A pre-dawn look out the window in the morning. Blue skies! I take another pic outside, using my tripod...
1:32pm, Chileno Refugio, TDP
We set the alarm for 6:20am, for an early start to our day, and we're the first ones up in our room. The wind was very loud last night, but I slept great in the extra large sized bunk. I had seen stars out through the bathroom window last night, and guessed the wind must be clearing out the clouds, so I'm hoping for a good sunrise today. Wendy and I bring our packs and gear out into the empty, dimly lit, dining area, so we can be noisy packing without interrupting other people's sleep. We see clear skies through the windows.
I finally decide to use the mini tripod my sister gave me for my birthday, and go outside to take some great pre-sunrise pics of the Frances Glacier. I head back in, and assess the tent. It's dry except for the part that rested on the floor. I roll it up and pack it, along with the rest of my gear. Suddenly Wendy tells me to look out the window, and the white Frances Glacier is now bright pink. We run outside and take some super sunrise pics.
A pre-dawn look out the window in the morning. Blue skies! I take another pic outside, using my tripod...
Some purple and pink sky and cloud around the Cuernos...
Feint pink clouds in the morning. We were thinking this might be all there was this morning...
But all of a sudden we looked up and saw this!
We finally got ourselves a quality sunrise! Nice view just outside the refugio...
Some zoomed in shots of the golden lit Cuernos peaks, and a waterfall...
The pink is gone, time to head back inside an finish packing...
We cook some oatmeal on the gas stove for breakfast, and I notice there are tons of holes in our food bags. Mice have eaten into our bag of bread, into my bag of PB (even gnawed off some of the label), and made out big with a huge divot in my chocolate bar! Wendy had brought back our plastic bag, and left it on the ground, rather than inside our thick ziplocks, and backpacks, though who knows if they would have gnawed through all that too. Anyway, we're a bit bummed, but only a small amount of food is affected. We wish Victor and Christine luck on the trail (we'll meet up again tonight), and depart at 8:20am. In addition to having a dry, calm night inside, staying at the refugio also saved us a good 45 minutes of camp breakdown that we could put towards a side quest on the trail today. The skies are lightly overcast as we hit the trail.
Christine takes a few pics in the refugio as I finish packing near the window, and she gets ready to eat breakfast. She takes a few pics as we get ready to hit the trail. We're sporting gaiters today, as we expect plenty of mud after the recent rain...
The trail crosses a stream over a big bridge, and climbs up some brushy terrain to the east, while the Frances Glacier looms behind. Views hiking in the other direction would be sweet, as you're staring at the glacier for several miles. The trail rises and falls along the foothills in front of the big mountains. Wendy's ankles are bothering her after about 45 minutes, and we stop at a rocky overlook while she puts in her orthodics.
The clouds took over, and left us in the shade at the start of our hike. A couple pics looking back...
I pose on a rock, with Refugio Los Cuernos in the bottom right corner...
A couple of looks back at the trail while the Frances Glacier and Cuernos are still in view...
Another look back. It would be a more scenic hike if we were walking in the opposite direction...
The treeless terrain on the other side of the lake reminded me a bit of Scotland hills...
The trail ran high along the lake for awhile, before heading towards the mountains...
A small glacier comes into view nestled in a crack in the mountains. The trail cuts down after a small crest...
We cross a couple of streams, finding rocks to keep our feet dry. And then we reach the big one. A wide and fierce stream, no doubt surging from the recent precipitation of the past 2 days, stands in our way, with no bridge, and no obvious rocks to hop across. I start to think this is a joke that there's no bridge. A single metal wire is strung across the width, attached to a few posts, which looks like a delapitated handrail. We see an older man on the other side, with his boots off, pants wet, and trying to dry himself off. He looks displeased to say the least. We hike up and down the bank, looking for an easier passage, but find none. The solid rocks are too far apart to safely walk across when balance is tricky with a heavy pack (or even without one), and many potential spots have a big penalty of falling a foot or two down off a rock into a lower part of the stream on a slip. A group of women walk across somehow, using the wire, but we don't see them closely, though it's clear they have to be walking in the stream practically.
We consider for awhile, and deduce that we might as well try using the wire, and see how waterproof our shoes are. I secure my camera in a plastic bag and zip it in my pack, and begin stepping on rocks towards the wire. The next rock is a couple inches underwater, but the only option. I step and grab the wire. Water is riding over the top of my shoe, and splashing up my leg, but the rock is stable. I grab the wire and lean against it for support, and nervously realize there is a lot of slack in the wire, as it takes 10-12 inches of falling towards the water before the wire gets taut. Good thing the rocks are stable and my legs are bent and loose to react. I look for the next rock closest to the surface and continue, grabbing a metal post this time (much more stable). After several steps, many of which are in water, the worst is over, and I'm on the rocky section before the next stretch of the stream. I'm surprised to find my feet are totally dry after being submerged! Though they feel a little colder after so much contact with the frigid water. My gaiters no doubt helped protect water from dripping down my legs and into my shoes. I look back to Wendy and tell her good luck, and not to worry about her feet getting wet (she has even more waterproof-looking shoes than me). She likewise traverses across the rocks, reacting to the slack in the wire smoothly, and joins me. Too bad I couldn't get a pic, but wanted my hands free should anything go wrong.
A look back and the steel wire handrail spanning the mega stream crossing...
Another look at our dramatic route across the stream. I think I may have crossed over the wire for the 2nd half of this portion, hard to remember...
The remaining portion of the stream crossing is tricky, but nothing will seem tough again after what we just went through. We hike upstream a bit and find a series of rocks that weave across the stream, and are thrilled to have completed such a challenge. I hope V & C don't run into any issues here. The other hikers are all hesitent, and everyone is scratching their head a bit...
Christine and Victor later told us about their crossing. They hiked up stream a bit, then Victor took off his boots, put on his Crocs, and waded across. He said the water was VERY cold...
We cross some more streams, which now seem like nothing, and we almost want to just walk right through them, after our new found confidence in our waterproof shoes. In fact, after yesterday's fairly complicated stream crossing, Wendy and I were talking about needing to test our shoes in a bathtub sometime, to see how waterproof they really are. Well, that last stream crossing saved us the time.
We find some leaves that have started to change for the fall a little early. Wendy walks across a trivial stream crossing...
After a stream crossing the trail splits, but there is no sign, and I follow uphill to the left, as I know there is a "short-cut" trail to Chileno. But it soon becomes apparent that this is not it, as the trail thins. I drop my back, and run back down to explore the other path, and decide that we might as well keep exploring this path to the left, as it's headed in the right direction. I consult my map to be sure I know where we are. We continue on, and I'm a little worried we'll have to back-track if this is a dead end. There's no view, so I'm hoping it is just a connecting trail. Soon we see a lake with canoes in it, and horses along the shore, and the main trail running on the other side. We notice horse droppings on our trail, and figure it's a horse trail for horseback riding trips. We relax a bit, knowing we took a short cut, and not a long cut (though we spent at least 15 minutes deliberating about it), and enjoy the beautiful rolling prairie like scenery here.
Our side trail kept us on high ground, and kept us close to the mountains. We rounded a hill to see a lake with canoes on the shore, and horses near by...
We catch up to a solo female trekker holding a giant SLR camera in her out-stretched hand, trying to take a self portrait, and I offer to take a photo of her. We've seen quite a few solo hikers out here, a fair number of them female. The W trek is a very popular route, and you tend to see the same group of people each evening from camp to camp, so it's not a bad trek for solos.
We join up with the main trail and the climb begins. It's a ~1700' gain up to Refugio Chileno, the lone refugio located up the Torres Valley, and beyond that it's an hour hike to Campo Torres, our campground for tonight. Our ascent is fairly gradual until our path merges with the trail stemming from Refugio Torres (our return path tomorrow where we'll catch the bus). We make great time ascending up the steeper portion, and reach the crest just under 4hr since leaving Cuernos. From here we can see Refugio Chileno in the valley. A sign says 30 minutes to Chileno, but since it's mostly downhill, and we jog some of it (despite strange looks by some hikers), we arrive at the refugio in 15 minutes.
We picked up the main trail here, just past the lake, and headed for the next valley...
The grasslands in this section were pretty. And the trail pleasantly ascended gently...
A look at the prairie landscape...
Another even wider look at the terrain below the TDP mountains...
A look southwest to another mega mountain and glacier system. That part of the park is no doubt awesome, but doesn't get the attention that the W trek does. The sign at the crest says 30 minutes to Refugio Chileno...
From the crest, the trail winds down into the valley. You can see Refugio Chileno nestled at the start of the forest near the stream in the zoomed in 2nd pic. Took us 15 minutes to get down there...
The trail was very smooth down the hill, though had it's share of ups, despite the mostly downward slope...
We cross the suspension bridge to the refugio, and start to prep lunch outside on a picnic table, but there's some bugs out, and the weather is getting cold, so we eat inside the refugio, leaving our boots outside the door. This place is smaller, but nice, like Cuernos. Someone is using the refugio's laptop, perhaps they have internet here. This refugio is very remote. It must be supplied by horses, as there is no lake to deliver supplies like Grey, Pehoe, and Cuernos.
Time to check out this remote refugio. How did they ever build this way up here???
Wendy's turn to cross. A look inside the refugio...
We bring out the hummus, and see that the mice ate a tiny hole through that bag too! We throw away the part near the hole, and eat some with a pouch of tuna. It's mostly cloudy out as I look outside, and no wind. We had some brief sun about an hour ago.
Lunch is done, and it's fogging up outside now. Wind is picking up. Time to continue on to Campo Torres!
The sign at Chileno says 2 hours to Campo Torres, though our map says 1 hour. Sprinkles fall, and it gets a bit chilly. The clouds make the mountain tops feint. We head up the valley along a stream. The trail through the forest is plain, with a few more ups than downs.
We recognize people from Refugio Cuernos on the trail all headed for Campo Torres. We pass the Toronto couple, who had tented last night in Cuernos. They look tired, and said the wind was awful last night, despite their supposedly high quality tent. I think the gal really would have liked to have stayed inside last night. We see the two tall blonde female hikers from Britain, with super small packs, who stayed in the refugios with V & C every night. They were very speedy, even when carrying their rented tent from Chileno (as V & C planned to do). The British Spandex Babes (as they would be referred to, since they wore very tight lightweight clothing too) sped on past us enroute to Torres, despite our own speedy pace, which landed us at Campo Torres in just 48 minutes from Chileno. The rest at lunch must have given us a big boost.
We can see a high glacier up on our left from an opening in the forest...
We are expert tent site scouters at this point, and quickly find a flat site on the outskirts of camp and setup the tent, all in 12 minutes. It's sunny out now!!! We had got up early today to allow us the chance to climb to the Mirador Torres today, if the weather was clear (in addition to tomorrow morning for sunrise). This Mirador is the highlight of the entire TDP trek for many people, and there's no guarentee the clouds will cooperate tomorrow, so we bring the light pack, and head to the Mirador.
We quickly set up the tent, claimed our spot, left our packs inside so the tent wouldn't blow away, and headed up the path towards the Mirador...
The sign says 45 minutes to reach the Mirador. The trail is super steep, straight up. It's 1 mile, and 1000' gain. The trail starts along a tumbling creek, and then cuts over to a boulder field for the final half, where the trail finding gets tougher. My knee aches. Wendy is going strong. We make it to the top in 35 minutes! The views are awesome. Sunny and clear, majestic towering spires, and a green lake. The sun is lighting up the back side of the towers right now, but we'll be back tomorrow morning for sunrise, in hopes of a spectacular red glow.
The trail starts out climbing along the woods, and then ascends the rock field you see past the trees...
We blazed up the trail, energized without our heavy packs, though after 10 minutes ascending the rocks, my pace slowed a bit...
The whole ascent was largely shielded from the view of Torres, all we saw looking up was more rocks...
Then once you make it to the top, BAM! Killer view!!!
Matt & Torres, Wendy & Torres. Impressive green lake up here...
Matt & Wendy & Torres. Wendy strikes a pose...
So many good pics to choose from, I'll just post a few more...
There's plenty of people around up here. We've been here for 45 minutes already, taking pics, and enjoying this top notch scene. The air was amazingly still the first half hour here, but now it's super windy.
I sit on a rock writing this journal entry, happy for the blue skies here. A look back down the rocky slope shows a forest at the bottom, where Campo Torres is located. We'll be back up here tomorrow morning for sunrise...
It takes us ~25 minutes to descend from the Mirador. Back at camp I stake the tent down (we left for the Mirador in a hurry at the sudden good weather). I realize that I've lost one of our tent stakes, but amazingly find an exact duplicate (though much older and rusted), stuck deep into the ground, which I can for the rest of the trip. The tent is now entirely dry! The sun did a great job. Wendy searches for the water source, and finds a stream with a long black hose that goes far upstream, and delivers clean water, before it gets a chance to be polluted at camp. A cool idea. There are flush toilets in camp too, and like the other camps, there are signs asking you to put the toilet paper into a garbage bag instead of down the toilet. Later they burn it.
Another view of our tent and the surroundings at camp. Cool trees in this forest...
Victor and Christine arrive at camp with a rented tent, but Chileno had no food to sell them for dinner, so they'll have to get by on their snack bars. They debate about whether to head up to Mirador Torres now, at 5:40pm, as it's still clear. They decide to head up, since there's no guarentee tomorrow morning will be clear.
We boil water for our chicken stew dehydrated dinners, and bring our food pouches just outside camp where there's a view of the tips of the Torres peaks. We eat some bread and dehydrated stawberries too, and return to camp when finished. We see the British Spandex Babes, whom also had no dinners for the same reason as V & C, sweet talking the three camp rangers, who are giving them food, and showing off on the pull-up bar and balance rope. They apparently didn't bring a head lamp either, and might be in trouble for the pre-dawn hike tomorrow.
A self portraint from our dinner location, with the tips of the Torres poking up behind the hill...
Wendy tries some of the dehydrated strawberries she packed from the US (probably illegally smuggled into Chile, though seemingly harmless dehydrated). It was a .25 ounce pouch. They were fun to try but almost tasted too unripe, and a bit sour...
Some pics of the cool trees near our tent...
A look at the balance rope tied between the trees, which the camp officials practice on...
We scrounge up the rest of my peanut butter, two pieces of bread, and most of the dehydrated strawberries (they were a bit sour for our likes) to give to Victor and Christine, who return ~7:45pm. We visit, and they are planning to get up at 5:15am to be hiking at 5:30. We were thinking of getting up at 6am, since sunrise is 7:15, but are gonna set out early now too, with a 5:15 alarm.
This is the last night in Torres del Paine! What seemed like a long backpacking trip initially is coming to an end quickly. "We were really prepared," Wendy observes, regarding our well planned backpacking trip, to which I heavily agree. "I love the smell of funky feet!", she also says sarcasticly as she steps into the tent after I get in and remove my boots.
We need to catch the 5pm bus to El Calafate tomorrow, and will want to be breaking down camp by noon. Do we have time for a trip to Valle del Silencio tomorrow morning, after Torres? Maybe, if we can do it in 2hrs...
I killed 6 fruit flies in the tent just now.
Wendy has 5 bug bites from the hike today.
Should be cold tonight, as we're camping at our highest elevation yet. Long underwear to bed.
Distance hiked: ~12 miles