The W Trek Continued – Days 2 & 3

Day 2

We had a pretty sleepless night after finding out that the hire company we used had given us sleeping bags that were only graded to 0 degrees, even though we were assured they were graded to -10. We both fell asleep very quickly, but both awoke within an hour or so needing to put a lot more clothes on. Hats, long johns and down jackets, not ideal but it did the trick as did the cursing that was directed at the hire company in the middle of the night from our tent.
Luckily we had gone to bed early enough that our broken sleep over 9 hours was sufficient enough to get us through our second day on the trek.
 
We had an interesting breakfast of curried rice and scrambled eggs, this time chilli sauce free, had a coffee and a tea to warm us up and hit the trail at around 9am. It was a very cold start to the day, we were breaking the ice in the puddles we walked through in the shadows of the mountains to our left, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so as soon as the sun popped its head over the tops of the cliffs, we would start to warm up. That didn’t happen for a couple of hours, but the very steep climb back up the track we had come down warmed us up soon enough. 
As we retraced our steps uphill, Glacier Grey started to appear behind us as we had seen it yesterday, just even more spectacular in the bright sunlight. Our walk back toward where we got off the catamaran was going to be a slow one as we couldn’t help but keep looking behind us at the amazing sight of the glacier. We were very lucky to have a day like this as we were assured we would have all seasons during the 5 days we would be here, so if day 1 was spring then this was summer and hopefully it would last.
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The weather certainly helped keep a smile on both of our faces, Evie especially who really was carrying almost the same weight on her shoulders as me because of the lack of space I had in my bag. She was doing very well and with all the adjustments needed on the first day, we were making good progress even with the many photo stops. 
When we arrived at the last point that we would be able to see the glacier before we dropped over the other side, we took the opportunity to take some more photos and enjoy the last few moments we would have seeing this amazing piece of nature.

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We had climbed a small hill off the path to get a private view away from a few other tourists and got a very special close encounter with a Condor which was having a rest 5 metres away from us. It hung around long enough for us to take some snaps of it and it’s rather ugly head before sparing off down the cliff side, showing us its huge 3 metre wingspan, the sound of it gliding through the air too was amazing, something I won’t ever forget.
 We waved goodbye to the glacier and carried on down the track back to the catamaran stop, cheerily saying ‘Hola’ to everyone we passed. 
When we had got back to where had started yesterday at ‘Paine Grande’, we sheltered in a hut from the wind and ate our lunch that Evie had prepared earlier. We were soon back on the path in a different direction toward the huge mountains and our next campsite ‘Campamento Italiano’.
We had retraced our 11km from the day before which were quite challenging and I’m sure longer than 11km, I think perhaps they had just measured the distance as the crow flys as opposed to the actual distance, but nonetheless we still had enough energy in the tank and the sun was still shining down on us. 
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The 7km were a different hike altogether from the first 11, to our left we had view of a huge snow covered mountain which appeared to be almost black and white, directly ahead of us were huge sheer granite faces on the opposite side of the valley which were too steep to hold any snow, to our right we had constant views of the turquoise waters of the Laguna and all around us was marshland and native flora, all canopied by the bright blue skies and the odd perfectly formed oval cloud that had formed over the mountain and had been cast off over the lake. Idyllic is a term that would come to mind on many occasions during our week and this was one of them. 
 We reached our destination after passing very few people going the opposite direction and finished our day by crossing a suspension bridge over the fast flowing river where we would get our water for the night. 
This campsite was the only one left in the park that was run by ‘CONAF’ the Chilean national park authority and it was free, but apparently we had done the right thing by booking it early on their website after learning that many other walkers couldn’t get a spot there. We pitched our tent and dried out our towels whilst we made tea and charts to lots of travellers from all over the world, a nice couple from the USA, many French walkers including a guy call Clement, who we would get to know well over the rest of the walk and drink plenty of beer with! So much for going 5 days sober. 
 
We had another pouch of the same chilli sauce that we had mistaken for pasta sauce the night before, but this time around a tablespoon was enough to add to our tuna and rice, the rest was shared around about 20 other hikers who appreciated the extra flavour, but there was still about half left after everyone had had enough, so this shows how spicy our first nights meal was. 
 
We had a wet wipe wash before bed and this time boiled some water to put in our Nalgene bottles to act as a hot water bottle for our sleeping bags, as well as laying an emergency space blanket out on top of our roll mats to hopefully conserve some extra heat.
 
Another day down, 2 very happy, slightly warmer campers, 1 page of my book read and we were both fast asleep by 9!

Day 3

We had a much warmer nights sleep on night two, with our hot water bottles keeping us warm. Another brekkie of curried rice and eggs along with a cup of Yorkshire tea and a coffee – we chatted to our new American friends. They kindly lent us their gas as our bottle had run out – great camping equipment Erratic Rock!! Luckily for us, we wouldn’t be cooking any longer as the next two campsites required you to book full board with them. Quite a rip off but I guess they have the monopoly and to be honest, we were looking forward to being fed and having lighter bags on our shoulders.

Today we would be doing an out and back trip to the Britanico mirador before coming back to pack up our tent and going to Camp Cuernos for the night. As we hadn’t looked into it, we had no idea what we would see at the Britanico view point and we didn’t even know if it would be accessible as the rangers were expecting low cloud and wind today. We were advised to go up to the Frances lookout (half way) and if the cloud was that low, to come back down as there would be nothing to see at Britanico.

The map said the hike would be a 6 hour return, but two separate groups we spoke to said to allow for 8 hours, as that’s what it had taken them the day before. It was going to be a long day!!

We set off – me without a bag and Ryan basically with a bag of snacks and headed up a rocky climb. It was steep but we moved a lot quicker without the weight of our clothes and camping gear. So far the weather was good and only sunshine and blue skies was in sight. We ventured through forest and over streams hearing the thunder of avalanches on the mountain next to us, rushing out of the trees to get a glimpse of the falling snow. It was amazing! After many a snack and more climbing we made it to the Frances lookout and there was hardly a cloud in the sky!

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The panoramic views were amazing and as you did a 360 to take everything in, you had four completely different landscapes. Behind the glacial blue lagoon, to the left the almost monochrome mountain covered in snow, with a glacier and avalanches going off all the time. In front of you more mountains shining in the midday sun and to the right, rock towers like nothing you had seen before.

Considering we had no expectations of today’s hike, we were so incredibly pleased we had even got this far. It was amazing and we hung out at the Frances Mirador just turning in circles, taking in each view.

It was quite windy, but nothing like the 60km winds they had been expecting (yet). As there was no cloud, we carried on up to Britanico, through more forest and then snow. The difference in terrain everywhere you went just amazed us. Each walk, each view and each day were just so so different and you could hardly believe you were in one place!

We had only been walking for 2.5 hours in total and after a steep climb to the top, we reached Britanico. We had to double check that there was nothing further up because it didn’t take as long as we had expected – but no, we were there and the views were even better than Frances! Closer to the mountains, but the lagoon still in eyesight, it was just amazing, and so silent and peaceful with only a few others enjoying the views with us. Bliss!

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We passed only a few people on our way back down – we definitely chose the best time of year to do the W!

The wind was picking up rather a lot and it didn’t seem like going up now would be that much fun, so we quickly made our way down as we still had another 6.5 km to go to our next campsite after packing up our tent.

After all of that it only took us 5 hours return – we were very pleasantly surprised! I think the conditions definitely helped and we seemed to be on a mission without our bags!

We had our sarnies next to the river down at Camp Italiano and enjoyed the sunshine before packing up and moving on. The walk to Camp Cuernos was marked ‘Facil’ the easy part of the trek and we wandered over little streams, through the grassy hills – it was different again! The signs on the trek showed supposedly showed the distance and also had diagrams of the hills – however these were completely wrong and so I was always waiting for that massive hill that never came.

It was a bit of a windy walk, but so gorgeous and sunny, we didn’t need our jackets. We couldn’t believe it – day 3 and we had pretty much just had sunshine!! With the recent weather before us arriving being so bad, we just couldn’t believe our luck!

For the last bit of the walk, we walked parallel to the lagoon, which was completely gorgeous. So blue! There was a beach not long before our campsite and the water looked so inviting! It was late afternoon, so lovely and warm and it felt so right to have a dip, but as soon as you remember it’s glacial and it is only 10 degrees out of the water, you soon change your mind.

We made our way to the campsite, with the sound of the water playing in our ears, it was the perfect day! Today had been a long one, but the views made you forget the weight and the hills you climbed and made it all so worthwhile.

Tonight looked like it was going to be a windy one and our camping site didn’t have much protection, but we set up our tent as best we could and headed in for hot showers and a meal not cooked by us.

We cheerzed ourselves with Pisco Sours and enjoyed being in a warm Refugio – before joining our French friend Clement and a lovely Brazilian – Carolina for dinner. Dinner was great and just what we needed – a massive pork chop and mash! Carb loading for the big day tomorrow! We had a great time laughing and chatting with Clement and Carolina.

Carolina had been upgraded to a dorm and so we did not feel sorry for her tonight – Clement had bad blisters and his shoes were falling apart, so we did feel sorry for him. We were worried about being cold again tonight so we took our hot water bottles just in case.

E & R x

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