Up the French Valley

Wednesday February 12, 2020

Torres del Paine NP, Chile

French Camp to Los Cuernos, via the French Valley.  About 18 km.

Well the good news is that I managed to negotiate the journey out of the tent safely during the night.  The rain had stopped and there were even some stars visible.  The sunrise was beautiful and not nearly as pink as yesterday.  "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning".  So - hopefully a good sign.

Jill, Carole and I retraced our steps from the end of yesterday with hopes of getting up to the Britanico lookout at the upper end of the French Valley trail.  We had drizzle once again as we climbed the first half of the trail up to the French Glacier lookout.  The sky looked better further up, so on we went.

The trees have a bit of a hard life out here.................

The trail was actually quite lovely beyond that first lookout.  It was pretty mellow until the last 15 minutes or so.  There were some nice views along the way and the view was quite clear at the top.  A bit of an amphitheatre panorama to gaze at once you're up there.  Not a long stop, as it was cool and a wind was starting to come up.  We certainly beat the masses up there but started running into more people on the way down.

The Frances Glacier was quite active with avalanches again today.  It also seemed to hold clouds around its peak, so we were once again in a bit of drizzle on the way down the last half.

We were back to the Frances camping area by about 2:30 where we picked up the rest of our belongings.  We finished our lunch there and were back on the trail for the last 2 hour hike to tonight's campground at Los Cuernos.  It took significantly less than the estimated 2 hours and we were treated to beautiful lake (Nordenskjold Lake) and mountain (Frances Glacier and Cuernos del Paine) views along the way.  The trail took us right down to lake level and we laid on the stony beach for a while; very nice!

Onto the campsite and refugio at Los Cuernos; lovely!  We met up with everyone there, got settled, had a shower, did laundry, and Carole bought me a Pisco Sour ("the" drink down here) in the bar.  Dinner was good and I ate way too much once again.  It's a pleasant evening although the wind sounds like it might be coming up a bit.  Joan started her ferry ride today so I wish her smooth sailing.

Tomorrow we have a 5 hour hike and we have to catch a shuttle bus at 2pm back at the Welcome Centre where it all began on the 4th.  In a sense I feel like it is already over.  It was nice to have the final scenic stretch today to take it easy and reflect on what a magical time we've had.  Our weather could not have been better!  The hiking was grand and the company pretty easy-going.  Logistically everything went smoothly.  I don't think we could have asked for more!