didn't care. I'd had enough. The path descended steeply and we could pick out the roof of the hut. Sanctuary - result.
What happened next was brilliant. Whilst checking inot the hut, usual chilean rigmarole, lots of papers to sign, they take a photo of your passport, small blood sample, finger prints etc the hut person then put on their walking boots to show us to our beds. We were surprised by the boots, which suggested we weren't staying inside. Not having the spanish skills to argue we followed mutely behind and would you believe it, the true gent lead us to a cabanna style hut, just for the 2 of us. Morale hit the roof! It was unbeievably simple yet so fantastically amazing. The hut had 2 roof lights looking out to the cuernos. As the weather improved we got our first proper view.
It was such a relief to be out of the wind and to have our own space. With that view it was heaven, I was so chuffed I fell asleep.
The main hut was a bit naff. Made worse by the bad weather which had seen all the campers cram into the hut to stay dry and dry their clothes - which smelt really nice. The hut wasn't big enough for all the campers so
we had a few beers and went back to our cabanna to bask in the glory of the luxury.
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