The W Trek!!!!!

After arriving in Puerto Natales, and be so warmly greeted by Kelsey´s lovely group of friends, we made our way to the national park for 5 days. We woke up bright and early to take a two hour bus ride to the park, our packs stuffed with food, tent, sleeping bags and matts, and cooking supplies. The day was grey and rainy, and we were bundled in just about every layer we had with us, in a vain attempt to escape the cold. We entered the park, and the bus took us to Lago Pehoé to take a Catamaran across the vibrant, turquoise waters. The wind was whipping our first day, and although we went up on deck to see the incredible colour of the water, and the beautiful juxtaposition of the bright waters against the grey, rugged hills surrounding, we soon went back into the cabin, fearing that we´d be blown right off the boat.

On the other side of the boat trip, we arrived at the first camping/refugio centre of the trek, ate a quick lunch, and set of on the 11 km trek to our campsite that night. This was one of the more difficult paths, not because it was particularly steep or anything, but it was just a tedious trail. Lots of boney rocky bits that required a lot of concentration, which is difficult with a heavy pack and a cold body. It was rainy and grey and windy, conditions very suiting to the rocky rugged landscape, but not so helpful in keeping our spirits high and energetic. After walking for a couple of hours, we all of a sudden turned a corner and saw the enourmous glacier next to which we would be camping. At first I thought it was a lake so immense that you could actually see the curvature of the earth in it, but i quickly realized that it´s surface was uneven, and it was emitting and unearthly glow, and glaciers often do. We powered on, bumping into a few friends we met on the boat, who challenged us to go for a swim by showing us photos of themselves in the water, sitting on top of little glaciers. We almost took them up on this offer, but in the end reconsidered (taking into account the cold and the very high, very real possibility of catching hypothermia).

Finally, after what seemed like an endless day, we arrived at our campsite, set up our tent, and ran into the refugio where they offered us free coffee, tea and hot chocolate, and where there was a nice fire going. We defrosted, warmed up, and tried to read, but after all staring at our books dazed and tired, realized the best thing to do would be to eat dinner and go to bed nice and early (something that´s rather hard to do when the sun stays up until around 11 pm). We snuggled in our tent, set up our stove in the vestibule, had a cozy little dinner, and dozed off into a sleep that was made disturbed and restless by the CRAZY winds that threatened to whip our tent off into the mountains, with us in it.

Upon waking up, we realized we were missing one bag of food, which we had left in the vestibule the night before, deciding that there were no hungry animals to worry about in this park of the park. We searched everywhere for our foodbag, and instead of finding it we found nothing more than little traces... a food wrapper here, an empty bag there. We were very confused by this event until going into the cooking shelter to make breakfast and seeing signs plastered on the walls that read ¨HUNGRY FOX - KEEP YOUR FOOD IN YOUR TENT!!!¨ From this we deduced that the wind had blown the bag outside of the vestibule, at which point the very happy fox ate all of our cheese and cookies, making us very sad campers. But no matter, we still had lots of chocolate and salami, and a treat waiting for us at the end of the trail.

We packed up and trekked the same 11 km to get back to the point where we started, where our next trail began. This time, we had more than just rain to reckon with, and actually hiked through snow flurries for a few hours. It was beautiful, and cold, and wet, and almost miserable, until the sun finally came out on our next trail (or at least the skies cleared a little bit) and warmed us up. Nevertheless, we arrived at our campsite (Italiano) wet and tired, and jealous of those campers who had been smart enough to bring some red wine to warm up, and ready for another early night. We made dinner, and snuggled into our tent for a much calmer, less windy night.

The next morning, we left our tent up and our packs inside, instead getting our our little day packs, and packing lunch and warm clothes in there, ready to hike up the the look out to see the Cuernos (the mountains you see in the photo). We hiked for a few hours, mostly uphill, got a little bit lost but found our way again, saw a huge avalanche in a nearby mountain, watched in amazement as we got higher and higher and started to see snow on the ground, and finally, finally, reached the lookout. We climbed on top of a big rock, at some chocolate, took some pictures, and felt so lucky that we had a clear sky to see this incredibly beautiufl view. We soon got too cold to stay for much longer, and started heading back down the trail, which was energizing and mostly downhill. The sun graced us with its presence once again, we stopped numerous times to drink straight from the mountain streams that are all around (and have the most delicous, purest, water I have ever tasted) and eventually got back to our campsite to eat lunch. Then we packed up camp, and headed out on the trail to get to our next campsite (Los Cuernos). This trail skirted around one of the beautiful lakes, giving us incredible views of the water and surrounding mountains. The sun was strong, and near the end of the day the trail passed a beach where we almost took a plunge in the icy waters, but decided to hold out until we got to the campsite.

We arrived at our campsite, which was next to another beach and very pretty, set up our tent, and ran to take the plunge. Unfortunately, as we walked down to the beach the sun went behind a huge cloud, but we were determined to swim no matter what. Getting into the water was not an easy task with the huge slippery rocks, our sore feet from walking, and the big waves crashing into us, but eventually we did it, and came out being cheered on from some other friends from the boat and some new friends, who offered us a sip of wine to congratulate us and warm us up. Nevertheless, our bodies were red and numb, and we ran off to take some nice hot showers, and cook up some nice hot soup for dinner.

The next morning we finally woke up to a beautiful clear blue sky, scored some free breakfast and mate from inside the refugio, where Kelsey´s housemate was staying and leading a trek. Then we walked down to the beach with our stove for a second breakfast in the sun. We took our time this morning, eventually packed up, and headed off on the 11 km hike to our next campsite, where some of Kelsey´s friend were expecting us. It was a hot, beautiful day, and we passed through our mountains, the path finally veering away from Lago Nordenskjold, the lake we´d been hiking next to for days. We stopped at some excellent look outs to say goodbye to this impressive lake, and finally it disappeared out of site. Near the end of the day, as we were hot and tired and ready to get to camp, we stumbled across a beautiful perfect little lake in the middle of the mountains, where we of course took a lovely swim, restoring our energy, and let us finishing the last few kilometers with high spirits.

An hour later we arrived at camp, greeted by Kelsey´s friends who were preparing a lamb barbeque, or asado. We set up camp, and snuggled up by the fire, participating in a bota, which is a tradition involving a wineskin that is communaly passed around, each person aiming a sprinkle of wine that comes out at their mouth from a distance, presenting many opportunities for embarrasment and stained clothing.. We waited a long time for the meat to cook, and then at happily and hungrily, hanging out by the fire, slightly dazed by the rapid patagonian spanish, feeling warm and happy by the fire with meat in our bellies, surrounded by friends and laughter.

The next morning, we again left our tents set up and grabbed day pack to climb the long, steep, trail to see the Torres, the namesake of the park. We were lucky to have a beautiful day, and after a really hard climb to the top, the sky was clear and we could see the three thin, jagged mountains perfectly, as well as the cold turqoise lake that rests below them. We stayed in this calm place, took a little nap, and eventually hiked back down, cursing our knees the whole way. We packed up camp, got on a bus back to Puerto Natales, back to Kelsey´s house, heating, and a shower (no bed, alas - we slept on the floor, but after 5 nights on the floor whats one more!).

We saw incredible views every which way we turned, I (Emma) had a great time getting to know Kelsey, and over all it was an AMAZING week. :D Thank you so much for having us Kelsey!!!!!!!