Valle del Frances

Saturday, Mar 15 – Day 89

Today we headed into Valle del Frances. It’s a difficult trail because of the elevation gain, but at least we didn’t have to carry our gear. From our campsite, we trekked 2.5 km up and 2.5 km back, or just over 3 miles and it took us about 4 hours.

Valle del Frances is absolutely stunning. The view is of the Paine Grande Range, and the peaks reach elevations from 2,600 meters to 3,250 meters (7,800 to just over 10,000 feet). These are the highest peaks in the park. Lago Pehoe is right at sea level, and our hike was to an elevation of about 750 meters, so these peaks are shooting almost straight up about 7,500 feet above where we’re standing. Turns out the thunder I heard the night before was actually the sound of avalanches of snow that fall from the top of the peaks. The snow that doesn’t come off in the avalanches packs into ice and forms the hanging glaciers. Over the course of the summer, some of the glaciers melt and waterfall down the mountains into rivers that feed the various lakes. Since we’re hundreds and hundreds of miles from anything, this is said to be some of the cleanest and best tasting water on Earth. You can just drink right from the streams and rivers without filtering.

After returning to Italiano to break-down our camp, we hiked the remaining 3.5 km along Lago Nordenskjold to Refugio Cuernos. The total hike for the day was another 10 miles over 7 hours. The refugios have modest buildings with dorm-style beds, showers, and a dining room. They also have campgrounds. You have to pay to camp, but get to use the common areas and can get also get a hot meal. They also have beer and wine, how about that? So, we picked our campsite, had a couple of beers, and then ate dinner with a guy named John from the Bay Area. It turns out that John was carrying a bottle of Scotch, so we had a few wee drams, which we counted as medicinal use.