Day 15 - Glacier Frances

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We awoke to what we thought was pouring rain and struggled to dress inside our tiny tent. Turned out it was merely spitting with rain, amplified by the tent. Me, Duncan and Mahnee has dry Cheerios and leftover pasta for breakfast while Sophie turned her nose up and stuck to the cereal option. Although we’d put all of our food in a sealed box in the kitchen area, Duncan’s pack still got nibbled by the mice.

An hour into our hike, the weather turned very wet and windy, and stayed that way until we reached the campsite at the base of the second leg, where we stopped for a snack and a cup of tea for the others. The ranger at the campsite advised us that the weather was bad and that it was be potentially dangerous to attempt to reach the lookout. Whilst some of the other trekkers heeded his advice and left for the next campsite, I suggested we leave our packs and climb for 20 minutes to see what we could see, as it was only 10:30am and we had nothing else to do. As we climbed (but mostly scrambled - this was one of the steepest ascent of the trek and was mostly a collection of rocks and pebbles plus traversing rivers and streams) the weather cleared. 20 minutes turned into an hour, then an hour into two. The highlights were a clear view of Glacier Frances, with chunks occasionally breaking off it, always heard echoing through the valley before seeing them, and the raging rapids which I desperately wanted to raft down. We scrambled back down, very glad we had risked the climb, and collected our packs before heading to a refugio 2.5 hours away where we would have more shelter for cooking and chilling out... or so we thought! On arrival, after a 21km day, we shared a bottle of Fanta - something none of us drink at home but had craved for when hiking. We were told to cook outside... in gale force winds in a sandy campsite! After half an hour waiting for our water to boil (Mum always said a watched pot never boils) we relocated to the toilet block to shelter our flame from the wind...classy! Dinner (yet again... pasta!) was eaten inside, accompanied by a cheap 1 litre carton of red wine (¨Clos¨). Bed even earlier today - 9:30pm.

That’s How Sophie Sees It

I really regretted not having pasta for breakfast, as I was starving a couple of hours into the hike. I also hadn’t drunk enough the previous day, as our water was in our packs and we barely stopped for photos let alone rest. My thirst was readily quenched was readily quenched by the many glacial streams we passed.

My knee seemed better that morning, probably because the pace was a little slower and we were mostly on the flat. No doubt the painkillers also helped. By the end of the day however (after a lot of downhill walking) I was ready to give up again, not to say that I didn’t enjoy the scenery. The park is just breathtaking, and very diverse in landscapes, like nowhere I’ve ever been before. That night the sky was clear, and completely blanketed with stars, millions were visible, beautiful!

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Photos

Quenching my thirst
Glacial meltwater, very refreshing

Sunny in the Valley!
Wet in the mountains!

Torres del Paine
From the back