Log Two: The W Trek
Hiking to Británico
It was raining when we woke, and very cold. Neither of us had slept well and water had seeped into Alex’s tent during early morning when the rain began. Alex’s tent was an oldie, borrowed from her parents. It was bright green, weighed a ton and was now very wet.
We lamented the wet and the cold for the first few minutes of this second day, but once our morning fog and grump wore off we were hopeful the rain would pass. Over our oatmeal breakfasts in the camp site’s community space (a type of warming hut, dinning room, cooking room, hang out space), we overheard a few discussions of forecasts claiming sunshine would return by late afternoon.
Pretty soaked for our second day in Torres Del Paine National Park, we set off from Paine Grande heading northeast in the direction of our next campsite and next milestone: Mirador Británico.
the Thing Is:
Booking reservations for The W and O Treks is notoriously challenging. Largely because there are three different operators of campsites along these trails, requiring coordination across three different booking platforms. Certainly there are also fair strategies at play to manage the number of people hiking, as there should be. However, I did not have any bookings of my own but was sharing, or should I say skating by, on Alex’s reservations which were luckily for a two person tent - whether that means for two people, we were not exactly clear, so I was keeping a low profile at campsites.
According to Alex’s reservation we were to spend another night at Paine Grande. However, this made no sense with the progression of the W trek. Either you hike the “W” in the direction that you would write a “W” or you go backwards. That is, either you hike west to east or east to west.
We were hiking west to east, with the writing of a “W”, so it made no sense to hike all the way to Británico and back to Paine Grande. That would be like hiking to the middle peak of the “W” and then all the way back to the first bottom point of the letter. The back track would cost something close to 13 kilometers which we would have to hike for a third time the next day when we hiked from Paine Grande all the way to central camp, closer to 30 km.
So…we had decided to do something pretty sneaky.
We packed up camp at Paine Grande and hiked towards Británico with the hope that we might find a spot at Camp Italiano, a site operated by the national park service. We would ditch our packs there for the hike up to the Mirador Británico and figured it would probably be close to 6pm before we got back down. Surely at dusk the park rangers wouldn’t send us away.
Británico
closed due to weather
It was three hours later when we finally reached Camp Italiano at the base of the Mirador Británico hike. We walked through the camp to a small shelter to get out of the rain, which had been pouring down for the last hour and gave no signs of stopping.
We were completely soaked through and I was so cold I couldn’t open the buckles on my pack. I had to ask a very kind Swiss gentleman to open my pack for me. I then guided him through all my things to find some dry clothes and my lunch, which were of course at the very bottom of my bag. As he dug he told me off for not having gloves with my on this hike, and shared a few tales where time and time again his gloves were the hero of the story.
if heading to torres del paine national park - take gloves!
Soon we were well acquainted with the others in the shelter, and after several cups of hot tea and good company to distract we all began to warm up. An hour or two later, sometime in the mid afternoon, sunlight began to peak through the tree tops. Alex and I found a place to ditch our big packs and decided to head farther up the trail. Hopefully the big rain clouds still hanging overhead would float off and we would get some views of the nearby mountains.
Mirador Británico is often said to be one of the most beautiful parts of this trek. The hike takes you through the French Valley and ends at a lookout offering views of the mountain group central to this National Park. The view is 180˚ of unique granite walls concluding in distinct peaks. They look like teeth, a collection of both molars and canines.
Unfortunately, at the first mirador on the trail heading to the Mirador Británico, we ran into a park ranger who said the rest of the trail was closed due to weather. Apparently the entire valley was socked in and the park ranger was going to along the trail to ensure no one was in trouble farther along the trail.
We were not allowed to go any farther, but the weather was clearing so we decided to hang out at the mirador for a while and hope that afternoon sunshine might reopen the trail.
The sky slowly but surely began to clean. Patches of blue and sunshine began to break up the once continuous blanket of grey cloud, revealing the mountain peaks surrounding us.
& THEN THE SUN CAME OUT
Cuernos Del Paine peaks (left to right):
Cuerno Norte, cuerno principal, cuerno oriental
the french valley & el río francés
Paine Grande & Glaciar Francés
After a very cold morning, it was glorious to sit on a rock in the sunshine with a view of the mountains. The clouds moved away revealing a collection of peaks to the west shroud in glacier. We sat for some time in the sun, its surprising warmth chased away the chill that had taken hold of my core earlier in the day. As we sat small but thunderous avalanches broke from the ledge of Glaciar Frances.
