Woke to the sound of rain on the flysheet. Decided to don all our waterproofs and go for a walk up to the lake below the towers. Despite the conditions the path was very busy with people descending with gigantic rucksacks and thousand mile stares. They looked as though they were returning from the battlefield: exhausted, incapable of acknowledgement or speech and sometimes unable to walk in a straight line. Only about 10% of the people we passed responded to our greeting and sometimes we felt invisible as they brushed past. It felt a long way from Fitz Roy, where people seemed to look bright and happy no matter what the weather was doing…..perhaps it was the price of the coffee here? After a few hours we reached the Refugio where we were instructed to leave our boots and rucksacks outside and advised that any losses were our responsibility…which was difficult as, once inside, there was no window from which we could check on our possessions. We almost turned around, but the smell of coffee lured us in. We were given two mugs at the counter and left to do the rest. We poured some warm water from a thermos flask, spooned some coffee in from a bowl and had to hack at some crusty dried milk as all the milk cartons on the counter were empty – for this privilege we paid £2.60 each! Perhaps we have been spoiled by the coffee served at Alpine refuges? Further on past the hut snow started to fall (which can happen at almost any time of the year apparently) and we enjoyed a sheltered walk through some amazing woodland and heard a few birds for the first time. We didn’t expect to see much at the viewpoint but just as we arrived the clouds cleared and we glimpsed the flaked vertical walls of the Torres. They were certainly an impressive sight, almost as striking as the peaks of Fitzroy. Twenty minutes later they receded into the swirling mist and cloud and we headed down feeling very lucky. We concluded that, even if we had not seen them, the walk through the woods, views of some amazing geological formations and the Rio Ascencio valley were well worth the effort even in poor weather and visibility.
Wind blown sleeve issue today!
Waymarking scars
Some amazing geology!
