The LONG hike!

The second day of hiking we knew from the start that it would be tough. The hike is 29 km and nearly 1000 m in elevation. We were told that it would take 12 hours (even though it was stated 10 hours in my itinerary). The weather was with us again and it was nice and sunny. We had been warned that it would be colder and windy, so we carried a lot of clothes in our backpacks. Mine weighed 10 kg in total.

The first part of the hike was quite flat and not very demanding. But then we came to the Refugio Italiano, which is the starting point to get up into the famous French Valley. This is the place for serious views and where we would have the possibilities to see avalanches. We were not disappointed. For the first time this season the weather was so good that we could get to the highest view point. Maybe it was also the nice weather that caused so many avalanches because we saw at least 10 of them and heard many, many more. It was an amazing hike, which you can see in the pictures below. And the clothes that we carried - they were needed even though it was sunny. We got our first real encounter with the famous Patagonian wind.

When we got back to Refugio Italiano at 5 in the afternoon, our guide Roberto told us that we had another 2,5 hours of hike left. Since we had walked since 8.30 in the morning we were not really in the mood to hike any more. But the last part of the hike, to our next stop Refugio Grand Paine, was quite easy and flat, so we were allowed to do it on our own without any guides. Therefor we decided it to do it as sort of a race. Our goal was that it shouldn't take us more than 1 hour and 45 minutes. It quickly became clear to everyone that Juliet, my room mate, was in a league of her own and she finished the whole thing in 1 hour and 20 minutes. 3 of us, including me, took 1 hour and 35 minutes and then the rest came in after that. We were, in other words, quite exhausted when we finally reach our stop and the beer tasted like something from heaven. A beer after a hike is perfect - it has water and carbs. Just what you need.

After a shower and dinner I fell into bed. Unfortunately it was not a long nice sleep. To sleep in a dormitory is not my thing. But I got a few hours and was ready for the next days hike.