Hiking the "W" - Day 3

Refugio Paine Grande - Camp Italiano - Valle Frances - Refugio Los Cuernos, 8hrs, 20km, lots of up, snow and crampon fun.

After a delicious breakfast of a lone cereal bar and a cup of tea we started walking, cloudy but dry we made good time to Camp Italiano, passing Lake Skottsberg, and decided that despite the sign stating that the bridge over the river could take 2 at a time we would go solo over it, rapido style. We dumped our big pack at the bottom of the camp and headed up into the clouds. It was looking a bit hopeless in terms of seeing the mountain glacier in the Valle Frances and Lake Nordenskjold, but we put our crampons on and headed on through the beautiful winter woods, listening to the creaking and groaning of the glacier. Then the clouds cleared and we were facing the stunningly massive frances glacier. Wahl! Stomping on in the crampons in the snow had definetely been worth it. Walking back we took in the beauty of the green glacier lake Nardenskjold and it´s little islands and made it back safe and sound for lunch back at camp. The rest of the walk skirted the nothern edge of lake Nardenskjold, a series of ups and downs that provided a picturesque last leg to day 3.

We arrived by 4ish to the hostel and found ourselves to be the only guests, so we enjoyed a good steak dinner and warm fire with the 4 blokes working there and kipped down for the night, nursing blistered and aching feet, glad that tomorrow would be a short and sweet 4 hours only.