Grey Glacier

Today was only a half day hike, which made things easier for everyone, as we were all pretty beat up from the heavy hiking two days in a row. We were doing the left side of the W, but only going halfway to the viewpoint of the glacier so we would be able to be back to catch the 12:30 boat. The morning started off with getting all packed up, then a breakfast at the lodge, before heading out on our hike at 8:30. The Horns were again capped in clouds as we departed.

We worked our way up a dry valley that was gutted by the forest fire.

We cleared over a rise and were at a mountain lake where we had a quick stop before pushing on,

Wildlife here consists of insects (which were out after a few days in a row without wind), small rodents, pumas, and birds. One Crested Caracara stayed majestically on top of a tree right beside the trail.

We kept pushing up the trail at a fast pace, and when we cleared the next rise, we could see Lake Grey. It is fed by the Grey Glacier, and there were a few bright blue icebergs that had been pressed up to the shore by wind.

One last rise to go and we were at the viewpoint of the glacier. The wind blowing off of it was quite cold, so everyone Goretexed up for our group photo.

The glacier spills on both sides of what one day will be an island (due to the receding of the glacier), and is the largest glacier in the Torres del Paine National Park.

From there it was racing back at breakneck speed to make it in time for the boat, and to be early enough in the queue to be on the first boat if there were more people than capacity and it had to make two trips. We got back at 11:30, with plenty of time to spare and did our 11.2km hike with 205m of elevation gain in three hours. We ate our bagged lunches waiting for the boat (which was nice not having to hike with their weight), and then got on our 45 minute boat ride, then 2 hour bus ride back to Puerto Natales.

It was really nice to have a few hours off to send away laundry, catch up on emails, have a nap, etc. Then we went off to dinner for pizza. It was the perfect stone-oven pizza with red wine for dinner then we found a train in the central stair to get a picture on.

After dinner we found a bar with a firepit out back to have a drink before coming back to the hotel where we get to have a good night sleep, not needing to be out of the hotel until 9:30.