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

Day 4 On The W: To Camping Los Cuernos And The Worst Food Ever

Day 4 was another beautiful day, almost warm, still, dry, high clouds. We hoisted our now heavier packs--we'd stored our tenting gear in the valley (at the Patagonia store (!)) prior to the Days 1-2 ascent--and began the 6 or so mile hike to Camping Los Cuernos, our next night's stop. Los Cuernos are The Horns, similar to if far less impressive than the Torres. The mountains in the area are noted for their two-tone/layer-cake appearance.

A rock at our campsite in Los Torres displays the two-tone
appearance; black and tan, like the stout

The Patagonian wind is hard on trail signage

Ugly/uninteresting mountain; we spent much of the day passing
it on the right

Also passing an assortment of lakes on the left

Also being passed by gauchos

Distant mountains

Not much shrubbery, few flowers on the open ground

Mr. Moth does his thing

More conglomerate

Much of the signage is about toilet paper, a major fire hazard...

More mountains, more lakes

Vicki on what was truly an ersatz suspension bridge; capacity: 1;
note remnants of former bridge in background

"Let's see...the post-hole was over there, so the sign probably
faced this way, and,wait, here is the sliver about which way
to Los Cuernos..."

First sight of the tan and black Cuernos

And first sight of the Cerro Paine Grande, highest in the park
at just under 3,000m

Flora

Cerro Paine Grande dominated for both Days 4 and 5; even
though it's a small mountain, it reminded us of Mt. Blanc, from
Chamonix

In the distance, the Southern Patagonia Icefield, largest outside
of Arctic and Antarctic regions, from which the big glaciers,
including Perito Moreno, in Argentina, emanate

Gentle reminder

Nice water feature

Notch between Cuernos

Impressive folding in mountain across the lake

Rickety bridge after terrible trail down to Los Cuernos

The torrent below; at this point, the camera went weird on me,
rendering everything in faded Ektachrome mode; perhaps I can
fix it later

Anyhow, at the Los Cuernos campground (you must have
reservations!), you get to rent/pitch your tent on these cute
wooden platforms (same at Chileno); cost: $180; yes, $180
US dollars; per night, dos personnes

But wait, there's more: included was the worst purchased food
we have ever eaten; dinner consisted of an incredibly thin,
tasteless vegetable soup, followed by the above--a cow-patty-
sized glop of mashed potatoes into which had been stirred
perhaps a table-spoon of ground beef, topped by two sauteed
onion slices; all this followed by a few spoonfuls of caramel
pudding glop; breakfast the next morning and the boxed trail
lunch were of similar quality: $180

Despite the black and tan all around (memories of Dublin!) I
actually went dry this evening; prices for drinks, even a beer,
were about the worst price gouging yet; as our dinner
companions from Netherlands remarked, the owners of the
concession, FantasticoSur, must be getting very rich

Maybe the camera knew something...