Day 5, Grey Glacier hike

Ok, lets start by explaining the logistics of leaving the park, then you might understand why we did what we did (besides the "because we can part" *wink*). 

To leave from Paine Grande there is a boat that takes you to a bus that takes you back to Porto Natelles which is where food and clean clothes and a hotel is.  The crux is there is a really pretty hike that is supposed to take 7+ hours, is 14-ish miles long and the boat leaves at 12:30 and 6:30PM.  The 12:30 boat is really early but gets you into town at a lovely 4:30PM.  The 6:30 boat makes the hike rediculously slow or leaves you sitting aound waiting for a boat for 3 hours and gets you in to town after 10PM.  Chileans are not morning people.  Dinner is 7:00PM at the earliest the night before the hike and breakfast starts at 7:00AM.  Given the following constraints, what do you do?

We opted for wake up at 6:00, skip breakfast and eat a protein bar and hike out butts off to make the 12:30 boat.  This my my idea.  I have to take credit for the BYA hike I created.  I was pushing for a 6:00 start time but was told I was being conservative with my estimate on hike time.  So 6:30 was go time.  Ned (or Hungry Buddy, mentioned yesterday) decided to join us.  Ned is young, has depressingly long legs and is stupidly fast at hiking, which is why we roped him in to our plan.  He thought it was brilliant, especially when we offered him some of our extra food when we mentioned missing breakfast.

So the three of us start out at 6:30.  The sun is up just enough to not need a headlamp.

Hike start with the clouds pink.

Th trail is tougher than we had hoped.  We trail run where it is possible and hike the rest.  There are amazing pockets of putple wild flowers.

We get our first glimpse of the glacier and think we are almost there...

...but we still have over 3 miles to go!

We make it to the glacier about 20 minutes before the agreed upon turn around time and its amazing!!!

Notice the boat in this picture?  About a third of the way across?  That is a really big boat, that glacier is HUGE!

We ran back to the refugio and have a little time to spare.  Ned has a snack, I sneak back in to take a bandit shower (so worth it!) and Jeff enjoyed an over priced soda.

We found out where the boat line was (see day one for more chaos on travel without seats) and sat to wait.  It was about this time that 2 things happened, 1) we saw the yucky side of eco tourism and 2) the weather started to turn.

More info on 1).  There is a camp area around the refugio with port-o-potties.  This boat...

With its yellow containers is what happens to that waste.  They were pumping the waste to the boat as we waited.

2) we has fantastic weather for this trip.  This is south, really far south.  Really far south is windy, wet and cold except a couple days a year.  Day 1 and 2 were hot with one lonely cloud all day, litteraly!  Day 3 was hot and partly cloudy but still clear enough to see the tops of the mountains.  The French Valley that I took so many pictures of is only clear enough to see anything 20% of the time.  Our last hike was still warm but a little cloudier.  I carried around gear with the intent of it being cold and wet, rain jacket, rain pants, down vest, wool or fleece everything, hand warmers, toe warmers, the works!  I had 2 t-shirts and one pair of shorts which is what I wore as much as possible.  But as we waited for the boat, the temp started to drop, the wind kicked up and that evening, the rain started.  We were SO lucky.  I overheard a guide stating that the days we had the trip were once in a lifetime weather to have good weather that many days in a row.  It was amazing!

Anyhow...  Despite worries, we made it on to the boat, and from the boat to the bus back to Porto Natelles and said "luego" to Torres del Paine.  

One last picture as the storm rolled in...