Date: March 9, 2015

Daily Distance: 11.7 mi (13 km) – Camp Italiano 4.7 mi (7.6 km), Valle Del Frances and back to Camp Italiano: 6.8 mi (11 km)

Time: 8 hrs

Start: Camp Paine Grande

Finish: Camp Italiano

Notes: I woke up this morning and opened my tent at sunrise to see the view below.

Sunrise Paine Grande

Paine Massif At Sunrise

After dinner last night I walked over to the Refugio and looked in the dining room and bar area. Only a few guests were eating dinner. However, the bar was standing room only. The downside to having a bar connected with a campsite is that things get pretty noisy at closing time, as campers try to remember where they set up their tent before settling down for some beers in the bar.

After sunrise I packed up , ate some oatmeal and headed out as most of the hikers were just crawling out of their tents. Within a few minutes I ran into another couple who asked if I would take their picture. After introducing ourselves we started hiking together towards Valle Del Francis. Their names were Donald and Margie and they were from the UK and taking a 3 week holiday. They were hiking the 4 day W Trek before heading to Ushuia, Tierra del Fuego. I enjoyed hiking with them, they were a fun couple and the time flew by as we talked, walked and took pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way.

Margie and Donald, UK

The Paine Massif was the dominant view and kept getting larger as we grew nearer. We also walked along Lago Skottsberg. However, the clouds blocked most of the view.

Paine Massif

We arrived at Camp Italiano around 9:30am. It’s a pretty campsite nestled in the woods with no Refugio or Bars to contend with. My original plan was to hike with Donald and Margie up to Valle Del Frances then go on to Los Cuernos Refugio and Camp. But after last night, Italiano looked relaxing. I decided to find a secluded site, set my tent up then hike up to see the Valle del Frances. I said goodbye to Donald and Margie and began looking for a tent site. Once I was set up I decided to eat lunch and relax. The rain had stopped and it looked like the sun was trying to come out.

Around noon I started hiking up to Valle Del Frances. It was a beautiful gorge filled with running streams and waterfalls.

Valle Del Frances

After about an hour I ran into Margie and Donald. They had replaced me with a young lady from Scotland.  When I reached the top I saw 2 men from Argentina enjoying some Mate while they were waiting for the clouds to clear. One of the men reached in his pack and pulled out a thermos and extra cup, then asked if I wanted to try some mate.  I accepted and the three of us sipped our Mate and listened to massive walls of ice fall from the glacier of Monte Paine and crash below.

Enjoying Mate Valle Del Frances

On the way down there was a stream crossing that proved to be more difficult to cross coming back down. A young man from Norway placed himself in the middle of the stream, offering a hand to hikers after he saw several people struggle ahead of him. His party of 3 other hikers had been patiently waiting for over 30 minutes while was helping others.

Valle Del Frances young man from Norway waiting to help hikers.