Torres del Paine Day 7 January 30 2012

Calafate Berries

To hopefully get the best weather and minimize our exposure to the legendary winds that blow through Paso John Gardner, we elect to start early. Not exactly an alpine start, but 8:00 was at least an hour earlier than most other days.... The weather is reasonably clear, only the high summits in and out of cloud. The trail initially is in the trees, traversing difficult rooted terrain. Soon it breaks into open country with views of the Paso. Trail is well marked throughout by red paint blotches on rocks and red painted markers driven into ground. It is easily followed in the good visibility conditions we have, not so in fog according to the Irish fellow who followed us a day later.... He said it required much care and attention to locate markers and that a number of trekkers turned back to Perros.

Paso John Gardner on left centre

Nearing Paso John  Gardner summit

We reach the summit, 4.8 GPS kms from Perros, and are greeted by light winds (for here) of maybe 80 kms/hr, wasn't even enough to blow us over....

Paso John Gardner

 The summit cairn is decorated with prayer flags of various types. There are great views back to Los Perros valley and ahead and down to Glaciar Grey, cloudy up toward the icefield. A few photos and we head down toward the 'Paso camp'. It starts to snow almost immediately, which turns to rain as we descend...

Glaciar Grey

The trail down is very steep, most kindly described as rugged, dropping some 750m in less than 5 kms... Somebody desperately wanted to make these trails a loop and somehow got funding for materials and labour. As with many projects, (the Douglas Fir trail in Calgary comes to mind), apparently no funds were allocated for maintenance.... The trail is a mess of stairs in various states of disrepair with detached hand railings scattered here and there.... Not a whole lot is intact in the shape it was built. While it is certainly better than no trail, it would be much better if it even had minimal annual maintenance. Unfortunately that ship has now sailed,  and a lot of restoration work will be needed to get it back in shape. If I was to do this trip over I would do in other direction as much easier to ascend this stuff than descend, and the other side of the Paso is a pleasant grade.

We encounter no groups heading up the pass and only 2 groups pass us coming from same direction. Have pretty much lost all ability to Hola....

We eventually stumble into Paso camp, its a parque service free site, just have to give the guarda your name and passport number.... There are a couple of groups there packing up to head down to Grey.

The Parque da Guarda speaks reasonably good english and directs us to a pretty flat site, as we are standing chatting by the sign that says 12 kms to Los Perros, I mention I see less than 10 kms on my GPS. He responds with a shrug that another guy told him his GPS showed it to be 14 kms.... I guess I am not the only one with GPS in need of service.... Or maybe the whole GPS/Spot thing is a scam and their accuracy is variable daily?? Or maybe the CONAF brochure is inaccurate? Couldn't be...   

The camp is equipped with a marvelous flush squat toilet, the Argentine folks who manage the Los Glaciers camps should come for an education, as well as Parks Canada folks. The water is sourced and gravity fed from an uphill stream location and the tank is mounted about 5 feet above the hole, pull the chain and it really rips, all in its path is swept away into a black hole septic system. Might be a model for my cabin?

The guarda tells us the weather forecast is even worse for the next day, a couple of groups decide to head down to Grey camp to get past the difficult part now while weather is better. The rain pounds down very hard for next couple hours, ensuring they are suitably soaked... We enjoy the relative comfort of the 3 sided shelter provided. Only one other group remains to camp here.

Paso Camp

We cook dinner of couscous and tuna in the 3 sided shelter, while ground hog day is not for a few days, I feel a bit like the Bill Murray movie character as I eat the slop.....  The rain stops and we set up the tent, even get a bit of sunshine.... Bed time is even earlier as we get in tent before 6:00... Try to watch a ripped movie but it doesn't work... I curse the PlayBook, no wonder RIM has new executives...

Its a cool night camped so close the massive icefield. The DAM situation does not improve, maybe a bit worse... I only reinflate a couple times, instead use my sleeping bag as ground insulation.... Works ok, or at least as well as the wounded mattress, Elaine graciously lends me part of her bag for a cover. I resolve to soap test the DAM the next day and repair....