After a successful day one in the Torres del Paine National Park, in southern Chile, we were ready to embark on day two. This day would have re-trace our route from day one in reverse to get us to Refugio Paine Grander where we would spend the night. It would be the only trail we would do a round-trip on. However, this day would start with a real treat. It would include a Grey Glacier hike!
Good morning from Refugio Grey
As the group was too big to go as one onto the glacier, the group was split into two groups. To my disappointment, I got assigned to the group that was leaving earlier that morning. I like my sleep when I can get it.
I woke up 30 minutes earlier than I needed to, not on purpose. Electricity had not yet been turned on at the refugio at that time in the morning, something I had not known (or stopped to think about) so it took me by surprise – and I had not been ready with my headlamp so I went out of the room in the dark. Off I went, fumbling my way to the restroom down the hall… Fun times!
Crossing the lake to get to Grey Glacier
After we all had breakfast, etc. we left the building to get going on the glacier hike. We broke up into our two groups and off we went to the shores of the glacier. The boat ride was uneventful, very short – around 20 minutes. Getting off the boat was tricky as there was a big gap. We had to jump to a narrow ledge on the rocks that was wet. Happy to report that we had no accidents in either group!
On the moraine
At that point, we had to walk some along the moraine in order to get to the ice proper. It took about 2 hours under a constant drizzle. It made me nervous that the rocks were wet with the soft rain so I probably went slower than my normal. The rock was slate which was surprisingly not slippery but the “doubting Thomas” in me wouldn’t take risks 🙂 I did not get to appreciate how beautiful this part of the hike was was until the return hike back to the boat when I was more awake, it was not raining, and I was riding high after the time on the glacier!
Our group after making it to the edge of the icefield
Give me my crampons and set me off
In any case, we got on the glacier proper and we were excited to get to the spot where we would enter the ice field. At that spot, the gear was waiting for us. A brief presentation showed us how to walk on ice and not die – or something like that. Then, we proceeded to put on the crampons (mine looked like Peary or Amundsen used them over 100 years ago in their epic hikes through ice…), learned to use the ice pick, and climbed onto the ice.
My crampons – antiques!
Finally on the real Grey Glacier hike
It had stopped raining shortly before getting to the ice. The timing was great so we could enjoy being on the ice and not deal with water falling on us. It did not rain again during the rest of our glacier hike – at least my group which went first. But it rained at the end of the hike of the second group. A good reminder to always be prepared for rain! Fortunately, the sun was out most of the time which made for beautiful pictures.
We greatly enjoyed looking down crevices (I have to admit being a little gun-shy of getting too close to the edge) Also, it was neat to see pools of water on the ice that looked like mirrors. In total, we spent somewhere between an hour and hour-and-a-half on the glacier itself. The hike on Grey glacier was a really neat experience that I would recommend as part of the W Circuit hike. Or, actually, anywhere else in the world you can do a glacier hike!
My friends Mira and Kim – real explorers!
Beautiful colors!
Posing with all my Grey Glacier hike gear on
Trekking along the glacier – so cool!!!
Coming off the ice field onto the moraine under MUCH better weather!
Comparing the Grey glacier hike to my Franz Josef glacier hike in New Zealand
I couldn’t help but compare this glacier hike to my helicopter ride onto the Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand. On the one hand, flying the heli to the glacier saved time so we spent more time on the glacier. Plus just the thrill of flying in a helicopter and enjoying a magnificent approach to the glacier. On the other hand, climbing the moraine at Grey Glacier was a fun experience.
However, I have to say I’d prefer doing Franz Josef over this one as we got to crawl in ice caves and do things like that over there. But I enjoyed the Grey Glacier hike nevertheless because glaciers are amazing. And I was with good friends, out on a beautiful day walking on ice!
Fun at the Franz Josef glacier
A brief stop at Refugio Grey
We made it back to the Refugio Grey after the glacier hike. There we enjoyed some lunch prior to getting going on part two of our day: hiking back to Refugio Paine Grande, where we had landed by boat the day before. The lunch was a delicious plate of spaghetti and meatballs as you can appreciate from the picture below!
Delicious!
The main hike of day: headed to Refugio Paine Grande
We started off on our hike at 3 PM which felt late. It rained a good bit on the trail that day so I did not take as many pictures as I would usually do. The good news was that the rain was hitting us from behind vs. the front which is way more annoying. Not being able to take photos was not a big disappointment, though, because we were on the same trail we had walked the day before in the other direction to get to Refugio Grey. Things finally cleared up when we were getting to the end of the trail (around 7 PM) which was nice. I got a couple of pictures in anyway to remember the end of the day.
Not ideal weather but it was not hard rain either…
The weather was beginning to clear up…
My hiking partner that afternoon was Mira. We were thrilled to see the refugio ahead and blue skies!
The end of a fun but long day in Patagonia
Day 2 on the W Circuit was almost one for the books. In spite of the rain, it was a pretty incredible day on good account due to the Grey Glacier hike! And after a great meal (meat with mashed potatoes, red wine and a brownie!), the time to rest came. I gladly climbed on my bed as the wind howled outside – nice to be dry and warm inside!!
My bed was the bottom one!
——– Read more about the trek ———
Day 1 at Torres del Paine
Day 3 at Torres del Paine
