Patagonia - Day #5

Patagonia- Day #5 - Wednesday, January 1st

It’s 10:40pm on Wednesday, January 1st.  A big hiking day today - roughly 18 miles with a ton of vertical.  We only completed the hike about 7:45pm. 

It was a tough day out there - but we still saw some absolutely incredible sites.  So amazing to pass hikers all day saying:  “Happy New Year!!” 

We are hiking the famous W-Trek in Torres del Paine National Park.  Today - we hiked the middle leg of the W.   This involved a steady climb up the French valley - which ultimately brought us right up against some amazing mountains/glaciers.  There were 2 separate lookouts - we hiked to them both.

The weather held up as we ascended into the valley and started raining as we descended the same path (we did an out and back up the middle leg of the W).  The rain created pretty treacherous conditions- which slowed our pace a bit on the return.  We made it down in good shape, however.  After getting to the bottom of the W we hiked another 3-1/2 miles across the first lower section of the W.  This trail was very flat and allowed us to make really good time

We rolled into camp at 7:45 - just in time for a nice buffet dinner.  Everybody was pretty beat up after the long day - so we all dispersed pretty quickly after our meal.  I grabbed a shower and I’m sacked out in my tent right now.  Tonight and last night - we have stayed in elevated tents.  Tomorrow we’ll go back to EcoCamp to our really nice beds in the dome huts.

Gotta get some shut eye. Good night from Patagonia!!