"All You Lovely People ..."

Chile 1994

Summary

I vacationed in Chile, South America leaving 1/18/94 and returning 2/3/94. It was an excellent trip. The area we hiked through, Towers of Paine (pine-nee) National Park, was outstanding. The people on the trip were perhaps the best group I've ever been with.

Itinerary

We flew to Santiago, Chile and spent a day there. We then flew to Punta Arenas, the southern most city in Chile. It lies right on the Straits of Magellan and right across from them you can see Tierra del Fuego. The only thing south of there in the world is Antarctica. From Punta Arenas we drove north to Puerto Natales and then on to the Towers of Paine. We then proceeded to do what's known as the circuit, hiking around the Towers taking 10 days and covering about 110 miles in the process. This consisted of 3 days with daypacks, 1 day with a light backpack, 2 days with full backpacks and finally 4 days with daypacks again. After the hike, we returned home by just reversing the route we took in, Puerto Natales, Punta Arenas, Santiago, home.

Towers of Paine

The Towers of Paine is a national park in Chile located in the region of South American known as Patagonia. As well as being a national park, UNESCO declared it a biosphere reserve further protecting its resources. The park is most noted for the Towers, a massif with a number of exceptional rock formations. There are also a number of glaciers which we saw or hiked past. Finally it has a great deal of wildlife, from guanacos (relatives of llamas) to Magellanic woodpeckers and rheas.

Weather

The weather in Patagonia is very changeable. There is a saying there, "Four seasons in a day, every day." We were quite lucky. While we got rained on a couple of times, there was no day when the views or the hiking were ruined by weather. It seems that the bad weather was always a day ahead of or behind us.

Perhaps our approach to the weather worked. In our first group meeting in Santiago our trip leader said that each day there would be one person responsible for the weather. Each night at dinner the weather person would be roasted or toasted and then the person for the next day would be selected. I volunteered for the first day. All we had to do was fly to Punta Arenas and then ride a bus to Puerto Natales. Even if the weather were awful, no one would be too upset. As it turned out we had a very good day. I even managed to get the clouds to lift enough over the Patagonia ice cap that we could see the Towers as we flew in. The leader of another group on that flight said that this was the best viewing she'd ever seen on this flight.

The Day

The circuit included two days carrying full backpacks. The other days we just had to carry daypacks or a light backpack and horses carried the rest of the gear. For these two days the trails were too difficult for horses.

It's hard to say if the second day of backpacking was the toughest day of hiking I've ever had. We were at low altitude and it wasn't cold. However it took me 16 hours from leaving the morning's camp to arriving at the evening's camp. It rained the last half of the hike. And the trail was tough; remember that it was too tough for horses.

However at the end of the day I felt surprisingly well. Of course I was very tired and my feet, shoulders and hips were very sore. But I didn't feel beat down like I have after some tough days on other trips.

I was one of the slowest ones in the group this day. I have always been slow when going downhill. Other people seem to be able to charge downhill much faster than me. I could keep up fine on uphill or level with no problem. However throw in some downhill and I start falling behind. Fortunately this wasn't a problem. The trail was easy to follow and the group never separated enough that anyone ever felt on their own.

Normally this day takes a group 12 - 13 hours. Several things contributed to the longer than expected day. The weather on the pass was exceptional and we spent a good deal of time there enjoying the view. Normally on this day there is an hour lunch break where the leaders make hot soup and give everyone time to recharge for the remainder of the day. However it started to rain just before lunch and that added almost an hour with setting up the rain tarp, heating the soup, taking down the tarp and generally slowing things down. The rain slowed us down on the trail because we had to be even more careful. And finally, due to heavy snow melt and the rain, one of the streams we had to cross was especially high. It wasn't possible to cross where the trail normally went. It took an additional hour to find a way across, get everyone up to the crossing, get all the packs and people across and then work our way back down to the trail.

While it's a tough call whether this was the most physically difficult day I've ever had on the trail, it did require the most concentration of any day. The problem with the trail was that it was very steep. In some places we were doing what we called jungle gym, hanging on to one tree while reaching for another as we lowered ourselves hand-over-hand down the trail. Other places had deadfall which we had to climb over. And once we were half way through the day and getting tired, it started to rain making the rocks and tree roots on the trail slippery. All of this required a good deal of concentration to keep from falling and getting seriously hurt. I slipped a number of times but never anytime where there were any serious implications.

The People

Most trip leaders are personable and have a ton of stories to tell around the camp fire. This trip was no exception. What I hadn't figured on was the joke fest and floor show. This included a performance of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" one night on the trail.

What is easy to overlook amongst the fun and stories and jokes is the professionalism, skill, organization and leadership which was also demonstrated. This was a fairly complex trip given the different phases that the hiking went through: day packs and horses, backpacking and then day packs and horses again. In addition getting everyone through "The Day" successfully with everyone healthy and uninjured depended on many factors. Our leaders were clearly one of the major factors toward this success.

There were three leaders for twelve clients. The other clients were also an exceptional group. Everyone was experienced and capable. Everyone could take care of themselves and didn't get upset when various problems came up. Everyone was interesting and had their own experiences and trips to relate.

All in all it was a very good group of people. We became very close, something of an extended family.

Stories

Every trip has its stories and problems. This was no exception.

With only one day of hiking to go, we learned that the bridge to the hotel where we were to stay the next night was under 4 feet of water. Rain and snow melt lead to some flooding and the bridge was the only way in. Not only were we to stay there, that is also where we left stuff which wasn't going with us on the trail. This included airline tickets and passports. All turned out well. The bridge was fine and only the approach was under 2-3 feet of water. A truck ferried us across and we got our first night in a hotel and retrieved our gear with no problems.

One day we hiked from Lago (lake) Grey to Lago Pehoe. The next day, on returning to our camp after a day hike we heard that a launch on Lago Grey had been blown into rocks by high winds and that there were passengers with hypothermia. Lago Grey is a glacial lake so it would be quite cold. Our horsemen went back to Lago Grey and assisted in the evacuation. They helped get the people from Lago Grey to Lago Pehoe at a different point from where we were. The people were met by a launch and taken to a hotel on the lake. The last word we heard was that everyone came through ok. However for a time we were quite concerned and were preparing for a long night helping anyway we could.

Every trip usually includes an airline story or two. My flight from Chicago to Miami was the first time I went through an aborted landing. We were at about 50-100 feet on the landing approach when the pilot applied power and we went around again before landing. An aircraft was on the runway and we were denied landing clearance. Our flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago had one stop. We had to deplane. Our trip leader said they never had to get off before. Someone suggested that maybe it had something to do with the cloud of smoke coming out the of port engine of the aircraft. Anyway we boarded almost immediately and flew on the Santiago. My connection in Chicago for my Indy flight was only 25 minutes. A 10 minute delay in landing and 5 minutes delay getting the jetway to attach to the aircraft ate up my margin. That was the first time I literally ran through an airport. Both me and my duffel bag made the connection just fine.

Trip Title

The title for this trip report comes from a ritual we started most days with. Our trip leader would say "All you lovely people who want to go hiking ..." and the group would chorus "Let's go hiking." He would then say "All you lovely people who don't want to go hiking ..." and we would respond "Let's go hiking." This little exchange all started from a joke he told us the third day of the trip as we were riding the bus from the hotel in Santiago to the airport for our flight south. See Appendix 1 for the joke. (Rated PG - Language.)

Appendix 1

All Aboard

Little Johnny was in the basement playing with his train set while his mother worked in the kitchen.

After awhile she heard Johnny say "All aboard. All aboard. All you bastards who are getting off had better get off and all you bastards who are getting on had better get on."

Upset about his language, she called him up to the kitchen and told him "I don't want you using that sort of language. Now sit in that corner for half an hour and think about it."

After the half hour was up Johnny returned to the basement and continued playing with his train set. Then his mother heard "All aboard. All aboard. All you sons of bitches who are getting off had better get off and all you son of bitches who are getting on had better get on."

Again his mother was upset. "I told you not to use that sort of language. Now sit in that corner for an hour and think real hard about it."

The hour passes and Johnny is back in the basement with his train. "All aboard. All aboard. All you lovely people who are getting off had better get off and all you lovely people who are getting on had better get on. And you better step on it. There's a bitch in the kitchen who's put us an hour and a half behind schedule."

I didn't say it was a great joke. I just said that it set a ritual for the remainder of the trip.

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