Paine Grande to Campento Britanico

Going up the Valle de Frances was a special treat - this has to be the best part visually of the W trek. It was so windy and wet, we campers dried and packed our tents in the common room at the refugio as it was nigh on impossible to do so outside.
Sara accompanied me to campmento Italiano, and continued on to Los Cuernos. We left refugio Paine Grande at 10:00am, but not before rescuing a Taiwanese guy's tent. I was speaking to him and noticed his tent lifting in the wind. He had hired it and had no idea on how to pitch it, having the pegs straight down instead of skewed and failing to tie the outer shell to the inner frame. It was just as well his rucksack was inside. The tent was pretty poorly designed anyway. Fortunately one of the refugio staff also came to assist and suggested a more sheltered spot.
After this bit of excitement we walked along the track towards campmento Italiano. It was an easy track with good views of Cerro Paine Grande and Lago Skottsberg + a bit of Lago Nordenskjold. We were entertained with the wind whipping up the water on Nordenskjold into curtains, but little did we realise how much power there was in that wind to be unleashed the next day.  (as an aside  Otto Nordenskjöld is an interesting guy in the golden years of Antarctic exploration read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Nordenskj%C3%B6ld )
The scenery entering the area just gets better the further you enter it.
To get into Italiano a river had to be crossed, and it was a torrent. Luckily there was a nicely constructed bridge.
Here Sara left me and I continued on to Britanico. I did not want to camp here because of the horror tales of mice, and I wanted to experience the valley in the morning.
Wow this valley is stunning. It is quite tough with boulders and high winds but the views are glorious. Hanging glaciers, golden forest, streams everywhere and the final walk into the camp...

The final walk into the camp was, should I say a blast literally and figuratively. You break out of the forest and up to the right is a fantastic view of Cerro Espada, but the wind was ripping straight down the valley. I could barely stand and struggled to make it across the couple of hundred metres to the next expanse of forest.

To get to the camp you move away from the valley a bit and navigate through a forest of thin saplings, marked with red tape. It was quite a tricky exercise one the track moved away from the river.
When I got to camp, I found a shelter with logs all round, so wisely pitched my tent there.
The wind was roaring through the night. But I slept fitfully due to the exercise of the day - around 5 to 6 hours of walking until 4:00am. Mice !! Not one this time but, two of the blighters. I grabbed them by their tails and had a little chat explaining luck was on their side before providing a pitched exit. I could not sleep any further, so prepared breakfast and packed for an early exit.

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