Day 24- Seron, Dickson, Perros, Glaciers, and exhaustion
December 7 - Torres del Paine National Park, Chile
The next day ate a quick breakfast, packed up, and left by 8 AM with a long day ahead. We hiked 18 km to camp Dickson, then another 11.8 km on to Los Perros.
Since we got started a little later than we wanted to we started were hiking at a fast pace. Not more than 10 minutes after leaving Seron, we saw a woman walking back to Seron, which was puzzling because from Seron the trek goes only in a single direction, counter-clockwise. She stopped to talk to the two other hikers ahead of us.
Not long after, the two hikers that stopped and spoke with the woman that was going back to Seron caught up to us as we were adjusting our layers. They explained that the woman had started hiking at 4 AM from Seron and turned around 2 hours into her hike because of really high winds. We all looked at each other and questioned how bad it must have been for her to walk 2 hours then decide to turn around. EEEEEEK.
Around an hour into the hike we came around a bend and got a full view of Lago Paine and lots of wind! It is difficult to describe when a wind pushes you around while you're on your feet, but needless to say is is unsettling.
As we walked the views just kept getting better. Wildflowers, sunshine, milky turquoise blue water of Lago Paine and off in the distance, GLACIERS! The wind persisted, but it was manageable.
As we kept walking we realized that the wind that caused the lady to turn around was just overstated or had gone down since the early morning.
We finally could see Camp Dickson from an elevated trail before we dropped down to the flat campground- it is a beautiful spot directly south of Lago Dickson and a glacier by the same name. The clouds cloaked some amazing mountains in the far distance.
We stopped at Dickson for lunch - a noodle soup with couscous - delicious! The wind at Dickson was relentless. We had to hide behind the refugio building just to keep our stove from blowing out.
We arrived at Dickson about 4.5 hours after leaving Seron, so after taking lunch we were back on the trail in the one o'clock hour. The trail after Dickson quickly transitioned to beautiful forest, complete with more flowers!
The trail continued to climb pretty aggressively, but thankfully we were in the trees and largely out of the wind.
We did come across some bridges that we described in travel books as "Indiana Jones style" which basically means they were super sketchy, but also really pretty.
I attempted to do a long exposure without a tripod. Wind makes trees look cool.
We continued to climb until we emerged from the trees and could see more glaciers!
Right before we made it to Los Perros it started to rain and the wind started to get violent. We only had a bit further to go, so we made it just in the nick of time. Battling the wind is extra tiring so we arrived in a flurry of relief and exhaustion.
Total distance: 29.8 km. Total hiking time: 7 hours, 50 minutes. We were shot. We quickly put up the tent in a mist, made a hot dinner consisting of our favorite curry rice and lentils, and crashed. Tomorrow's hike wasn't going to be any easier- we had to climb up and over Paso John Gardner which everyone says is notoriously moody.
(Evan)
The next day ate a quick breakfast, packed up, and left by 8 AM with a long day ahead. We hiked 18 km to camp Dickson, then another 11.8 km on to Los Perros.
Since we got started a little later than we wanted to we started were hiking at a fast pace. Not more than 10 minutes after leaving Seron, we saw a woman walking back to Seron, which was puzzling because from Seron the trek goes only in a single direction, counter-clockwise. She stopped to talk to the two other hikers ahead of us.
Not long after, the two hikers that stopped and spoke with the woman that was going back to Seron caught up to us as we were adjusting our layers. They explained that the woman had started hiking at 4 AM from Seron and turned around 2 hours into her hike because of really high winds. We all looked at each other and questioned how bad it must have been for her to walk 2 hours then decide to turn around. EEEEEEK.
Around an hour into the hike we came around a bend and got a full view of Lago Paine and lots of wind! It is difficult to describe when a wind pushes you around while you're on your feet, but needless to say is is unsettling.
As we kept walking we realized that the wind that caused the lady to turn around was just overstated or had gone down since the early morning.
We finally could see Camp Dickson from an elevated trail before we dropped down to the flat campground- it is a beautiful spot directly south of Lago Dickson and a glacier by the same name. The clouds cloaked some amazing mountains in the far distance.
We stopped at Dickson for lunch - a noodle soup with couscous - delicious! The wind at Dickson was relentless. We had to hide behind the refugio building just to keep our stove from blowing out.
We arrived at Dickson about 4.5 hours after leaving Seron, so after taking lunch we were back on the trail in the one o'clock hour. The trail after Dickson quickly transitioned to beautiful forest, complete with more flowers!
We did come across some bridges that we described in travel books as "Indiana Jones style" which basically means they were super sketchy, but also really pretty.
I attempted to do a long exposure without a tripod. Wind makes trees look cool.
Right before we made it to Los Perros it started to rain and the wind started to get violent. We only had a bit further to go, so we made it just in the nick of time. Battling the wind is extra tiring so we arrived in a flurry of relief and exhaustion.
(Evan)
Comments
Post a Comment