W Trek Day 4

Camp Francés to Camp Chileno (17.02km, 1,075m elevation gain)

How to even start with today... 😭🌧️🌫️🌬️💦

After trying to remain positive last night that we would wake up and the rain and wind will have improved, we were sadly hopeful. It was still incredibly windy and rainy. We started packing up and had our breakfast (this always seems to take longer than we expect). We set off in a light rain with occasional strong gusts of wind around 9.

The trail today started in and out of the forest and meandered alongside a lake. We went down a bit and the clouds had cleared a little and the rain let off for a second. We could see the calm lake and it looked quite peaceful and beautiful. It was a nice blue, not quite glacier lake color, but close to it. I'm not sure what water fed into the lake, but a glacier and maybe other mountain rainwater run off wouldn't surprise me.

We continued walking feeling optimistic that the worst of the weather passed in the night...but once we got down the hill not long after our semi clear view at the top, all hell broke loose. We were walking alongside the lake on a rocky beach when strong gusts of wind began to blow us around and the rain was blowing right into us. Then, the strong wind and even stronger gusts were cooked with torrential downpour as we continued walking. It was not pleasant and the peaceful lake was now very rough. We came up to a stream, that was now a raging, impassable river. We saw a group of people about 30-50 meters up the river making a go at getting across so we joined the group up there. After waiting a while, two kind men helped people across. First they took backpacks and threw them to the other side. Then, you had to straddle over the raging water, or in my case jump with the help of a man shoving you along to another man on the other side. After that, we had to walk across some flooded shrubs which is when water rushed over my feet soaking them. Shoes full of puddles, and soaked through jacket, t-shirt and trousers, we continued to Los Cuernos, a camp on the way to Chileno (our stopping point for the day).

At Los Cuernos, the soaking damage was assessed. My expensive goretex jacket, did not do its job of keeping water out (and actually kept water in the pocket in a puddle with my phone...queue water logged phone issues). Allan luckily had a spare t-shirt and rain jacket he lent me so I could try and have something dry to put on. I took my shoes and socks off, rang them out, and tried to dry off my feet. We warmed up in the small room at Los Cuernos, full of other soaked people, and had some lunch. We watched for over an hour as the rain and wind battered the building and the mountains around us. Eventually, we had to get going as we still had 13km to go until Chileno (we had only gone about 3km so far).

We layered up, checked our bags, and got on our way. Shortly into our rocky, foresty path we ran into some Scottish people who told us that many more raging rivers to cross lay ahead. I was already dreading it, but the only way we could go was forward. The rain seemed to lighten a bit which was helpful and the strong gusts were less frequent. I guess waiting in Los Cuernos longer than intended paid off a bit.

We hit about 6 more streams that took an effort to cross. At one point Allan leaped back over one to take my bag so I could proper gazelle jump across a stream. My feet got soaked again early on and the little puddles in my shoes were unbearable with the blisters on my baby toes that became very painful early on into the walk (good thing our first aid kit had some gauze. My feet were too wet for bandaids). We also had to cross muddy, flooded fields and every now and again had some nice, flat paths. We also got to cross a suspension bridge over a raging river with the water coming off the mountains looking very picturesque.

Eventually, we began the last couple of uphill kilometers to Chileno, nestled in the forest next to the mountains. It was busier here because the trail down led to the entrance to the park where day hikers come, hike up to the Torres and then back down again. We were wet and weary when we finally made it to that red building in the forest and checked in for camping. I didn't even bring my bag to the tent, I went straight to the shower, peeled off my layers, and stood in the hot water.

Back at the tent, Allan has hung his things up as best we could. I dropped my shoes off in the warm mini mart to try and dry a little before heading to the tent to try and hang a few things too. Our tents were raised again in a forest just like Francis with a stream in front of them. After Allan has showered too, we went to the manic and crowded mini mart/camping cooking area for make some dinner. We even caved and bought a tiny pizza to share and some Gatorade. We stayed until it closed at 9, made our way back to the tent, and got situated to try and get some sleep before an early wake up to hike up to the Torres for sunrise. I was absolutely wrecked, physically and mentally, and dreading wet shoes for more hiking tomorrow. Allan was understanding, and let me cry for a second before I dried my eyes and prepped myself for the day tomorrow.

At least most of the days we've had so far have been nice, and the bad weather happened towards the end.Læs mere