35. Chile: Roadtrip (Part 5): Walking at windy Lago Grey (Torres del Paine National Park/UNESCO World Heritage Site)
It was on a particularly windy, cloudy day, no rain though, that The Wandelgek drove towards Lago Grey and its large glacier: Glaciar Grey. Thus the name of the glacier and of the lake was reflected by the ?weather?.
Grey Lake is a glacially fed lake in Torres del Paine National Park, southern Chile.
Grey Glacier is a glacier in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, just west of the Cordillera del Paine. It flows southward into the lake of the same name.
Before dividing in two at its front end, the glacier is 6 kilometers wide and over 30 meters high. In 1996, it occupied a total area of 270 km2 (100 sq mi) and a length of 28 km (17 mi) In November 2017 a large iceberg broke off the glacier.
The glacier is at the south end of the Southern Patagonia Ice Field. The surface of the lake can be seen when following the big circuit of Paine Mountain Range at John Garner Pass.
There is another view of the glacier from the south shore of the lake where the glacier can be seen in the background, with fragments of ice floating close to the shore. It is located to the west side of the Torres del Paine National Park.
The plan had been to go for a walk up the mountains, but judging the wind strength and its unpredictability, The Wandelgek thought it not wise to go for such a walk. His analyses was confirmed by the park rangers who prohibited access to the mountain trails that day.
However there were some other options. There was a Mirador Lago Grey trail which was open for hikers.
This trail had a walk along the shore upon a large beach. The trail than crossed a long stretch of sand barely above the water level of the lake, which was going from the mainland through the lake (water on both sides to an island).
The mirador was on the far side and on top of the island.
The Patagonian Wind 2
The water of the lake was restless, like an agitated chaos of crashing, tumbling and pounding white foam crested waves.
The energy of these waves surges upon the shoreline meanwhile transporting sand as well as icebergs and ice fragments towards the beach.
The Wandelgek had never before experience such raw wind power before. Its sheer strength was continuously present but varied largely and could suddenly, in short intervals, change from already a very strong storm wind into a hurricane like gale wind.
It was possible to bend back and lean into that wind for minutes, without dropping to the floor and there were moments where you had to brace yourself and stretch every muscle to not be blown away like a leaf, dancing in the wind’s direction.
No wonder the mountain trails were closed. Suddenly The Wandelgek felt like it was not entirely impossible to join the condors in their flight, not that he thought of himself as one of those majestic birds, but more like a paper kyte, completely surrendering to the winds then tearing apart and crashing on one of those floating icebergs ??…
After the walk, The Wandelgek retreated towards the Hosteria Lago Grey, where he found a restaurant…
The funniest thing was that payment of consumed drinks and food was problematic to say the least. Credit cards didn’t work, Debit cards worked sometimes but not always. The Wandelgek was already preparing to do a shift a dish washing when the frustrated caissière gave up and gave a green light for a free of charge passage.
The Wandelgek’s conclusive words about Chilean Patagonia are about wind torn flags and tortured, crippled trees which bend from the wind’s main direction. Ireland in extrema.
After a hot café cortado, The Wandelgek drove back to the cabanas and had a delicious dinner at Hotel del Paine, before ending the evening at the porch of his cabana, drinking a beer, enjoying a dried meat snack.
See my previous blogpost for that:
It had been an awesome day. It had been dramatically different from the previous days with their blue, cloudless skies and loads of sun, but it is actually quite nice to experience the power of the Patagonian wind like this. It makes it also more obvious why this is end-of-the-world-territory. It is clear why these lands are so empty, I mean what the fuck would that wind feel like in Winter?
However… there are always inhabitants that do profit from the continuous winds…
…Condors…
It also makes it clear that travellers should prepare for this journey. There’s no guarantee of beautiful weather. Sometimes walking in a t-shirt is enough, but more often a fleece jersey wind blocker or worse a rain and wind blocking winter coat are a necessity. The Wandelgek simply used his old ski jacket instead. But be prepared for less picture perfect days too, especially in Chile (The Andes catches a lot of clouds coming from Chile towards Argentina and they dissolve before reaching Argentina).
Then after a quick shower it was bed time. For the next day a long roadtrip back to El Calafate in Argentina was planned.