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Published: June 14th 2008
It only took us about 4 hours to get to El Calafate….getting us there around 9pm. We checked into a hostel and then gathered some dinner and snacks for the next day. We met some people at the hostel that had rented a car for the next day and had room for 1 person….we decided that for a 1 hour drive….we could sit on one another’s lap in the car in order to make a cheap drive. So….early the next morning we set off for one of the highlights of Patagonia….Glacier Moreno!
Now, I have seen a glacier before….a few at this point….maybe even half a dozen….but nothing prepared me for what I was about to see. This glacier was massive and so incredibly beautiful! It stretches for 14 km coming to a “T”….where the spectators stand to observe its beauty. It is one of very few glaciers in the world that is considered “stable” and is continually growing rather than retreating. If one is lucky they will witness it calving….this is where chunks break off and fall into the water. Well, Rosie and I were one of the few fortunate ones….we not only saw (and captured on video and
photo) small calvings….I managed to catch a massive chunk breaking off and falling into the water on video! It was unreal and soooo exciting! We were the only two that saw it since the rest of the tourists stayed off to the other side where there were more viewing areas. I will get this video uploaded as soon as I get the chance…you just have to ignore the exciting foul language that comes into play at that surreal moment. 😉
Since El Calafate is nothing too exciting (outside of being a very touristy town)…we left the next day for our next destination….Puerto Natales! This town is basically the outlet for trekking in the famous national park “Torres del Paine”. The basic trail is a “W” shape with a circular trail going around the entire “W”. Due to it being off season, the circular trail was closed (too much snow) and all but two Refugios (similar to huge hostels in the middle of nowhere) were closed. This meant….camp in the snow…or base yourself out of the Refugios. The basic “W” trek requires 5 days/4 nights. Unfortunately, the final trail (right side of the “W”) was snowed out pretty badly so
we were advised to not even bother going there. So what we did was more like a “Y” that only required 4 days/3 nights. I decided to camp in a tent since it was $6 oppose to $32 that they were charging for a night in the Refugio. Rosie decided she wanted to be in a warm Refugio so that left me on my own. We caught a bus from Puerto Natales to the drop off point at Torres del Paine. Our driver made plans to pick us up 4 days later…at that same point…at 2pm. So there we were….fully committed to what was to become a tough 4 days as the bus drove off into the horizon. The first leg was 18 km to the Refugio. This proved to be a bit of a challenge due to having our huge backpacks full of 4 days of food and myself carrying camping gear. The sky was blue but he winds were howling and it was sometimes hard to stay on your feet. The view was absolutely spectacular the entire way and so we stopped for many photo opportunities. We also ran into a ton of horses that roam the park….not
wild horses, just ranch horses that are free to roam during the ‘off’ season. Finally, as the sun was getting very low, we made it to the Refugio. I set up camp outside while Rosie settled in inside. We had a decent dinner that consisted of packaged soup with some instant mashed potatoes mixed in for substance. 😉 That night I was quite cozy in the tent…as in warm….however, I was quite concerned with whether or not my tent and I were going to set sail at some point. The wind gusts were so incredibly strong that at times the tent would flatten down right over my face before bouncing back up again. It definitely gave my Doite tent a run for its money and I can now say….it stayed strong the entire 4 days.
The next morning we were off to a bit of a late start. We gobbled up some oatmeal for breakfast and set out on the left side of the top left side of the “Y”…a 22 km hike to a glacier. The hike started out normal until…about 1 hour into the hike…we were hit with a very strong snow blizzard. The flakes were coming
down very thick and the wind was so strong that it was blowing the flakes almost horizontally. This made it virtually impossible to look straight forward and instead you were forced to cup your eyes and stare down at the ground. At one point, I stopped to take a video of the madness and so Rosie got a few minutes ahead of me. After taking the video and walking some more…I decided that for safety reasons, we should turn back. We both knew that our last hour or so when returning would be in the dark since we had departed a bit late. We were prepared for this with headlamps and such….but we would not be very prepared if the trail got covered in snow. So I trekked ahead hoping to find Rosie quickly and turn back. Unfortunately….I just could not catch up to her. I found this odd since I knew she could not have been more than 5 to 10 mins ahead of me and we were good for stopping and waiting every now and again in order to always keep the other person in sight. I started to go through many different stages of thought….the first being
frustration and perhaps a bit of anger. I was annoyed that she would be so irresponsible as to not stop and wait to keep us together….especially in a blizzard. Then, my train of thought changed to calmness….thinking why stress over it, just hike and we’ll find each other and all will be fine. Then, I started to notice that I was not seeing her tracks anymore in the snow. At first I was thinking it was due to the snow coming down so hard that her tracks were being covered quickly…but the more I analyzed I realized that I should still be able to see some sort of trace of her tracks since I couldn’t have possibly been that far behind. So then I started to worry….what if she had fallen off of a cliff? How was I going to find her? Is she ok? Part of me thought that maybe she is still ahead….so I trekked on for 2 hours until I reached the final destination….the glacier. I was fairly confident I would find her there and so I was somewhat calm as I walked to the viewpoint. When I got there….no Rosie. I called and whistled and looked
all around….nobody around. At this point the blizzard had broken and the sky was getting somewhat clear again…luckily. However, I started to stress quite a bit about where Rosie may be and the situation at hand. I wrote notes in the snow saying where I had been and at what time…and where I was going. And then I turned back….worrying about what may lay ahead and perhaps me hiking all the way back…in the dark….alone. I started for a few minutes and suddenly…there she was. Phew!!! Turns out she had some how gotten on the wrong path during the blizzard but did not realize it for some time. She stopped and waited for me to catch up but turned back after about 15 mins had passed and I had not come by. She backtracked a fair ways until she met the main trail….where she saw my tracks. Her frame of mind was the same as mine….we should turn back for safety reasons. So there she was, booking it to catch up to me…and I was ahead of her booking it to catch up to her. And in the end we did the entire 22 km. Sigh. Nonetheless, we were relieved
Glacier Moreno (El Calafate)
Compresses up against the land and the river slowly cuts through it until it eventually collapses. It is currently dammed up again along the edge so the process will repeat.to see one another and started our trek back together. Since we had lost some time searching for one another, we ended up walking a good 1-2 hours in total darkness. I was ok with this…I actually found it kind of fun…but I am not convinced Rosie felt the same way since she had the “I feel like something is watching us” fear. There are Pumas in the area…so I suppose that is a bit of a concern…but me being from Cougar and Bear country…I was not too worried about some elusive Pumas. 😉 As we strolled along in the darkness…me hobbling at this point because my left knee was acting up quite badly (an old injury)…we were talking about the reality of the situation of us being out there…totally alone. That entire day we did not see a single person…we were truly the only two people on that 22 km trek. This is a really cool thing…but it is also a bit unnerving in that if something were to go wrong…we were truly very alone. We discussed how nobody knew we were even there and that it was fortunate things had not gotten worse than they did. Then…at about
this time….we saw two lights coming from far in the distance. As they got closer and closer…we realized they were flashlights and two people. We thought “what the heck is someone doing out here in the dark?”. Well little did we know….we did in fact have some people watching over us. They were the two guys from the Refugio. I have no clue how they knew we were on that trail that day….maybe they saw us leave in the morning or maybe they made a lucky guess (50/50 chance). Regardless, they noticed we had not returned as of yet and decided to come out looking for us. We were relieved to know that we were not ‘alone’ per se and that someone was watching over us….but we also felt horribly guilty that they had come out all that way (40 minutes each way) when we knew we would be returning in the dark. We thanked them and also apologized, and then bought them some wine when we got back to the Refugio.
The next morning my knee was quite swollen and in a great degree of pain so I opted to not do the right side of the Y
trek. Instead, I chilled at the Refugio while under the influence of prescription muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatories. Needless to say, I spent a large part of the day sleeping. 😉 Rosie went off and did part of the right side of the Y hike on her own and was back in a few hours. I was disappointed to not be able to do that last hike but I wanted to make sure I could get my butt out of there the following day.....the 18 km back to the starting point. That night we had some wine and were off to bed by 11pm so that we could be up and gone by 8am the following morning.
The next morning I was up early and packed up the tent and off we went. We saw a gorgeous sunrise that morning which helped energize us for the 18 km´s back. We were gifted with a perfect day yet again....we were so lucky with the weather!! We ran into 2 girls hiking in that day as we were hiking out.....2 people out of the maybe 20 all together that we came across in 4 days. I don´t know why they call it
¨off season¨ so early....the weather was perfect outside of the 3 hour snow blizzard we encountered. I am not going to complain though....seeing only 20 people maximum in 4 days was such a treat!! Where my tent was set up outside of the Refugio....there was only 2 others maximum that joined it. Apparently, during high season....there are a good 200 tents packed in there. Hard to believe!! So if anyone that is reading this is pondering when to go....early in the off season is highly recommended!
We chatted with the 2 girls for about 10 mins and then we were on our way once again. Around the same time, I got the opportunity to play with some horses that were by the trail. Put a horsey girl in the vicinity of some horses and well.....she of course has to go over and frolic with them. 😉 They were pretty friendly so it was nice to break up the hike a little with some re-energizing from the equine variety. 😊
We arrived back at the starting point around 1:30pm.....just before our 2pm pick up. It was such a relief to see cars in the distance...civilization once again! I never
thought I would be so thrilled to see cars! Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted by the end but it was definitely worth it. 73 km in 4 days. What a beautiful journey it was!
The van picked us up around 2:30pm and we were on our way back to Puerto Natales...slowly. We were kind of lucky by joining a tour in progress. They maybe were not so lucky since we had to squish in a van with them....2 girls that had not showered in 4 days. They were all Chileans of the older variety and were such a hoot really. We had a great drive back with many stops with more sightseeing. And we picked up 2 other hikers at the other end of the ¨W¨....2 American boys from Kentucky. They had spent 1 night out there and had a crazy time...going off trail and losing their way at one point and then having to cross a pretty deep creek. Needless to say they were wet and cold and pretty exhausted. Torres del Paine seems to somewhat kick everyone´s butts in some way or another. 😉
We got back to the hostel fairly late in the
evening and of course we b-lined it for the showers. It was one of the best showers I have ever had. 😉 We also ran into our swiss friend Pascal (he had rented the car with us in Pte Madryn as well as Bariloche) at the hostel....he had arrived the day before and was getting ready to set out the next morning to Torres. We had a huge feast that night at a restaurant with the Kentucky boys and then crashed hard that night after packing our things. With the bus tickets already purchased for 7:30am the next morning, we were all set for the next part of the journey...Ushuaia!! The southernmostcity in the world!
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barrygahan
Barry
This brings back memories!
I must return and try it in winter, looks great.