Hiking Torres del Paine: Day 3

Sunset over the lake by our campsite, Refugio Cuernos

Day 3 was our longest hike, eight hours in total. Although the scenery, as exemplified above, made it well worth it, our evening meal left much for want.

Soup, instant mashed potatoes, and lentils. Mmm.

The rain had again assaulted us during the night only to stop around 6 o´clock AM, making for a wet tent, but dry packs and boots.* We kept telling ourselves that if it rained today, we'd be okay because at least we'd been dry for half of our trek. We could muscle through the last half wet. We hoped it wouldn't come to that, but at least we convinced ourselves that it wouldn't be the end of the world. Still, the cloudy skies were ominous as we packed our gear and made our way to the cooking shelter for breakfast.

Breakfast was oatmeal and cappuccinos (again). No Quik today. Our supply was running low.

As this was to be our longest hike, we started walking early. Here is a map of our Day 3 route.

Day 3 route is the purple line

Unfortunately, since the skies were overcast in the French Valley (the center of the W), we only went halfway up, took some pictures, then retreated back down to loop along Lake Nordenskjold to Refugio Cuernos. The skies soon cleared, however, and we were blessed with stunning views of mountains, lakes, and valleys.

You can see a glacier to the left of Tom

A nice British lady put us up to this awkward pose

Jumping rocks

Deep fog hiding the mountains from view

In the woods near Refugio Italia

Looking for the helicopter lift to take us back to town...

After the French Valley we only had 5 kilometers to go, all downhill

At the pebbly shore of Lake Nordenskjold

Resting...

More glacial water

The sun over the mountains when we arrived at Cuernos (our campsite)

Our campsite on a raised wooden platform. We learned the hard way that wooden platforms can be quite cold at night since the air gets underneath them...

As we'd been trekking with many of the same people for three days, we'd made some friends. When we got to Cuernos, we all planned to sit in the lodge and order some drinks, but unfortunately, the hikers were thrown out into the cold to make room for the high-dollar travelers who'd taken a boat to the lodge to spend the night in private cabins.

We were shown to a cooking shelter at the side of the building and out of sight of the other guests, where we huddled together, cold and hungry. Somehow, it felt worse to eat mush when we knew we were only a stone's throw away from steak, french fries, and chocolate mousse.

Scraping the pot clean of mush in the shelter

We walked around after eating. Rachel and I had one small box of wine that we'd stowed away in the bottom of our packs, so we poured that into tin cups as we wandered.

Rachel and Janneke, a friend we met on the trail

A little wine as we walked along the edge of the lake

Dirty hot tub. We didn't go in.

After our wine we crawled into the tent. We had a big day coming up; Day 4 would bring us to the base of the Torres del Paine, the peaks for which the park is named.

Cheers,
Tom

* Hey, that's the name of this blog!