Dramatic mountain valley with ice and watery scenes, a wonderful place to
camp. Ughh! Mice ! Time to beat a retreat.
It was kind of eerie at this hour, but the mountains showed a different
perspective with the night sky creating kind of silohuette.
Navigation through the forest was tricky even with the super bright CREE head
torch I have, and the painted markers very pale to non-existent - sometimes
the notching in the trees was what assured me of the right track.
In hindsight it was rather silly of me to leave at this hour as it would
have been easy to lose my way, however I reasoned that the valley was quite
evident and the GPS would get me out if I really needed to get absolute
positioning. The photo below is a much brighter example of the marked trees
used (the walk to the Torres pillars is more popular where this is located).
I was equally in love with Valle de Frances coming out, and equally glad
despite the mice to have decided to camp at Britanico.
The walk from Italiano to Cuernos was quite quick, being also a horse trail.
Cuernos is quite a large setup with huts and refugio. It was also closing
for the season. The backdrop is quite something with the lake and mountains.
High up in the mountains I spotted a condor soaring.
Leaving Cuernos at 11ooam. Here I witnessed exceptionally high winds. I was
knocked over a couple of times and had to brace hard on many occasions.
Those curtains of water I saw yesterday, well, I saw and was in the path of
quite a few of them.The sun was forming a rainbow in the curtains - quite a
sight.
Not marked on the map, but signposted was 'shortcut to Chileno'. I took this
as it was desirable to get to this destination without unnecessary travel.
Here I met up with Sara and her newfound companion Professor Todd - a prof in
financial psychology. Also I met a well travelled Japanese guy from Hokkaido.
Poor Sara was blown over whilst walking along lago Nordenskjold and had blood
all over her legs and chest. I was a bit annoyed at Todd and the Japanese guy
for not lending their trekking poles to her, so I passed mine over.
Above Sara was buckling over with the ferocious power of the wind. The wind
abated enough for a brief moment to allow me to take a snap. This pass was
steeply pitched and a fall here meant a long slide on gravel into the valley.
We got to Chileno in just enough time to pitch tent before it rained. I
discovered professor Todd did not have a tent and the refugio was closed here!
Hmm... professors are not necessarily intelligent in all aspects of life. He
was going to hike back to Torres camp but I offered a place in my small
apartment instead.
Two French guys popped in later and later in the night were forced to relocate
their tent to the porch of the refugio. Their tent was two dollar job and was
inundated with water. I am glad to have brought my alpine tent as it paid
dividends - no problems in this weather, just the varmints!
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