Valle Francés
This was taken the same day as my previous post from Patagonia, but further north up the inimitable Valle Francés. My companions and I spent the previous night listening to ice crash down the southern face of the Cerro Paine Grande from the safe redoubt of the pleasant but crowded Campo Italiano. However, we were compelled to push northward because several days previous to this, we had been advised by John Garner himself that a jaunt to the headwalls of the Valle Francés would be a foolish opportunity to miss, as in his estimation, the upper reaches of the Valle contain the most spectacular scenery in the Torres del Paine National Park. If this photo is anything to go by, he is not wrong.
The mouth of the Valle Francés is fairly narrow, but the upper reaches broaden out into a truly awesome horseshoe of fins and peaks, some granite and some darker shales, that have been wrought by glaciers over the past 10s of thousands of years. It has been a climber's mecca for several generations, and it is currently also a more generalized mecca for backpacking tourists like myself - though most folks on the trail seemed about 20 y younger than our group. Other than my recent kid-friendly hikes in Glacier National Park, and the Grand Tetons, the trail up the Valle Francés was one of the more well-traveled routes I've trod. The heavy tourist traffic was made all the more impressive by the fact that the trail is actually fairly demanding for the average tourist, rising approximately 2000 ft. in a little over 3 miles. At the end of the trail lies the Mirador Británico - a rocky outcrop with outstanding views located near the camp that British climbers established as far north up the valley as was still sensible. Or perhaps marginally sensible, given the trek required to re-supply.
Here, we are looking at the western wall of the Valle, and the granitic intrusion that marks much of the Park's geology is beautiful to behold. From left to right is the northern face of the Cerro Paine Grande, El Cerro Castillo, El Catedral (the pointed, tooth-like granitic formation near the middle), La Punta Negra, and on the far right, a portion of the Aleta de Tiburón (Shark's Fin). Would have been a fine spot to watch the sunrise, but the late-morning sun and the incomparable vista combined to make a pretty fabulous lunch spot. A sentiment that was shared by perhaps most of the dozens of other people there as well.
Valle Francés
This was taken the same day as my previous post from Patagonia, but further north up the inimitable Valle Francés. My companions and I spent the previous night listening to ice crash down the southern face of the Cerro Paine Grande from the safe redoubt of the pleasant but crowded Campo Italiano. However, we were compelled to push northward because several days previous to this, we had been advised by John Garner himself that a jaunt to the headwalls of the Valle Francés would be a foolish opportunity to miss, as in his estimation, the upper reaches of the Valle contain the most spectacular scenery in the Torres del Paine National Park. If this photo is anything to go by, he is not wrong.
The mouth of the Valle Francés is fairly narrow, but the upper reaches broaden out into a truly awesome horseshoe of fins and peaks, some granite and some darker shales, that have been wrought by glaciers over the past 10s of thousands of years. It has been a climber's mecca for several generations, and it is currently also a more generalized mecca for backpacking tourists like myself - though most folks on the trail seemed about 20 y younger than our group. Other than my recent kid-friendly hikes in Glacier National Park, and the Grand Tetons, the trail up the Valle Francés was one of the more well-traveled routes I've trod. The heavy tourist traffic was made all the more impressive by the fact that the trail is actually fairly demanding for the average tourist, rising approximately 2000 ft. in a little over 3 miles. At the end of the trail lies the Mirador Británico - a rocky outcrop with outstanding views located near the camp that British climbers established as far north up the valley as was still sensible. Or perhaps marginally sensible, given the trek required to re-supply.
Here, we are looking at the western wall of the Valle, and the granitic intrusion that marks much of the Park's geology is beautiful to behold. From left to right is the northern face of the Cerro Paine Grande, El Cerro Castillo, El Catedral (the pointed, tooth-like granitic formation near the middle), La Punta Negra, and on the far right, a portion of the Aleta de Tiburón (Shark's Fin). Would have been a fine spot to watch the sunrise, but the late-morning sun and the incomparable vista combined to make a pretty fabulous lunch spot. A sentiment that was shared by perhaps most of the dozens of other people there as well.