The O-Circuit: Day Four + Five

Day Four - Dickson to Los Perros

After our cold nights sleep, we opened our tent door to see exactly why – the mountains surrounding us had fresh dustings of snow. As beautiful as it was, unfortunately it did mean that my clothes that were out too dry did not dry whatsoever. So it was a heavy and hard slog for what we thought was meant to be a short and easy day.

The heavy rains the day before made the first half of this hike very muddy. Each step had to be carefully planned so you didn’t end up in ankle-deep piles of sludge. When we started the ascend to the final stretch, the mud resided and was replaced with a much more magical highlight – flurrying white snow. It felt like walking through a wonderland, with the fall foliage and the snowfall landing on the orange and red leaves.

As scenic and jaw-dropping as it was, this last stretch of the days hike was HARD. I was SO cold – I had not packed waterproof gloves so I had succumbed to wearing a pair of my Aldi merino wool socks on my hands as mittens (side note, Aldi merino wool socks are the best!). There may have been a few tears due to my sore back lugging my extremely heavy backpack, a steep incline and very cold hands.

What I thought was the easiest day of the hike was my hardest yet – with the mud and snow slowing us down, we completed the hike in about 7.5 hours.

Once again however, the arrival into our campsite was painstakingly beautiful – a campsite covered in snow, in amongst the forest. This was the only campsite that did not have hot showers, so once we set up our tent we crammed into the cooking refuge to make our dinner. Due to it being the only warm place, it was wear 75% of the campers gathered (the other 25% was in the main dining room with their pre-booked dinners). We huddled in a corner to cook up our pasta, corn and tuna dish which I ravenously ate (we had not had lunch, so I was famished!).

It was then time for an early bedtime, which I was very ready for, especially since I had found another puncture repair kit in my sleeping mat cover and was ready for a fully inflated nights sleep!

DAY FOUR FAST FACTS:

Time it was meant to take: 4.5 hours
Time it actually took us: 7.5 hours

Trail conditions: Very muddy, snowy
Distance: 11km
Campsite cost: USD$11 per person

Lesson learnt: Bring waterproof gloves when hiking in somewhere with weather as unpredictable as Patagonia! However merino wool socks on your hands will help with the cold.

Day Five - Los Perros to Grey (via John Gardner Pass)

Then things got REALLY bad when I made the realisation, that unfortunately is not uncommon for me whilst travelling, that I had lost my phone, somewhere in the snow. The last time I had used it was about two hours prior at the beginning of the pass, so it really could be anywhere and with the haste the footprints were disappearing from hikers before, I knew there was little chance of retrieval.

That’s when the tears really started flowing – Tim ran back down to find it, and told me to meet him at the top of the mountain. He thought the midway point refugio was at the top, hence why he said there. But in my state of panic, cold and tears – I thought I should wait right where he told me to – on top of the mountain, where there was no refugio, but just 120km p/h freezing cold winds and no shelter at all. I found a pile of rocks that somewhat sheltered part of my body for the wind, and stayed there for 20 MINUTES waiting for Tim to return.

The fear quickly turned from me losing my phone forever, to Tim falling in a tree well and nobody being around to help and me dying of hypothermia whilst I waited there endlessly for him. Alas, he reappeared 20 minutes later, wondering why on earth I’d not continued 15 metres to the other side of the mountain where there was no wind. Probably not the smartest of my moments.

Fresh merino wool socks on hands (actually, they’d been on Tims feet for two days prior, so probably not the most fresh), I stumbled down the other side of the mountain for about 1.5 hours before finally arriving at the refugio stop for lunch. By then I was starving (we had skipped breakfast in order to start the hike on time), and my eyes were so puffy from the many tears shed.

DAY FIVE FAST FACTS:

Time it was meant to take: 11 hours
Time it actually took us: 11.5 hours

Trail conditions: Very snowy
Distance: 22km
Campsite cost: USD$11 per person

Top Tip: This is the only day we bought our dinner, and it was SO good and worth it. It cost us CLP17,000 for a burger and a beer or wine. We didn't realise before the trek that this would even be an option, we thought we would have to fork out about USD40 for a meal like you'd have to if you pre-purchased this option!

Day Five was an early start, ahead of the biggest and toughest day of the trek. Our day begun at 6am, where we had to pack up our tent and be on the track by 7am, the latest time you can start in order to make it over the John Gardner pass in time.

Of course, despite being on a tight timeframe, we still somehow took ages to pack up. We didn’t even eat breakfast and it still took us over an hour! We left at 7:20am so I was relieved they still allowed us to start at that time, although there were still about 15 people behind us who also were allowed to commence, so it must not have been a strict deadline.

The first 30 minutes was a steep incline, in amongst mud and snow. I was already exhausted and thought that was the hardest part. Boy was I wrong!

We finally reached the start to John Gardner Pass – a huge, snowy mountain that was covered in about 2 feet of snow. By now I was very glad to be towards the back of the pack, as we had a trail of footprints laid out for us. One foot in the wrong place could lead to a very cold mishap – which I found out the hard way about half way up, sinking into 1.5 feet of snow and onto a slippery icey stream hiding under the snow, resulting on me on my ass, struggling to get back up! Luckily I wasn’t hurt, but it was enough to scare me even more the rest of the steep ascent to the mountain top. It was just as mentally challenging as it was physically. I kept thinking to myself “I’m not a mountaineer, I was not prepared for this!”. The only thing that kept me going was the fact I quite literally had to – there was no turning back!

However, I had arrived to the best news that instantly turned my mood around – someone had found my phone! Incredibly, one of the groups behind us had seen my bright blue phone sticking out of the snow, and it was still working fine despite it being absolutely freezing.

Phone joyfully in tow, the last 3 hours or so of the hike felt nowhere near as bad. When we finally arrived at Grey campsite after an 11 hour day, we treated ourselves to a meal at the restaurant. It was surprisingly affordable and it was the best burger I’d had in a long time (although that could have just been due to everything I’d put my body through that day!). After much needed hot showers, we called it a night.

Of course, something had to happen to disrupt what could have been a sound sleep – the wind was so strong that night it was blowing the tent walls so they were hitting our faces, and I was nervous our tent poles would snap. However, our tent miraculously stayed in one piece, and I woke up the next morning after a day of crying and a night of broken sleep to two VERY puffy eyes!