I finish off my morning oatmeal. The food is hung back up in the tree (some re-usable shopping bags from my sister made great hanging bags) and we are ready to begin our hike up the valley...
Light packin' it up the Frances, and a long escape from the wet to Los Cuernos
7:43am, in tent, Campo Italiano, TDP
Slept pretty well last night. Hear rain at 5:40am, but it stops. There's more rain when our 6:45 alarm goes off. No point in looking for a sunrise, so we stay in. My eyes are tired, but hard to sleep. Smells of chili from last night. Edges of tent are moist from rain. There's some water inside on the edges, but dry on our poncho tarp and ground pads. Hear frequent thunder, but hard to tell if it's from a rain cloud, or avalanches (I'm pretty sure avalanches). Our laundry that had been hung outside last night is no doubt soaked. Our food bags that we hung on the tree, to keep away from mice, are wet, but food is all inside ziplocs. Rain is letting up. Stopped, with just drips from trees now.
Hope Victor and Christine didn't get wet in their tent. They have the extra Pehoe to Italiano leg today, before meeting back up with us in Refugio Cuernos. It was colder last night, and I needed to put on my long underwear for the 1st time. It's chilly in Chile, and smelling of chili this morning. Glad we have all our stuff packed in a plethora of plastic bags to keep dry for occasions like this...
The rain let up, and we cook oatmeal, re-sorted our food into bags to hang on the tree, and packed for the hike up the valley. We wear our rain jackets, rain pants, and gaiters, expecting wet vegetation and mud on the trails, even if we are lucky enough for no more rain.
I finish off my morning oatmeal. The food is hung back up in the tree (some re-usable shopping bags from my sister made great hanging bags) and we are ready to begin our hike up the valley...
We just bring the tiny detatchable backpack from Wendy's pack with some snacks, an extra layer, hat, gloves, and an empty water bottle to fill up along the way, as we get thirsty. I wear the pack.
There's some sprinkles, plenty of clouds, and some varying fog, which clears a bit shortly up the valley. Cool views of the glaciers. We watch a small avalanche occur. The trail follows the gushing river up the valley. There are plenty of streams along the way suitable for drinking water, though it's hard to work up much of a thirst in the cool humid conditions...
A bit of sun poked through early, and got us excited about a possible clearing. Who needs to carry water, when you can fill up at nice streams like this on the way...
The trail climbed up the rocks along the river. Views were fairly clear down the valley...
A dirty glacier lay at the foot of the Frances Mountain. I counted 34 white threads (waterfalls) running down the Frances Mountain. The trail rose through the woods, on a narrow hill here...
The trail was marked by orange paint on bark-stripped portions of the trees ...
The forest is mossy and green, with warped trees. Very entertaining trail, even with mist obstructing some views of the mountains. The fog picks up again, and we feel raindrops that make their way through the trees. The trail reaches an open rocky area, and the skies clear a bit for a decent glimpse of the valley and of the glaciers. We continue on the trail thru more of the same conditions until we reach Campo Britanico, at 2800', a 2000' gain from this morning. We stop for a snack under the camp's shelter, as some sprinkles start up again, and meet a couple from Toronto, who have the same itinerary as us at TDP. Later two guys from Germany join the shelter, who also camped at Las Guardas and Italiano the past two nights. The nearest water here is from the main river, which is silty, though safe to drink. Still, it has an odd mineral flavor, and we prefer to wait for another stream to drink much more. We were one of the 1st hikers up the valley today.
A look at the gushing river we hiked along. Not gonna try to fill up the water bottle on that one. A look further up the valley...
Some close-ups of the waterfalls coming down from the Frances Glacier. I believe the 2nd pic captures part of an avalanche, just to the bottom right of center...
A look at the green forest we hiked through...
It started fogging up again...
Very cool mossy forest. Reminded me of Middle Earth. Half expected a Black Rider, or Uruk-hai orc to pop out...
Though it was wet out, it wasn't cold while moving through the woods. We had to put on our rain gear again when the trail entered an open bowl, and it started drizzling. A look at a cool shaped peak...
A view from the open bowl area...
More surrounding peaks. Check out how crystal clear the water is in this stream. Tasty...
More greenery, and clear water...
After our short rest at Britanico, the rain appears to be holding off, and we head another 20 minutes further up the trail to reach the Mirador Frances. The lookout here is at the base of an ampitheater surrounded by high peaks in all directions, a few of which have glaciers hanging off them. We can't see the top of the highest peak, but the rest are cloud free, though no sunlight anywhere. Impressive glaciers.
A look at Campo Britanico, and the blue tarp we had a snack under. A look further up the river as we head towards the Mirador...
Zoomed in look at more glaciers from this side of the ampitheater. We see some more avalanches on this glacier. From the Mirador, we head further up the gully leading to the right in the 2nd pic...
We see a path continuing higher, and I remember reading about more views past the Mirador. Since we only have 2 hours of backpacking later today, and it's still early in the day, we take the path to higher ground. The trail exits the forest, and climbs along a very steep stream bed. The ground is a mix of soft dirt and pebbles, and the assent is slow going. We reach some rocky tallus, and climb up further, arbitrarily picking a big rock to stop at and declare our hike finished. There are awesome views of the ampitheater/basin. There looks to be a saddle much further ahead, which would be cool to go explore, but clouds are pouring through, and it likely wouldn't worth the effort right now.
A stop for water, before climbing up the loose dirt and stone in the gully...
A look back down the gully. We've come up quite a bit from the Mirador in the forest below, but still more to go...
Once we reach our stopping point, we rest and take in the view, hoping for some sun to break through. Wendy cools off...
We climbed up to at least 4000' at our vantage point, which started out from ~800' at the opening of the valley leading down to the left...
We only saw a couple people in this region, but got one to take our pic. Wendy uses a wet bandana to freshen up...
A close-up stitched shot of some of the many sharp towers in this park...
More looks at the impressive glaciers visible from our lookout. So many white water threads running down the mountains...
We hear and see a few avalanches while hanging out here, and a brief ray of sunlight passes across the mountains, giving us hope for a clearing. But the clouds re-strengthen, and we decide to head back down. Descending the soft dirt and pebbles reminds us of hiking on snow in RMNP the past couple of weekends ago, and we make quick time. It takes us just 20 minutes to reach the Mirador, while it took ~45 minutes going up. Not many people venture past the Mirador, but acheiving a view of the ampitheater with the green forest bottom is well worth it.
It was a quick scamper down from our lookout. Just gotta stay light on your feet and let gravity take you down...
10 minutes further down from the Mirador, we run into Christine! She seems to be working a great pace, and is full of smiles. We tell her that we'll be meeting up with her again tonight at Los Cuernos, and continue down past Britanico, and run into Victor a good 20 minutes later, who's knee had locked up on him on his way up the valley and was taking it slow. His spirits were still high, and he filled us in on their activities from yesterday. The glacier trek on Grey was a success, and they ended up staying inside the Pehoe lodge last night instead of renting a tent, and they finally found a place to charge their camera batteries at Pehoe.
I stay and chat with Victor a bit, give him a bunch of our ibuprofin supplies, and then hurry down the trail to catch up with Wendy. We head down through the LOTR like forest, making great time, but my legs get tired. Maybe I'm not used to hiking without a heavy pack on. The weather gets cloudier and foggier, and the rain trickles on and off. I wear my rain coat on-top of the light pack on my back. It's a treat to be able to hike without carrying any water. Simply fill up your empty bottle at any of the multiple streams, drink, and dump the rest.
We run into Victor on our way back down the mountain at the clearing before the forest. We head back down along the river...
A couple more looks at the water streaming down from the glaciers...
Despite the clouds all day, we managed pretty decent views. The rain jacket was on and off all day. A lingering cloud hangs over the lake during our descent...
We get back to Italiano ~4pm, and need to break down camp fast! Still have a couple hours of backpacking to reach Los Cuernos, and we want to find a good tent site, and have time to dry stuff out. We skipped lunch today. Just a pop-tart for Wendy, and two twizzlers and some chocolate for me. Our tent is still wet, despite shaking it for awhile, prior to rolling it up. Wet gear = more weight to carry on our backs. It's tough trying to keep our stuff dry in the light drizzle while we re-pack our packs. We wrap our ground pads in spare trash bags, pack up, hit the toilets, and leave at 4:50pm, wondering if Christine and Victor are already ahead of us on their way to Los Cuernos. We don't see their packs at the ranger's office, and guess they are ahead.
The path to Los Cuernos is easy, smooth, has few dips and rises, and is mostly through low brush. The Frances Valley glaciers stay imposingly visible behind us. The trail is muddy, and sometimes turns into a small creek, while the rain continues to turn off and on. The trail dips to the shore of a lake, along a rocky beach, and then climbs back into the forest.
After departing Italiano, we'll be heading towards the white and dark colored Cuernos...
The Frances Glacier is still easily seen looking back...
Los Cuernos Refugio lies ahead, just past the small curl in the shoreline...
I try skipping a rock on the lake, as the trail surprisingly dips all the way down to the shore. Ahead we climb towards the duelling Cuernos. A waterfall can be seen too...
We reach a difficult stream crossing with no bridge. The water volume is high due to the recent rain, and we hike upstream looking for an easier pass, but find none. Some other people just walk through it, either being risky on the widely separated and wet rocks, or walking through the water. We debate a while, and decide to go further upstream and finally find a crossing that looks decent. I go first, and step on a rock that wobbles, but react easily enough and make it across. Wendy is hesistant, and would rather make a leaping jump than use intermediate sketchy rocks. We both reach across the stream and I can just barely grab her pack from her. Then she makes the leap across, and after a 10 minute deliberation at this stream, we're ready to continue. The sign on this side of the stream says 30 minutes to Los Cuernos, and we can see the refugio in the distance.
We crossed the stream at a point where it had forked in two. Other people also spent time looking for the best way to cross. This waterfall no doubt feeds the stream we just crossed...
Finally the sun and rain battle paid off, with the emergence of a rainbow (though feint)...
The pot o' gold location. The Cuernos peaks, presented to you by Wendy...
We've passed the Cuernos, and the Frances Glacier is still visible over the lake...
The rain stops soon after, and we arrive at Los Cuernos at 6:50pm, scout our tent sites, and pick a flat, secluded spot. We set up the tent, and it's still soggy, but the sun is shining, and we think it can dry out now that the rain is over. We swing the tent around, trying to air it out. I spend 10 minutes fluffing it, but it's still not dry, and it starts drizzling again. Wendy proposes getting beds in the refugio, something I had been thinking of too, and so we go inquire at the hut. There is an instant warmth after we step inside the refugio (no boots allowed inside, btw). Given it was already 7:30pm, and had been raining all day, I expected the refugio to be full, but they still had a few beds available, so we booked two. It costs 3.5x the price of tent camping ($78 for 2 people), but seems well worth it for a dry night, not to mention hot showers.
I set up the wet tent, and try fluffing it for a long time to dry it out...
Another rainbow appears. The view from our tent site was pretty, and the view out the refugio's dining room window is similar...
We see Christine and Victor, freshly showered, coming out to the dining area for their dinner, and they are surprised to find out we'll be staying inside (they think I'm super hardcore at camping, and would never do such a thing!). We see the Toronto couple sitting down for dinner too, and remember they had mentioned that they were running out of food they had packed, and were hoping to find supplies at a refugio. I go outside and break down the tent, and bring our bags to the refugio, where we have the 2nd and 3rd levels of a 3 high bunk bed, part of an 8 bed room. We hang up our wet articles, and the tent. Wendy showers, while I unpack and prep dinner. We use the refugio's gas stove and boil water for dehydrated meat lasagna, to eat with some bread. We cook up some dehydrated corn chowder afterwards, and visit with V & C. They'll be renting a tent tomorrow to camp with us at Campo Torres. Cool.
After dinner I take a shower, but the water could be warmer, and doesn't quite fit the great descriptions the others were giving. Just as I reach to turn it off, the pressure doubles, and the heat kicks in, and now it's feeling great, and I stay in several more minutes. I can hear nasty wind and rain whipping against the windows, while in the shower. It almost seems so bad outside that I must be hearing things, as the wind has never been much of a problem so far. Back at the dining area, there is water crashing on the windows like someone spraying a hose, and the noise of the wind surges to frightening levels. But so warm and dry inside! Great atmosphere here. Wow, we were really lucky to be having a bed inside tonight.
Me writing in my log, an often occuring event on this trip. A look inside the refugio before heading to bed. All the lamps here were gas powered...
The wind is still whipping outside. Hope it lets up for tomorrow. 6:30am wake up call. There are tremendous views from here, so I'm hoping for a clear sunrise. Great to be with V & C again, and have a chance to dry our stuff off. There are guitars and drums hanging on the wall of the dining room. Too bad I don't have time to play, as it's getting late. Just two days left on this trip. We're good on food, certainly plenty left.
Warm! Dry!
Distance hiked: ~14.7 miles