ahh
hh.....torres del paine! what an amazing place. we woke up last monday to a full on snow storm in natales. no hay problema, the weather in the park has nothing to do with the weather in town (we're 2 1/2 hours from the park). at 7:30am the bus pulled up and i got on. we stopped to pick up annette, who was on the erratic rock tour, from erratic rock II (our sister hostel in town). it kept snowing. i had a lovely nap on the bus, stopped for a cup of coffee at the tourist trap halfway to the park, napped a bit more, and finally we arrived at the park entrance! still snowing. drat. we paid our entrance fee ($30 US ouch! but at leas
t it supports the rest of the national parks in chile) and got back on the bus for another half hour until we reached Pudeto. still snowing. but gorgeous! the snow had blanketed everything and although we couldn't see much of the mountains around us, it was amazing nonetheless. after an hour, the catamaran arrived to pick us up. just before it arrived, it stopped snowing! the clouds were flying across the sky and in less than ten minutes, we had blue sky shining through. a few minutes after that we took off and headed across Lago Pehoe to Paine Grande. The sky kept clearing and in no time at all we were chilling out on the top of the boat, enjoying the perfect sunshine, and throwing snowballs off of the boat. the mountains were coming out of the clouds and it was stunning. the color of the lake is so turquoise, you'd think you
were in a tropical paradise. only surrounded by snow covered hills! after a half hour on the boat, we arrived at Paine Grande. it's one of the refugios in the park (they are sorta like a hostel in the park - they look like fancy ski lodges and you can stay in dorm rooms and eat their tasty food....if you have like a million dollars to spend and aren't there to commune with nature). as soon as we got off, two condors flew right overhead! they have a wingspan of 9-10 feet - not small birds! we took advantage of their public shelter (it's a yurt with windows) to make some tasty lunch - crackers and avocados and cheese and capers!
then we grabbed our stuff and headed towards Lago Grey. this is the lake that Glaciar Grey ends in. about two hours into the trek we finally got a glimpse of the lake. unreal!! the glacier is enormous - 28 km long - and is the southern terminus of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. where it meets up with the lake, it drops icebergs the size of houses into the lake. these float all the way down the lake until they wash up on shore (they're a lot smaller by that point). the lake is well named; it has so much sediment from the glacier suspended in it that you can't see more than a couple of inches down. another two hours and we were at camp. we stayed at Refugio Grey which is another of the ski lodge looking places (they have campgrounds next to them so you can camp in style if you want). what an amazing place to camp! we were right next to the lake and all these mini icebergs were washing up on shore. some were white and chunky looking and some were crystal clear and looked like blown glass. they looked good enough to eat, so i did! it was cold as all getout but that didn't stop me from grabbing a really beautiful one and snacking on it!
thousand year old ice tastes soooooo good! we had a lovely night drinking wine (they sell it in the refugio) and sitting by the stove in the refugio and then i retired to my tent. a teeny bit cold right before sunrise, but altogether not bad. woke up in the morning and we decided to take a morning side trip further up the trail to Campamento Los Guardas. it's at a higher elevation so you can see out over the glacier - you can really get a feel for how massive it is. and if Glaciar Grey was the size of a matchstick, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field would be twice the size of your arm - it's unreal! we took heaps of photos of the glacier and the crevasses and then we headed back to
camp, packed up, and headed back to Paine Grande. at this point, we realized that Mauricio (the guide working for erratic rock) had injured his ankle and couldn't go on. so i turned into the guide! we spent the night at Paine Grande - the mountain hovers over the area, making you feel incredibly insignificant. it's sharp and jagged and the clouds linger on the very top of it and it's almost like you're in lord of the rings! the next morning we got up and moved into the Valle del Frances. which is officially maybe the most beautiful spot on the planet. at the mouth of the valley is the backside of Paine Grande, which holds the Glaciar del Frances. it's unreal. it's a massive hanging glacier that spreads out over the entire side of the mountain. sections of it collapse pretty frequently,
which triggers massive avalanches down the face. there was a lot of clouds obscuring the glacier so we couldn't see everything very clearly but we headed up the valley to see what else was there. after a few hours we arrived at Campamento Britanico, which is a camp for climbers attempting routes on the mountains surrounding us. they're beautiful - they're light granite on the bottom and dark sedimentary rock on the top. the sedimentary rock erodes much faster than the granite, leaving these hulking masses of granite topped by dark crowns. they're called the Cuernos del Paine - cuernos means horns, which is what the peaks end up looking like. as soon as we got up there, the clouds began to clear and we had the most impressive views of the mountains surrounding us. we headed back down the French Valley to see if the clouds over the French Glacier had cleared...and they had! got some impressive photos before the clouds came back in. we grabbed our gear and headed to Refugio Los Cuernos which sits on the shore of Lago Nordenskjold (i'll leave that one for you to try pronouncing), right under one of the most amazing mountains i've ever seen - Cuerno Este - and within sight of the mouth of the French Valley. and here friends, i leave you - it's way past my bedtime and i can't type anymore..... i'll try to get the rest of the tale written up tomorrow!!! till then, take care of you and i'll see ya on the flipside! :) coke
hh.....torres del paine! what an amazing place. we woke up last monday to a full on snow storm in natales. no hay problema, the weather in the park has nothing to do with the weather in town (we're 2 1/2 hours from the park). at 7:30am the bus pulled up and i got on. we stopped to pick up annette, who was on the erratic rock tour, from erratic rock II (our sister hostel in town). it kept snowing. i had a lovely nap on the bus, stopped for a cup of coffee at the tourist trap halfway to the park, napped a bit more, and finally we arrived at the park entrance! still snowing. drat. we paid our entrance fee ($30 US ouch! but at leas
t it supports the rest of the national parks in chile) and got back on the bus for another half hour until we reached Pudeto. still snowing. but gorgeous! the snow had blanketed everything and although we couldn't see much of the mountains around us, it was amazing nonetheless. after an hour, the catamaran arrived to pick us up. just before it arrived, it stopped snowing! the clouds were flying across the sky and in less than ten minutes, we had blue sky shining through. a few minutes after that we took off and headed across Lago Pehoe to Paine Grande. The sky kept clearing and in no time at all we were chilling out on the top of the boat, enjoying the perfect sunshine, and throwing snowballs off of the boat. the mountains were coming out of the clouds and it was stunning. the color of the lake is so turquoise, you'd think you 
were in a tropical paradise. only surrounded by snow covered hills! after a half hour on the boat, we arrived at Paine Grande. it's one of the refugios in the park (they are sorta like a hostel in the park - they look like fancy ski lodges and you can stay in dorm rooms and eat their tasty food....if you have like a million dollars to spend and aren't there to commune with nature). as soon as we got off, two condors flew right overhead! they have a wingspan of 9-10 feet - not small birds! we took advantage of their public shelter (it's a yurt with windows) to make some tasty lunch - crackers and avocados and cheese and capers! 
then we grabbed our stuff and headed towards Lago Grey. this is the lake that Glaciar Grey ends in. about two hours into the trek we finally got a glimpse of the lake. unreal!! the glacier is enormous - 28 km long - and is the southern terminus of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. where it meets up with the lake, it drops icebergs the size of houses into the lake. these float all the way down the lake until they wash up on shore (they're a lot smaller by that point). the lake is well named; it has so much sediment from the glacier suspended in it that you can't see more than a couple of inches down. another two hours and we were at camp. we stayed at Refugio Grey which is another of the ski lodge looking places (they have campgrounds next to them so you can camp in style if you want). what an amazing place to camp! we were right next to the lake and all these mini icebergs were washing up on shore. some were white and chunky looking and some were crystal clear and looked like blown glass. they looked good enough to eat, so i did! it was cold as all getout but that didn't stop me from grabbing a really beautiful one and snacking on it! 
thousand year old ice tastes soooooo good! we had a lovely night drinking wine (they sell it in the refugio) and sitting by the stove in the refugio and then i retired to my tent. a teeny bit cold right before sunrise, but altogether not bad. woke up in the morning and we decided to take a morning side trip further up the trail to Campamento Los Guardas. it's at a higher elevation so you can see out over the glacier - you can really get a feel for how massive it is. and if Glaciar Grey was the size of a matchstick, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field would be twice the size of your arm - it's unreal! we took heaps of photos of the glacier and the crevasses and then we headed back to
camp, packed up, and headed back to Paine Grande. at this point, we realized that Mauricio (the guide working for erratic rock) had injured his ankle and couldn't go on. so i turned into the guide! we spent the night at Paine Grande - the mountain hovers over the area, making you feel incredibly insignificant. it's sharp and jagged and the clouds linger on the very top of it and it's almost like you're in lord of the rings! the next morning we got up and moved into the Valle del Frances. which is officially maybe the most beautiful spot on the planet. at the mouth of the valley is the backside of Paine Grande, which holds the Glaciar del Frances. it's unreal. it's a massive hanging glacier that spreads out over the entire side of the mountain. sections of it collapse pretty frequently,
which triggers massive avalanches down the face. there was a lot of clouds obscuring the glacier so we couldn't see everything very clearly but we headed up the valley to see what else was there. after a few hours we arrived at Campamento Britanico, which is a camp for climbers attempting routes on the mountains surrounding us. they're beautiful - they're light granite on the bottom and dark sedimentary rock on the top. the sedimentary rock erodes much faster than the granite, leaving these hulking masses of granite topped by dark crowns. they're called the Cuernos del Paine - cuernos means horns, which is what the peaks end up looking like. as soon as we got up there, the clouds began to clear and we had the most impressive views of the mountains surrounding us. we headed back down the French Valley to see if the clouds over the French Glacier had cleared...and they had! got some impressive photos before the clouds came back in. we grabbed our gear and headed to Refugio Los Cuernos which sits on the shore of Lago Nordenskjold (i'll leave that one for you to try pronouncing), right under one of the most amazing mountains i've ever seen - Cuerno Este - and within sight of the mouth of the French Valley. and here friends, i leave you - it's way past my bedtime and i can't type anymore..... i'll try to get the rest of the tale written up tomorrow!!! till then, take care of you and i'll see ya on the flipside! :) coke
F#@!*$ rad Coke!! You may not get to ride it, but at least your surrounded by snow capped peaks & mtns, plus you get to experience the snowfall..maybe not quite winter but its something!
ReplyDeleteMME
Coke!! This is so awesome!! Love your stories - wish i was there..... the photos are amazing. :)
ReplyDeletebig hugs from seattle!
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