We woke up with a view of cloud capped mountains. It had been so windy the night before I (Dylan) actually thought that the van would have blown over.
After packing up, (which invloves shuffling bags from the front seats to the rear storage area and compressing pillows and sleeping bags under our pop-top roof) we headed into town to see the visitor's center for the Parque Nacional de los Glaciares (Monte Fitz Roy and surrounding). At the visitors center there was a friendly park ranger that told us about all the possible trails, native flora and fauna. He concluded with a relatively grim weather report. He explained all of this and answered our questions in Argentine Spanish which is a different breed than Chilean. For example, the Spanish word for rain is 'lluvia' which is pronounced by most speakers as 'u-via' but in Argentina, the double L makes a 'sh' sound so rain is pronounced 'shoe-via.' This required extra attention from us non-native speakers. As we wrapped up, a large bus of gringos arrived and immediately filled the room with noise. We were shocked to hear the ranger begin his welcome speech in English. It gave us a slight twinge of pride to know that we got the local treatment.
Since arriving in Chile, we hadn't encountered such a large group of people from the US. It felt a little grotesque the way they were yelling to each other, talking as loud as they could so that everyone could hear them discuss their "cool plans." We slipped away from the hoard and decided that we'd go for a 3 day backpacking trip to see both Monte Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, regardless of impending weather. We stopped by a grocery store, picked up the food we'd need and headed to the trailhead. We ate a lunch of homemade tuna helper and packed up. It was lightly sprinkling, but sunny, and we were excited to get a close up of the towering mountains and fall colored valleys we could see in the distance.
They say this tree is haunted...
The trees were all in full fall mode with their brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows. We crossed many rivers and streams, usually stopping to take a drink in the fresh glacier water. We saw no one heading up the trail in the direction we were headed, only tired hikers walking back towards the town. We stopped at the viewpoint for Mount Fitz Roy and the top of the mountain was totally hidden in clouds.
Halfway through the hike it started to rain pretty hard along with strong winds but we were well prepared with silly ponchos and plastic bags if we needed them; so we remained happy and trekked on.
Once at camp, Wells and I set up the sleeping bags and played a couple hands of hearts, speed and pusoy dos while Mom and Dad filled the water bottles in the sleet.
As the weather was worsening, we ate pasta for dinner, taught card games to each other until it got dark and we went to bed--at 7pm!
We woke up right around the break of dawn and commented on how windy it had been (the ranger told us there were gusts of about ~70km/hr!). We all agreed that, at some point in the night, we were convinced that the tent was going to blown away. This would have been extra tragic because our lovely Sierra Designs Guide Tarp (a discontinued, Megamid-like circus tent) has no floor. Once snagged in the wind, we would be laid bare with us and all our belongings also exposed to the elements. You could hear the wind begin to build in the valley, building to a roar and then our tent would flatten. Over and over, all night long. In the morning the central pole was a little bowed.
Since it was rainy and cold, we stayed in the tent for hours playing more card games, and eating bitter, soap-falvored oatmeal (an accident from too much soap on the dishes from the night before, oops!). Around noon, we checked outside and saw that Fitz Roy had finally begun to peek out from behind the clouds.
Since it was rainy and cold, we stayed in the tent for hours playing more card games, and eating bitter, soap-falvored oatmeal (an accident from too much soap on the dishes from the night before, oops!). Around noon, we checked outside and saw that Fitz Roy had finally begun to peek out from behind the clouds.
We hurriedly packed up our things for a day hike towards the electric blue glacier in the distance.
We hiked along the river in our ponchos, for the most part taking in the view in silence... but what's a Crosby family hike with out some singing? So for the last hour or so of the hike, we sang our favorite songs, including a lot of Paul Simon.
To get to the glacier and lake at Piedras Blancas you have to scramble over large boulders deposited by ancient advancing glaciers. We hopped from boulder to boulder following the cairns marking the easiest route. We finally made it!!
We tried to take a family portrait on top of a giant boulder, but unfortunately the camera blew away with the wind and down a scree slope, opening up a compartment and flinging the battery and SD card. GASP!
Dad, wisely made his way down to the water's edge skirting the scree slope and then slowly worked his way up so as not to accidentally bury the camera, SD card or battery. After 20 minutes, he recovered all of the parts (thank goodness!) and we moved to a less windy spot on the shore.
(Here's Ben's first shot of us from the bottom of the scree slope, testing out the camera after it's fall.)
The glacier was amazing, and we made it there right before a cloud covered the top part where there were large spikes of ice jutting towards the sky.
Worried about the clouds approaching, we got back on the trail. We played a game where my dad asked us kids questions about any school subject and then we'd have to answer. For example, "if a rubic's cube is composed a matrix of 1cm cubes, (3x3x3), what is the total surface area of the uncolored faces?" If we didn't know the answer, he'd tell us, and then teach us about what he was asking. (Mom, you need to reword this part idk how to write it good) [<--Haha. Obviously you didn't play grammar games with Dad. Love, Mom.]{Haha, well at least I went to KINDERGARDEN... Love, Dylan}
We got back, drank hot tea and played more card games (surprise, surprise). It was another night that we went to bed earlier than usual--probably 8pm. It started snowing right before we went to bed.
The next morning, we awoke kinda grumpy and also kinda amused by it. The night had been hard, and because we went to bed really early, it was also super long. Here is a list of my complaints: the tent was wet, we were wet, we were cold because we were wet, the night lasted forever and we all had to pee but didn't want to get up. Mom also snored like an old man. Obviously, we hadn't slept too well. It had snowed, which was kinda beautiful and made up for it all.
We were determined to not let the night drag us down. Earlier, we had decided that we'd hike to another campsite and add a 2 day loop to see Cerro Torre. There seemed to be a storm approaching and we were wet and kind of worried about food supplies, so we made the decision to turn back. Mom, who learned how to make "shoe-packs" from grocery bags as a kid in Alaska, put produce bags on our feet to keep them dry. We had a good time waking back through the forest and along rivers, stopping once in awhile to give advice to other tourists. We took an alternative route past a lake and drank some tea and ate cookies on its shores.
Once back at Jules (We missed you!) we dried out our sleeping bags, tent, and tarp in the ceaseless wind.
In town, there was a waffle place and we really wanted to eat there but unfortunately it was closed for the season. We opted for some delicious puff pastry/meringue/dulce de leche/chocolate mountain of love. Dad wanted to head to the Torres de Paine but we were worried about the time it would take/the storm that seemed to be coming. We once again consulted at the visitors center (Thank you!) and decided we'd do a one day trip down to see the Torres. We filled up on gas (nafta) in the most scenic gas station in the world, and zoomed on through the Argentinean desert.
I could imagine pumping gas here! We arrived at the border long after they had closed. In fact we arrived right as they turned off their generator and all the lights went out at once. We went to sleep ready to cross the border early in the morning and head straight to the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.
In town, there was a waffle place and we really wanted to eat there but unfortunately it was closed for the season. We opted for some delicious puff pastry/meringue/dulce de leche/chocolate mountain of love. Dad wanted to head to the Torres de Paine but we were worried about the time it would take/the storm that seemed to be coming. We once again consulted at the visitors center (Thank you!) and decided we'd do a one day trip down to see the Torres. We filled up on gas (nafta) in the most scenic gas station in the world, and zoomed on through the Argentinean desert.
I could imagine pumping gas here! We arrived at the border long after they had closed. In fact we arrived right as they turned off their generator and all the lights went out at once. We went to sleep ready to cross the border early in the morning and head straight to the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.
