Day 4 Torres del Paine: Los Perros to Lago Grey
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2005
1
12
14
Trip End
Feb 20, 2005
Torres del Paine,
Chile
Friday, February 11, 2005
It was going to be a long day.
3 years earlier (on a previous hiking trip to Torres del Paine) Theo and his friend Andy had left Campamento Los Perros very early in the morning intending to go only as far as Campamento Paso, or maybe Campamento Los Guardas, and most certainly not all the way down to Lago Grey -- that would be long day and they had done two previous long days. After all, the trail from Los Perros goes up through swamp, over a very, very high pass (which is often closed because of poor weather), down through endless traverses on often muddy slopes through a trail full of roots and logs.. then if you decide not to stay at Campamento Paso you are still less than 1/3 of the way, and if you decide to..
01) Crossing another river leaving Los Perros...
. anyways, it gets very very long. The Lonely Planet Patagonia hiking book and park maps indicate this section as very demanding and have long hours for expected hike time.So with that in mind, this time around, we decided to start very early in the morning in any case. We woke up to find that many others were also up in the wee hours (and the pretty boys were leaving before 7am!). It seems that many people were taking this section seriously, realizing that weather at the pass may mean that they might have to return to camp, or that the tough trail conditions might mean a very long day. The morning was cool and drizzling slightly, despite Theo´s warnings Nadine decided shorts were in order (Calgary/Winterpeg girls wear shorts!). Stanwee was whining as usual and we reassured him that we would be carrying him again. After crossing a rickety bridge just past camp, we proceeded up through rooty treed slopes towards what Theo had promised for days would be the best swamp yet. And the swamp was still there, though slightly more dry than Theo had experienced before. But the area was swampy enough that dozens of trails had been created in attempts to avoid the muck! The views were limited as there was a fog over the swamps and trees.
The pass loomed above us, or rather, a wall of fog loomed above us, and the pass was entirely invisible behind it
02) Quite foggy as we hiked through the trees...
. To Theo this was a big let down. Last time he had crossed the pass on a very hot day, and gotten a fantastic view of Glacier Grey on the other side, but this time it seemed that Nadine might not see it.Then lots of rocks.. endless switchbacks and turns up the steep trail... following orange cairns... passing lots of people on the way up (we counted to stay focused)... on goes the Goretex jackets and the drizzling kept up and it was getting cold... Nadine in shorts like the crazy Calgary girl she was (or crazy Winterpeg girl she would also always be!!)...
The pass was fogged in entirely with visibility at times about 4-5 meters... we had to hunt a few times for the next orange painted rock guiding our way on the trail, or stick standing up somewhere remotely. They were placed just a little bit too far away sometimes, making us wonder if people ever get lost on the pass in really bad weather.
At the summit of the pass, we were exhausted with our pounding efforts for the last 2 hrs, and popped a Clif gel each, and then started the scree walk down. Dropping down the other side, we had occasional views of an immense (literally HUGE, hundreds of football fields!) cracked mass of ice, when the fog cleared temporarily
03) The swamp begins!
.Then all of a sudden the fog opened up and we can see most the gigantic Glacier Grey, just before the trail starts entering the trees. The view is totally awesome, and after seeing glaciers in Alberta and thinking they are big you feel silly at the size of this glacier. It goes on as far as the eye can see, and the icefield Hielo Sur can also be seen all around this glacier in the distance. We would have sat there for hours looking at this magnificent piece of ice, with deep blue cracks throughout, if not for our cold wet bodies. We started hiking back into the trees, with the glacier at our side. The trail was a steep descent with roots sticking out from all sides, and luckily the trail was mostly dry, but there were many hikers slowly manuevering this section. Using poles, then grabbing onto a tree, stepping down rocks, then skidding down little slopes of dirt, then repeating this for over an hour, we picked our way downward and passed many more hikers. Eventually the trail settles into a rhythm of up then down, over and over again. Theo decides that this is clearly the rules and regulations laid out by the Park Administration on the trail makers (we were pretty giddy at this point and babbling a lot!) -- the trail must go up, then it must go down, then it must go up, then it must go down. Since the trail from Paso Gartner all the way to Lago Grey is entirely on a roughly 12km section of side slope cut through by valleys and gorges, it was therefore their duty to attempt to make it at last 16km long by making it go up and down repeatedly.
Having reached the up-and-down-ad-naseum level, the trail permits only a few views out at the glacier, since large trees still loom in the view. At this point various metal railings, ropes and ladders are in place to help cross ravines along the trail, adding to the somewhat painful day
04) Goopy mud everywhere...
. After Campamento Paso, the trees thin out a bit more, and there are sections of burnt out trees, to be replaced by the occasional steep side slope on grass even, and there are occasional stunning viewpoints of the glacier, with the terminus of the glacier coming into view, large chunks (as big as a house at times) falling off here from the 200m thick glacier into the waters of Lago Grey.Unfortunately Nadine was chilled, and as long as she kept walking she stayed warm, so we didn´t stop for more than 10 minutes at a time during the 22km to grab a snack or to get some water.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the trail does drop, and approaches towards the head of the glacier and thus also the lake. The terminus (or sort of head) of the glacier has that stunning blue glowing ice sometimes seen in pictures, with large chunks of ice (as big as a house at times) falling off here from the 200m thick glacier into the waters of Lago Grey. And on days where the sun is not quite as bright, slightly overcast even, the blue glow is more intense. Like this day. It was chilly when we stopped, and we realized we had hiked for almost 7hrs straight through intense ascents without much food.
Over the day we had passed 21 people going the same direction as us. A beer drinking, friendly Spanish guy walking solo, who we think left camp after us, eventually managed to pass us because we were taking too many pictures. But all 21 other people succumbed to our type A personalities. As we pulled in the camping area at Refugio Grey, we saw the pretty boys heading to the showers, and realized that they had just arrived in camp as well
05) Foggy and light drizzle, not much view!
.The camping spot at Refugio Grey was filled to the brim, as this was the first campground for our hike that was on the Torres del Paine "W" loop. That is, we were doing the long circuit which included the back side, but many people opt to just do the front of Torres del Paine, trying to see some sites but keeping the mileage low (50km or less depending on what sidetrips they skip). The "W" people would from then on be looked down upon as almost a form of scum, as they filled up the campgrounds and were noisy because they had tonnes of energy after hiking a few km every day - yet would boister about the long hours they spent hiking (do you need to cover 10km in over 5 hours!?). More annoyingly was the fact that many people took a boat to Refugio Grey to start their "W" loop, and many daytrippers from other nearby campgrounds would come to Grey to see the front of the glacier. Even worse, the "W" people could get away with carrying tents or stoves or even a lot of food, as they often stayed at huts, or rented tents at sites, and ate at the refugios or even had meals prepared at some of the smaller huts with stores.
But enough ranting. We hated the "W" people (maybe really we envied them for not hurting their bodies the way we wanted to!). Just one more rant - we noticed that for many of these "W" hikers at the Refugio Grey this was their first time setting up a tent and using a stove - but you could get away with being underprepared on the "W" as there was always a hut to stay at if you had the money
06) Our view on the way to the pass!
! We almost wanted to head back to the backside of the Torres del Paine circuit at this point where people seemed more serious about hiking.Anyhow, as we arrived in this mess of tents, Nadine was bitterly cold and completely worn out (from having worn shorts the entire rather cool day and having carried the pots and a fuel bottle to give Theo´s feet a break) and objected to Theo´s choice for a campsite right near the water in an area where dayhikers hung out to look over the lake and at the glacier. Eventually the spot, slightly on a little cliff over the water and away from the crowds, was grudgingly accepted by Nadine because she was too tired to complain anymore. It was hot shower time, total decadence on the trail but we were cold and the shower was included in our camping fees. And right after the shower, the sun came out, and it was HOT! And guess which one campsite in the entire campground the sun hit! OURS! It was luxurious! We had 3 days worth of clothes that needed washing, and with a long clothes line hung up, we created a virtual wall between the rest of the campers and ourselves (who were just too noisy, like they were at a beach or something!), and had a wonderful first dinner of soup on the shore of the lake! We rejoiced, bought wine and tuna and chocolate to supplement our second dinner for the evening! After a bit of journaling and book reading (yes, we brought a reading book which is terrible because of the extra weight!) in the sun, we made second dinner and felt full at last
07) Nearing the pass, couldn´t find the trail...
!After dinner we noticed that Stanwee was missing. Really missing! We recalled him in pictures by the glacier, but could not remember what had happened to him. Nadine sobbed slightly, and wondered if they could hike back a few kilometers to look for him. Theo looked at her like she was crazy...she even thought that maybe they could put a sign up at the store ("Missing flower - Have you seen?" with a picture) because maybe someone had picked him up. Eventually he turned up, he had been stuffed into Nadine´s jacket before her shower, and the jacket had been rolled up and thrown in the back of the tent when she wasn´t thinking straight after the hike, and now the world was right again since Stanwee was back!... :)
Later that evening we rushed out of camp since we noticed the sun was going out. There is a little viewpoint just outside camp where you can see the icebergs falling off the tip or terminus of the glacier. We walked out there in Tevas with a 1L tetrapack of Gato Negro red wine. But when we arrived there we discovered the new little flip lid thing made it very hard to drink from, and we had not brought cups. And then, moments later, the sun set on our little hill top spot at around 9pm, and it was very cold, so we ran back to the tent and drank there. We were drunk and loopy pretty quick on our litre of wine, and we giggled about the "W" people all around us. We were having fun, as we had promised ourselves an easy day tomorrow, and a late start, as today´s 22km had been done way too fast and our bodies were protesting!
As the evening got quieter around camp, the sound of the glacier splitting off into chunks into the lake was literally as loud as thunder at times, but it was a soothing sound and we quickly fell asleep.
