Sunday, February 19, 2017

Day 5 On The W: Cuernos/Italiano/Beyond/Paine Grande

Day 5 was our longest on the W, from Los Cuernos to Camping Italiano and beyond up the canyon toward Frances and Britanico, and then the long trudge back down to Paine Grande, our fifth night's camping site. The good weather continued until a kilometer before Paine Grande. We pitched our tent in a light rain. Our 10+ year old REI tent has held up well and continued for the rest of the trip, in even more rain.
Farewell to the black and tan

More distant peaks, towers, horns

A black and tan and white pebble beach on the lake shore

Love those reflective scenes; my favorite though is the one
en route to Milford Sound, South Island, where Te Papa
signage actually tricks you...

From this point Cerro Paine Grande really dominates

The whole mountain, from the east; the left side, from the
south, reminded us of Teewinot, in the Tetons; see below

Fucshias? In Patagonia?!

Helpful illustration...more down, then a lot more up

















































































































Finally we reached camping Italiano, placed our packs in the
luggage storage area, and headed up the canyon further to
inspect Cerro Paine Grande, the Frances Glacier, and such;
this is the middle prong of the W



Summit

Still working on our selfie technique


Avalanche occurring right there, middle



Last look, from the bridge

Distant volcano

More flora

Torres, on the hind flank of the Cuernos

Thus; not the Torres

Planks for a new bridge; in Patagonia, even 2x6s need to be
weighed down with big rocks

Where we've been, where we're going

Wind-blown landscape

Absolutely huge bunny

But now, just as I'd remarked about how lucky we were...the
weather closed down

And we were glad to reach the camping area at Paine Grande

The refugio

"Teewinot" in the rain--the south of Cerro Paine Grande--though
Teewinot never had glaciers like this

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