The End of the World

Torres del Paine

It has been a bit since I´ve written anything on here but not due to lack of adventure. Please pardon the small pictures but it was taking ages to upload ones any larger.

Since climbing in Arenales I´ve made several hops between Argentina and Chile in Patagonia.The two weeks following rock climbing in Arenales I spent in Penitentes Argentina geting certified as a Wilderness First Responder (WFR). The course covered a lot of interesting material in reguard to wilderness medicine that I wasn´t very familiar with before. This was the most traditional classroom esq portion of the course. Despite the fact that we were living in our "classroom", a rented apartment practically in middle of nowhere. Penitentes is a small boarder town home to a closed ski resort and several entrences to Aconcagua National Park thus a popular destination for trekkers and climbers. I most definitely learned a lot from the course despite my feeling like it was the most unorganized section of my semester. A bit sad considering I think it should have been the most planned out and detailed part. From it I realized how interested in Wilderness Medicine I am and might eventually get my EMT certification.

On February 11 I flew from Mendoza, Argentina to Punta Arenas, Chile. Punta Arenas is almost the end of the world, as far as mainland continents go. Here I spent one night after meeting up with the rest of the group to go backpacking. We did a whirl wind food shop and pack that I think went phenominaly well and then headed to Cabo Froward the actual end of the mainland for five days of beach walking and mud sloshing.The backpacking group featured a few old and new characters. The old being Jole and Jordan, Emily joined us later having recovered from a nasty bout of something back in Mendoza. The new were "Nacho" or Nathaniel the IWLS/AMG leader, and Sarah a gap year student form Boston. Some results of the trip are a new liking for Snickers bars which are just about the only bar down here with more that 80 calories in them, an appreciation for trekking poles (in my case ancient ski poles) when my bag is just about as heavy as I am, and a further adoration of Smart Wool socks doubled up I went 24 days and who know how many kilometers sans blisters.

Cabo Froward one edge of this land

Saw very few people during our time at Cabo Froward and enjoyed the fact that the ones we did see were all going the opposite direction. The majority of the hiking was on the beach with spectacular views including those of dolphins and penguins.

The Trail at Cabo Froward

All was not a walk on the beach, climbing over fallen trees and extremely slippery rocks with a giant bag is quite a challenge. A few parts of the trail cut inland just enough to cross some small peninsulas to save us some milage but gave us some elevation and a different perspective of the terrain we were passing through. One night was spent in an abandoned house/shack sorta turned backpackers stop over with a wood stove and basic furniture. It reminded me much of the two old red and green houses that use to stand accross the street from Corners (Mendo people know what I´m talking about). Being in the tidal zone meant we had to time our river crossings as best we could but we still ended up crossing one when it was higher than desirable resulting in me literally swimming and Jordan taking my bag over his head (he´s 6´7"), was rather frigid but fortunately the current was not strong.

Torres Del Paine

After staying one night in Puerto Natales we caught one of the busses into the park to begin our 10 day sojourn. Torresl Del Paine is one of the most popular parks in Chile if not thee. The main attraction are the giant Torres (towers) that formed about 12mya in the Magellin Basin though fissures in the sea floor. When seen at dawn they are quite spectacular so evermorning there are a suprising number of people hiking and stumbling up and down hill and scree slope to get to the look out beore the sun. There are two main routes in the park, the over popular "W" and the longer grander and "W" encompassing "Q". We did the later which circumnavigates the entire Torres formation and much more. Once past the part of the trail that is also part of the "W" we hardly saw anypeople or much evidence of them except for the much lesser used trail and few pay use campsites. One of the many spectacular sites that we passed was Glacier Grey. More Ice than I´ve everseen or imagned in my life all in one spot.

Glacier Grey

Slacking at Campamiento Britanico

Parque Nacional de los Glaciares /Fitz Roy
Located in Argentine Patagonia we took two busses back over the border. Taking an entire day to complete this trip due to border formalities, random stops, and a layover in El Chaltén we arrived after dark to a warm but extremely windy Calafate. According to the Lonely Planet Trekking in Patagonia book there should have been free camping. Not the case anymore sadly. The options now are either hostels or camping in yards for the same price. The previous municipal camp ground is now a day use only picnicing area. But suited our needs nicely along with a fellow trekker that we had run into several times between Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine. Many of the visitors and hikers are only there for the day so the trails were busy but not nearly as busy as those of the "W" trek. We hiked around for 5 nights each at a different camp or squirl site that we found. Torre Fitz Roy is the main attraction in the park for climbers and non alike another impressive granite formation just over 3000M and the crown of Andean climbing challenges.

Over the entire trip we were blessed with unbelievable weather. We experienced a grand total of maybe three or four days of rain in a region known for awful weather year round. The reason for the usual crappy weather is that there is virtually no land below 40· latitude (Patagonia, Southern New Zealand and Tasmania) thus nothing to break up the

Sunrise view from my sleeping bag of Cerro Fitz Roy(large center)

From Here to Where?
I´m now back in Punta Arenas and flying somewhere tomorrow. Somewhere north but I do not yet know exactly. Way for me to think ahead eh? But its part of the fun of traveling. Currently trying to figure out tickets to Peru. Possibly meeting up with two friends in Peru; Eva who I met traveling in India and lived with in Olympia and Willow from home the beloved crazy Mendoland and Albion. It will be odd to travel solo again but I´m excited about the new territory and adventures. Towards the end of March I´ll be meeting a group of people in Quito, Ecuador to do some white water rafting and more backpacking for a few weeks. I should be heading back to the Northern hemisphere, following the Summer in either April or May for a summer job in Jackson, Wyoming.