The sounds of folks rising started at 3:45AM, we figure at 4:15 sleep is over and get up to join the migration to the Torres Mirador. We leave camp about 4:30, there are at least a dozen headlamps ahead of us on the trail, a bit weird but helpful in following route in the dark. Some of the folks walked all the way from Chilena refugio, some 3 kms in the dark. Must have started at 3:00 AM! We arrive at the viewpoint by 5:00, it is still pitch dark.... we hear more and more folks arriving, and they will continue to well after sunrise? timing is everything....
 |
| Torres at dawn |
They sun starts to rise and the peaks begin to glow a bit in the first light, its a pretty cool display, the orange glow brightens for awhile then fades as the sun rises and morning light replaces the warm alpenglow with cold grey granite.....
Some felt the display was underwhelming, maybe due to a few clouds?.... maybe expectations were too high, but hey, they shouldn't have expected anything on the scale of a solar eclipse or the face of Jesus on a piece of toast.... and probably the most amazing phenomenon was looking around after sunrise and seeing over 100 people sitting around on rocks enjoying the moment, well worth the effort in my opinion.
 |
| Torres Camp prayer meeting |
The walk back to camp was a lot quicker with the light of day, we had coffee and breakfast then packed up camp. Some fellow campers offered up their morning prayers and greetings, presumably to some important deity.... the steep walled A-frame in background is the Parque Guarda cabin.
 |
| Chilena Camp |
The return trip to main valley retraces the same ground for about 4 kms, passing the Chilena Refugio and camp, it looked pretty tightly packed and an Australian suggested it was pretty noisy at night....
 |
| Los Cuernos Refugio |
A shortcut trail heads west and down toward the Los Cuernos camp and Refugio, trail is very good quite a bit of up and down, GPS suggested slightly more than 16 kms from Campo Torres to Los Cuernos. It seemed like a long day, as was a pretty warm afternoon. Was delightful to get to the Refugio, get a hot shower and drink a beer. Camp was very crowded, no reasonable spots in the trees.... we found what looked to be a nice flat spot with an exposed view of Lago Norgenskjold. Since we had an option, we chose to forgo tuna for a night and dined at the Refugio on beef, potatoes with some asparagus looking stuff on top.... delicious... as were the couple of glasses of wine(special today only $1500ch, regular $2000ch). We ate with an American family from Spokane whose 27 yearold son organized their vacations! The older couple didn´t even know what they were doing from day to day, just going with what the son planned, go figure. Anyway she was a light eater so I enjoyed the 2/3 of her steak she kindly offered up for grabs.
The campsite was very decent, on this relatively calm first night there......
No comments:
Post a Comment