Valle Frances

Thursday Feb 12, 2015

This was an epic day of trekking. We hiked 26.5 km, with some significant elevation gain. I was quite tired when we reached Refugio Paine Grande, but I was also exhilirated by what we had accomplished. We hiked the middle section of the "W" route and enjoyed marvelous scenery the entire day.

We were assigned to the 8:30 A.M. seating for breakfast, which was the second serving. But 8:30 rolled around and the Refugio was still finishing up with the first wave of breakfasters. I knew we had a long day ahead of us, and I wanted to get started quickly, so we decided to skip the breakfast and go. We picked up our boxed lunches, and ate the fruit and granola bars from there, and were on our way.

The first part of the hike is a 5 km jaunt from Refugio Cuernos up to Campamento Italiano. We walked along the shore of Lago Nordenskjöld, and then did a little bit of climbing. Yesterday, as we walked to Refugio Cuernos, we could see heavy clouds enveloping the entrance to Valle Frances. But today the sky was clear in every direction and we got our first views up Valle Frances.

We reached Campamento Italiano at 10:45, where we dropped off Melanie's pack, putting everything valuable into my pack. We left her pack at the ranger station, along with dozens and dozens of other packs - no one lugs all their heavy gear up Valle Frances. Beyond Campamento Italiano, the trail begins to climb. I thought this was the toughest part of the entire day, and I was a little bit concerned that the trail would be this steep all the way up to the Mirador.

On our left towered the Cerro Paine Grande, with the Glaciar del Frances. On our right loomed the Cuernos del Paine. We had great views in all directions. We kept climbing higher, but not as steeply. At times we walked through forests, and then we would reach an open area with more marvelous vistas.

By 2:00 PM we stood at the Mirador Britanico. Granite peaks surrounded us. We had clear blue sky and an unobstructed view of the glaciers and mountains. It was a tremendous feeling to be able to enjoy such a great view, I felt lucky that our trip had enjoyed such great weather; everything I had read about Patagonia implied unrelenting wind and bursts of rain, but this was ideal. I think our time on Mirador Britanico was my favorite part of our trek through Torres del Paine, though the rest of our trip was pretty fantastic also.

At 4:00 PM we were back down at Campamento Italiano. Refugio Paine Grande was 7.5 km away, but it was all down hill or flat terrain. As we walked along, we passed through a large burned area caused by a careless tourist. Occasionally, I would stop and turn around for a look back at the majestic Cuernos del Paine. Some books recommend hiking the "W" from west to east so that when you hike the stretch between Campamento Italiano and Refugio Paine Grande, you will enjoy the view of these peaks in the front of you.

At Lago Skottsberg, we stopped at a viewpoint for the classic pictures of the Cuernos rising up behind the beautiful blue lake. From there, it was just another 2 km to the Refugio, but they turned out to be a challenging last 2 km. It was this stretch that we encountered the strongest winds we felt while in Patagonia. It was late afternoon, and the strength of the wind was so strong it knocked Melanie off of her feet twice! Fortunately we were hiking on level ground, so there was no danger of being blown over a cliff. I heard stories from other hikers about much stronger winds at Paso John Gardner, but for this short stretch we got our own little taste of what Patagonia winds could do.

We reached Refugio Paine Grande at 6:00 PM. What a great day. Once we stopped hiking, my legs really stiffened up, and found I could barely walk to dinner. That evening we watched out our window as other hikers struggled to set up their tents in the gusting winds, and I was glad that we were inside!


Panorama Photos


Maps

This map shows that we hiked the central portion of the famous "W" route this day.


Videos

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Lago Nordenskjöld

Glaciar del Frances

Valle Frances

Clouds

Rainbow Mist


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Valle Frances Photos