Torres del Paine, Chile
Day 3 we started early because it was going to be a long day. We would need to go up the middle of the W, and then get to the far left corner of the W today. Jenny and I made good time to the middle of the W and dumped our full backpacks at the ranger station there and just bring our day packs up the middle of the W. We cooked up the first half to the French lookout point. We knew if we were going to make it to the top we needed to be quick today. This lookout was beautiful and had a great view of the mountains and rivers in the valley. We could hear and see some avalanches on the mountains across the river. We continued up the French Valley toward the Britanico lookout but something wasn’t right. Maybe 30 minutes into the second leg, the trail ended. It didn’t make sense. We backtracked a bit and saw were there was a T intersection and figured we went the wrong way on the T. We tried the other side of the T and it led us to a rock scramble that still didn’t feel right. We still explored it but at this point we should have started to see other people on the trail. Jenny and I are quick but we weren’t running by any means.
Right as we were starting to make our way down, we saw another couple coming up. We stood in a place that would not sway their decisions on which path to take and they chose the same way we did initially. Jenny and I started to follow them hoping that they knew the right way but we found out quickly that they were just as lost as we were. They attempted to go up the rock scramble as well, but Jenny and I did not follow them and headed back down. We lost about 45 minutes to an hour here and we were already on a tight schedule. We decided to back track and give up on seeing the Britanico lookout. As we followed the path back, we finally found our mistake. We had missed one orange arrow sign pointing for us to cross the stream. It was frustrating because we were on a clear trail, but unfortunately it was not the right one.
We grabbed our bags at he ranger station and headed to Paine Grande. We got in early and had some time to relax and talk to our roommates about the Britanico lookout. They said it was amazing and totally worth it. Jenny and I are kicking ourselves now. Our next reservation was at the top left of the W (Refugio Gray) and not on the way towards the lookout. We talked about doing the trek from our hostel to the lookout and then back up to the top of the W where we would be staying but it would had been a 12+ hour day at the quickest. After telling a few other hikers about that potential plan, they all said it would be too much for one day. Given the had already hiked most of it, we decided to trust their opinions. Jenny had the idea to see if we could change our reservations to stay another night in Paine Grande since we could do the lookout and back in a day and also up to glacier Grey and back on another day. Luckily the same company runs both Paine Grande and Glacier Grey, and they let us switch our reservations. They even switched a bunch of people around so we could stay in our same room.
The plan was set, we would backtrack go all the way up this time, and then head back to Paine Grande for the night. The final day would be up to Glacier Grey and back to catch the catamaran out of the park. We drank our free pisco sours at the bar, excited about the next day. After all this was booked, we realized that we actually did ourselves another big favor: eliminating 2 days of hiking with our big backpacks! Win!
*****
Lodging: Paine Grande Lodge
Right as we were starting to make our way down, we saw another couple coming up. We stood in a place that would not sway their decisions on which path to take and they chose the same way we did initially. Jenny and I started to follow them hoping that they knew the right way but we found out quickly that they were just as lost as we were. They attempted to go up the rock scramble as well, but Jenny and I did not follow them and headed back down. We lost about 45 minutes to an hour here and we were already on a tight schedule. We decided to back track and give up on seeing the Britanico lookout. As we followed the path back, we finally found our mistake. We had missed one orange arrow sign pointing for us to cross the stream. It was frustrating because we were on a clear trail, but unfortunately it was not the right one.
We grabbed our bags at he ranger station and headed to Paine Grande. We got in early and had some time to relax and talk to our roommates about the Britanico lookout. They said it was amazing and totally worth it. Jenny and I are kicking ourselves now. Our next reservation was at the top left of the W (Refugio Gray) and not on the way towards the lookout. We talked about doing the trek from our hostel to the lookout and then back up to the top of the W where we would be staying but it would had been a 12+ hour day at the quickest. After telling a few other hikers about that potential plan, they all said it would be too much for one day. Given the had already hiked most of it, we decided to trust their opinions. Jenny had the idea to see if we could change our reservations to stay another night in Paine Grande since we could do the lookout and back in a day and also up to glacier Grey and back on another day. Luckily the same company runs both Paine Grande and Glacier Grey, and they let us switch our reservations. They even switched a bunch of people around so we could stay in our same room.
The plan was set, we would backtrack go all the way up this time, and then head back to Paine Grande for the night. The final day would be up to Glacier Grey and back to catch the catamaran out of the park. We drank our free pisco sours at the bar, excited about the next day. After all this was booked, we realized that we actually did ourselves another big favor: eliminating 2 days of hiking with our big backpacks! Win!
*****
Lodging: Paine Grande Lodge
Comments
Post a Comment