W Trek: Part Two

Day Three – Follow the orange stick road

7.30am. No breakfast booked for today but we want to make an early start as there is a chance the weather might turn nasty. Alex has slept well and is excited to tell me how clear the sky is this morning, it’s looking like a good day ahead. In the night, she escaped the tent to use the loo, with a clear sky and no moon around she saw a beautiful night sky brimming with stars. She tells me about seeing shooting stars and even thinks she saw the light of a dying star go out and never come back.

Our first segment is a simple half hour hop across to Refugio Italiano, an out-of-service campsite but it’s still possible to leave our bags as we’ll return this way later. Alex sets a mean pace along the flat path and we arrive in no time. There’s no other choice for breakfast but to make up cheese and ham tortilla wraps that we’ve carried with us in preparation. A quick check of the map and it’s time to begin the ascent.

Leaving a bag and as much weight as we can behind us, we climb up into the wooded area above Italiano. The ground is crowded with large trees both dead and alive, there’s no forestry here so it’s a chaotic scene of nature left untouched. We pass an outhouse building, some toilet cabins and the remains of a long abandoned campsite. A sign indicates the park rangers have closed the camp to allow the vegetation to regrow. We’re just under 200m above sea level, a plaque suggests we’ll be climbing up to around 970m before lunch.

We’re blessed to be at one with nature, the morning sun shines brightly on the green leaves of the trees and the sky is a vivid blue. The only sounds we can hear are the birds happily tweeting, the wind gently blowing the branches and the river of melted snow roaring through the valley to our side. We pass the guys from Dallas and give them our greetings. Not long after, a hiker who waited with us at the top of Torres for the weather to clear, catches up with us and hops on past saying hello. It’s nice to see some familiar faces on these trails, everyone is very friendly offering a ‘hello’, ‘hola’ or ‘gracias’ each time we pass or let them through.

Somewhere around 450m up we reach Mirador (viewpoint) Frances, we’ve left the woods behind and the scenery has opened up, revealing a magnificent view of the towering Frances glacier.

It doesn’t take long to hear the first cracks. A few seconds later and another fierce rumble and a misty cloud of snow reveals the scene of the latest avalanche. Before long snow is tumbling in multiple locations on the massive mountain. At times it creates waterfall like cascades of white powder flowing down the cliffs. The noise is incredible, like a roar of thunder or a powerful jet engine, it reverberates around the valley sounding a lot more intimidating than it looks. We’re a safe distance away though, we wouldn’t want to be on the other side of the valley with icy swords of Damocles dangling above our heads, ready to drop without warning. I could stay here all day watching this impressive show of nature but we’re just halfway to the top and not even a quarter of the way through today’s distance goal.

We dive back into the shelter of the woods and continue upwards. After a while, a huge expanse of rocks and dead trees opens up and we’re exposed to a bitter wind. There is a great view of the peaks surrounding the valley we’re in but we don’t wait around for long, knowing the best view awaits us at the top.

Later on, the ‘steep section’ begins but thankfully it’s only around 10 minutes up. We’ve reached Mirador Britannica and reward ourselves with a bag of trail mix and some chocolate. We’re at the peak of the central point of the W, in a seeming bowl surrounded by granite peaks on all sides. Like the green lake yesterday, it’s another vast view that is impossible to take it all at once. Time for some photos.

The way down seems to go quickly for me but Alex is flagging a bit. I put on some music to distract her and also cure the latest earworm she has stuck in her head! Arriving back at Mirador Frances we set down for some lunch, ham and cheese wraps once more but this time with a side of Doritos! The avalanches are taking a time-out and we enjoy lunch simply admiring one of the most stunning views in the world.

We race back down to Italiano and pick up the rest of our gear we’d left behind. The sun and wind is surprisingly fierce by the mid-afternoon so we agree it’s best to make tracks towards our evening stay while we still have some energy. We chat away along the undulating path and we’re soon back amongst the spring flora. Eventually, this gives way to a moving sight, thousands of bare grey trunks and branches litter the area from the lake all the way up to near the top of the mountain.

As we walk on, the graveyard of trees extends for miles around. Alex already knows the cause but it later becomes clear as black charcoal branches give the obvious clue as to what happened here. A fire started at Refugio Grey, an area we won’t reach until tomorrow night, that spread all the way down here and miles beyond. It must have killed thousands of trees, plants, bushes and countless wildlife too. We find out later there have actually been two devastating fires in the park since 2005.

Leaving the sombre scene behind we find refuge from the wind and share a final bag of trail mix to get us through to the end of this 7.5km section. The wind is once again blowing a gale and the mist on top of the lake shimmers a gorgeous prism of colours. We both plug in podcasts to take our minds off the weather and our aching legs. They make a good distraction and Alex beams a smile at me when she sees our Refugio for the night inviting us towards it in the distance.

Check-in is fairly painless for once, tonight we’ll be sleeping in a six person dorm within the large Refugio building. We dump our stuff in the dorm and head for a drink in the bar overlooking both the nearby lake and the glorious mountains, bathing in the evening sun.

Dinner is a help yourself buffet and we both pile our plates sky high. Later, we regret eating quite so much in a short space of time! We consider waiting for the night sky and stargazing together but by 10pm although the sun has gone down over an hour ago, the sky is still blue. We decide to call it a night and head to the dorm, the room is so hot that everyone is sleeping clothed on top of their duvets. I’m grateful when one of our dorm mates has enough and finds a way to open the window, a complete waste of energy and heat but at least we can sleep more comfortably.

Day 4 – Greyt Expectations

8.00am. A lie in! After a night surrounded by a cacophony of snoring, we roll out of bed for our final full day in the park. Breakfast is another buffet and we gorge on cereal, eggs, yoghurt, ham and cheese sandwiches and sponge cake! We will take the boat home from near here tomorrow so we leave dirty clothes and other unneeded items behind to save weight. Picking up our brown paper bag lunches we head North in the direction of Refugio Grey where we’ll spend our final night in this glorious park.

We pass through another area of burned out and dead trees, sprawling and collapsed in all directions. Yesterday it seemed like an interesting spectacle, today it feels like a sad reminder of the mass destruction, likely caused by accident, but devastating all the same.

We pass Laguna Los Patos (The Ducks’ Lagoon), the next body of water we see is Lago Grey, a huge lake with a peculiar colour, hence it’s name. It is a far cry from the luscious bluey-green lake we saw the last two days, this is more washed out. Continuing on, Alex invites me to walk in front of her, I suspect there must be something up ahead and sure enough on the horizon the edge of the glacier appears. It stretches well into the distance, we overhear a nearby guide explain it is the 3rd largest body of freshwater in the world!

By the time we’ve finished the almost four hour trek from where we set off we’re both struggling with our shoulders and backs, we’re relieved to arrive at the refugio. I check us in and we sit outside in the sun to eat our packed lunches. It’s only chicken and cheese sandwiches but it hits the spot and we feel better having a break from our bags. This afternoon we’re able to leave all of our stuff at the refugio and only carry a couple of snacks in our pockets while we take a bonus trip to get closer to the glacier.

Buoyed by finally being free of carrying backpacks, we trot off towards a viewpoint just beyond the camping section of this refugio. From here we have uninterrupted views and stare at the biblical chunk of frozen water in front of us, trying to make sense of the scale of it. The colour is unlike anything I’ve seen in the natural world before and I can only compare the unusual blue to the candyfloss you find at fairgrounds. Alex is determined to touch a part of the glacier so we descend down to where a piece has helpfully washed up on the rocks below.

Curiousity satisfied, we continue North, wanting to see how far we can push it before we’ll need to turn back and freshen up before dinner. On the way up, some hikers are surprised to see us, they have been doing the O trek which is a one way route only. We’re now on a section where the W and O routes cross over so we’re likely the first people they’ve seen coming in the opposite direction for a number of days.

Eventually we reach a suspension bridge bouncing above a valley far below as a group of hikers make their way across one by one. We ask the first about the route ahead of us and he explains there are two more bridges we’ll need to cross to get closer to being parallel with the nose of the glacier.

It takes us quite a while to reach the second bridge, the elevation gain takes us by surprise, we’re both determined but also tiring by this point in the day. Just beyond the second bridge lies another excellent viewpoint. From here we are much closer to the glacier but we can’t see the next bridge anywhere in the distance.

Contemplating our next move another hiker comes up to the viewpoint, they advise it’s another hour to the next bridge. We wager we’ve probably got just enough energy to push on but time is against us, but not then the three hour return on top, and we decide it’s been a fantastic day. We agree to head back while we’re still in good spirits and not burn ourselves out.

We both pop our headphones in and the distraction means we’re back at the refugio in what feels like no time at all. On the way back we see the ferry taking visitors close to the glacier. It looks ridiculously small on the massive expanse of water and gives a good sense of scale to the surrounding mountains and ice sheet.

Exhausted, we have a lie down before dinner, I write this blog while Alex finishes the Valparaiso text, it’s a part-time job! Just after 7pm we head through to the bar/restaurant area. Large groups are making a lot of noise and are in a party mood, fair play to them, they’ve just finished the gruelling O trek. We celebrate our own achievements with a bottle of red wine, priced relatively well compared to everything else (£9 for a bottle of beer).

Dinner is similar to last night and we haven’t learned our lesson, getting our money’s worth with mountains of mash, meat and vegetables. We head to bed around 9pm, the dorm is a bit cosier and much cooler than the sauna we slept in last night.

Epilogue – The Return

6.30am. That’s when we should be eating breakfast, however none of the staff seem aware of our request for food before 7am. Alex grabs a rushing through staff member and tells us they didn’t get the message of our early breakfast, but quickly brings out the buffet. We inhale what we can and have our last conversation with the chaps from Dallas, we finally learn their names, Jeff and Vidya. We wish them well, collect our lunches and hit the road later than we’d planned. Our boat leaves at 11am from the Paine Grey Refugio and if we miss it, the next one is 4.30pm which means we’d miss our bus home.

The walk yesterday took 3h40m so we’re conscious we’ll need a good pace to collect our things and make the boat. We plug in our headphones and I set a vicious pace as we retrace our steps. Alex does well to keep up as I scramble up rocks and almost jog along the flat sections. Around halfway we take one last look at the glacier and march on, we’re making good time.

The Paine Grande mountain emerges from the clouds on our left and we can see it’s had a fresh sprinkling of snow making it look harsh, wintry and more imposing than before. The only time we stop for breath is to let large groups of hikers through the narrow path. Amazingly we arrive at the refugio at 9.40am, we’ve done the return trip in 2h25m. I suppose it goes to show when we really want to we can shift up a couple of gears. We seek the shelter of the refugio and I reward Alex with a large hot chocolate, it goes down a treat. We collect our belongings and wait for the catamaran that will take us home to arrive.

On the bus ride back we see the full extent of the trek we’ve just completed, seeing the peaks and mountains in all their huge glory. Now we realise why some of those days were so long!

It’s been an incredible adventure in this beautiful part of Patagonia. I believe I’ve seen some of the most stunning sights in the world and also in my life so far. These hikes will be experiences and memories that will stay with us forever. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll come back here and try the O trek…

Summary Stats

Total distance – 85km

Total time trekking – 29h 17m

Total steps – 142,742

Total elevation gain – 4,142m

Avalanches witnessed – 4

Shooting stars seen by Alex – 2

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Adventure – helping Sophia bandage her wounds with some plasters and tape, loads of hiking across all sorts of terrain, walking like a quadruped with two walking sticks, trying to silently escape the tent without falling down the 7ft drop outside the door and also put boots on in the middle of the night while James slept, trying to think of new words for ‘unreal’, ‘amazing’ and ‘nuts’ to describe all the amazing scenes

Excitement – buffet dinner, greeting familiar faces along the walks, witnessing avalanches, the amazing pillows at the Lady Florence Dixie Hotel

Trauma – Sleep paralysis (James, it’s been a while), chaotic check-ins at the campsites, freezing cold on night one, thinking we might have to sleep without a sleeping bag in the freezing cold