I’m not sure where to start describing my day today. So I’ll just begin at the beginning. I woke to a beautiful sunrise reflected on the mountain and casting a pink/orange glow on everything. It was going to be an even more beautiful day.
We started our trek at 8:30 am in the direction of Campo Italiano. Our trek today would take us into the French valley – Valle del Frances to the highest lookout point – the Mirador Valle del Frances. We’d then trek back the way we came and continue on to the Refugio Paine Grande.
The beginning of the trek was what our main guide – Roberto Carlos – called Patagonia flat. Not flat! But relatively gentle incline and declines followed by some not so gentle inclines and declines. We were all pretty full of energy at that point. We trekked to Campo Italiano – our first resting point – on our way. At that point we were at 190m altitude and we could see the mountains and the glacier – Glacier Frances – in the distance. As I said in a previous post, it snowed a couple of days ago so the possibility of an avalanche was very high. We started to hear and see them at that point. To me, the avalanche sounds like machine-gun fire. And then there’s a small snow-explosion followed by the snow rolling down the mountain. It’s spectacular and very, very scary. The sound that it makes is indescribable.
From Campo Italiano, we were on our way to the highest point of the French valley. We started the climb and immediately ran into snow. So we were trekking through mud and ice and snow and it was so amazingly beautiful. And HARD! Although it was probably only 45 degrees, I was in just one layer and sweating like crazy.
The sounds were what really struck me. I’d hear an avalanche, which was loud enough to cause all of us to stop dead in our tracks and try to find it. That would be followed by complete silence as we all stared in complete awe. And then the steady sound of boots hiking through the snow and the sound of my own heavy breathing. You couldn’t help but be in the moment – partly because if you weren’t something bad might happen – but it was so very peaceful.
We made it to the summit around 3 pm. So we’d been trekking without more than a 5-minute break for more than 6 hours. And we’d gone from 190 meters to 970 meters elevation. It was quite difficult! But it was worth it!We had such a great view of the towers up there and stopped for 30 minutes or so to refuel.
None of us were looking forward to going back the way we’d came but we made the most of it. We slipped and slid back down through the snow and mud and made complete messes of ourselves. There was a bet made between 2 of our guys that whoever fell – on their butt – not on their hands – had to buy the other a beer. Probably needless to say, I did go down. But not all the way and only once.
It’s fascinating listening to the conversations that occur in the middle of a trek – from music to politics to cartoons. It’s fun getting to know these people. We all have something in common, right, so it’s great getting to know them day by day.
After repeating our way up and getting past Campo Italiano again, we were on our way to our final stop. At this point we’d been going for over 8 hours and were whipped! But we still had quite a while to go. However, on our way back we got to take advantage of more Patagonia flat. But at this point my neck and knees and feet where just aching! The only other time my feet had been in such pain was when I ran the marathon. Ouch!
Fortunately nature felt the need to give back to us. There was no wind and we could see all of the mountains perfectly reflected in the Largo Pehoe – a gorgeous lake we followed home. I’ve always seen pictures of snow-capped mountains perfectly reflected in water. Now I was seeing it in person. It looked like the clouds were perched right on top of the perfectly still water. Simply stunning! I’m not sure a picture will ever do it justice but I certainly tried to get the right shot.
Finally! Finally we got to the Refugio and we all went in the direction of our highest priority. Mine happened to be a shower at that point – followed shortly by a nice Chilean white shared with a new friend, Chelsea.
I feel like I haven’t done this day justice with my writing. I simply can’t describe the peace and contentedness of being on this beautiful mountain surrounded by snow. There were so many moments when I would just look around and smile. It was remarkable and a day I’ll never, ever forget!
To more…’night