Torre del Paines, Patagonia Backpacking Eight Months On the Road Through South America By David Rice |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Page Twenty Eight
www.softseattravel.com
Page 10
Awe
The second day we headed to the next cabin, a long hike to a camp
just below a huge rock wall. The park's many sheer cliffs attract
world-class climbers and we passed their camps where private huts
are reserved for climbers. We spent the next two days hiking along
the base of a group of mountains and on the forth day we came into
a beautiful glacial lake surrounded by peaks. The glacial lakes are
blue with minerals and the park has many of various sizes. The blue
is so intense that it looks like dye but is a natural occurrence.
On the way to the lake we came to a suspension bridge with a
crossroads trail with one trail leading up the mountain. I split from the
group and took the high trail where I climbed to the base of the
peaks. As I walked around the cliffs I could see hanging glaciers high
above. Suddenly with a roar like thunder, the glacier calved and the
ice broke off and made a waterfall of crashing crystals that cascaded
down the cliff and into the valley with a deafening roar.
A little more cautious now, I continued walking the base of the
mountain and then came to a plateau where the wind was so intense I
could barely stand. I had to sit down and prop myself against a rock
or hook my arm around a gnarly tree to make a photograph. Within a
few miles I had passed through several micro-climates of extremes as
I hiked. Towards the end of the day I had been through enough of
natures extremes; fatigued but elated, I hiked back down to the
swinging bridge and then towards the lodge.
We had booked rooms at the lodge earlier and for the first time in a
week we had hot showers. I stood for an eternity in the luxurious
shower washing a way week of pain and Patagonian dirt.
After cleaning up we met at the bar and went to the restaurant where
the staff served us a free drink and brought a dinner of soup salad
and a main course which we savored after our four days of dried
foods on the trail.
That evening the trip ended for some but the African man, the
Brazilian woman and I stayed on to hike the next day. We headed out
at dawn for a seven-hour walk to a glacier were there was a cabin in
which we could spend the night.
On this hike I took a fall, the first one for me. Coming down a steep
trail I stepped on a loose boulder and went head over heels down the
path. Miraculously I had no injuries. I was hiking with an American
man at this point, the Brazilian and African had gone ahead of us.
After checking for broken bones, I was miraculously still whole and we
resumed the hike without much more than a few new aches and pains.
It was raining most of the day but we saw some great scenery and
waterfalls and then came to a glacial lake where the cabin was
located. We stashed our packs in the hut at the edge of the lake and
continued up to the glacier. We hiked the trail and suddenly we came
around the corner of some rocks and there it was; Grey Glacier, the
first time for me to be so close to a glacier as it calved and shed blue
ice into the lake.
I was in awe of the power of nature to put it mildly. A new feeling came
over me coming from my feet up through my body, a feeling hard to
describe. I can only remember a few times in life being awed like that:
standing in front Michelangelo's David, standing at the Devils Throat
waterfall, and now, in my sixth decade of life, standing in front of a
huge glacier in Patagonia and watching as it shed sheets of blue ice
formed in prehistoric times.
You are never too old to be awed by the power and beauty of this
world and I look forward to many more.
Little did I know that soon I would stand in front of an even larger
glacier in Park Nacional Los Glaciares in Argentina where Moreno
Glacier would top them all but first I would have a date with the
penguins.
The second day we headed to the next cabin, a long hike to a camp
just below a huge rock wall. The park's many sheer cliffs attract
world-class climbers and we passed their camps where private huts
are reserved for climbers. We spent the next two days hiking along
the base of a group of mountains and on the forth day we came into
a beautiful glacial lake surrounded by peaks. The glacial lakes are
blue with minerals and the park has many of various sizes. The blue
is so intense that it looks like dye but is a natural occurrence.
On the way to the lake we came to a suspension bridge with a
crossroads trail with one trail leading up the mountain. I split from the
group and took the high trail where I climbed to the base of the
peaks. As I walked around the cliffs I could see hanging glaciers high
above. Suddenly with a roar like thunder, the glacier calved and the
ice broke off and made a waterfall of crashing crystals that cascaded
down the cliff and into the valley with a deafening roar.
A little more cautious now, I continued walking the base of the
mountain and then came to a plateau where the wind was so intense I
could barely stand. I had to sit down and prop myself against a rock
or hook my arm around a gnarly tree to make a photograph. Within a
few miles I had passed through several micro-climates of extremes as
I hiked. Towards the end of the day I had been through enough of
natures extremes; fatigued but elated, I hiked back down to the
swinging bridge and then towards the lodge.
We had booked rooms at the lodge earlier and for the first time in a
week we had hot showers. I stood for an eternity in the luxurious
shower washing a way week of pain and Patagonian dirt.
After cleaning up we met at the bar and went to the restaurant where
the staff served us a free drink and brought a dinner of soup salad
and a main course which we savored after our four days of dried
foods on the trail.
That evening the trip ended for some but the African man, the
Brazilian woman and I stayed on to hike the next day. We headed out
at dawn for a seven-hour walk to a glacier were there was a cabin in
which we could spend the night.
On this hike I took a fall, the first one for me. Coming down a steep
trail I stepped on a loose boulder and went head over heels down the
path. Miraculously I had no injuries. I was hiking with an American
man at this point, the Brazilian and African had gone ahead of us.
After checking for broken bones, I was miraculously still whole and we
resumed the hike without much more than a few new aches and pains.
It was raining most of the day but we saw some great scenery and
waterfalls and then came to a glacial lake where the cabin was
located. We stashed our packs in the hut at the edge of the lake and
continued up to the glacier. We hiked the trail and suddenly we came
around the corner of some rocks and there it was; Grey Glacier, the
first time for me to be so close to a glacier as it calved and shed blue
ice into the lake.
I was in awe of the power of nature to put it mildly. A new feeling came
over me coming from my feet up through my body, a feeling hard to
describe. I can only remember a few times in life being awed like that:
standing in front Michelangelo's David, standing at the Devils Throat
waterfall, and now, in my sixth decade of life, standing in front of a
huge glacier in Patagonia and watching as it shed sheets of blue ice
formed in prehistoric times.
You are never too old to be awed by the power and beauty of this
world and I look forward to many more.
Little did I know that soon I would stand in front of an even larger
glacier in Park Nacional Los Glaciares in Argentina where Moreno
Glacier would top them all but first I would have a date with the
penguins.
Torre del Paines, Patagonia Backpacking Eight Months On the Road Through South America By David Rice |