Wednesday February 15th, 2017
On our third day Krista stayed in camp for the day, so I joined three others of our original group on a 17 km return walk to the French Glacier, led by our guide Pablo. The French Glacier and river drains the central part of the massif, south into Nordenskjold Lake. There had been a little rain overnight, but the morning was dry with high cloud. Our return walk was windless and in a very light drizzle, but not enough to dampen our spirits! Besides, the reflections were stunning!
Refelctions on Sköttsberg Lake
We took a bus to a jetty on Pehoe Lake, and then by ferry to Hotel Grande Paine where our walking track started. It was a steady climb from about 50 m to around 300 m, and took us through an interesting and varied landscape. We were right in the heart of the massif, so it no longer dominated the scene, rather we were part of that scenery, having an intimate acquaintance with the foothills. Any way, the tops were cloud bound.
Leaving Pehoe Lake
A goose … there were quite a few near the lake!
There was a lot of burnt forest, replaced by grasses and herbs. Only firebrush was recovering from its gnarled root stock. This shrub reminded me very much our open hearted waratah, and later I found it is a protoacea (Embothrium coccineum). So the two are in fact relatives, but how close I do not know. There were patches of unburnt nothafagus, so the seed source for eventual recovery is close to hand.
The start of a long steady climb.
Firebrush (Embothrium coccineum) was in flower – very late in the season
If I didn’t look up at the great heights of these mountains, I could easily imagine at times that I was walking in the Cradle Mountain area: similar looking trees and understory, tangled roots, and grey metamorphic rock. On the other hand, this environment looked less obviously biodiverse than its Tassie equivalent.
We had some good views into Sköttsberg Lake with wonderful reflections of the lower pats of the massif, and of dead trees surrounding it. Way to the south are ranges of mountains not yet cloud covered.
Sköttsberg Lake with the lower slopes of the massif reflected of its still surface
Our immediate mountains simply disappeared into cloud and we never saw their tops until late in the day. But out of the cloud tumbled waterfalls of exquisite cold and clear mountain water, or ice and rock filled avalanche chutes that empty onto huge fans of debris deposited by thousands of years of outflow from those chutes.
Hanging glaciers and waterfalls adorn the lower slopes of Paine Grande
As we neared the French River we left the burnt area and entered intact forest. It must have been devastatingly heartbreaking for the first people to come here after the fire as it must have been stunning with the pristine forests!
Walking in the pristine, unburnt nothofagus forest was a joy!
We – and groups of 20 or more hikers! - lunched by the French River, and then crossed this raging torrent one person at a time via a suspension bridge. Here is the Italiano camp, a camping site first used by Italian mountaineering teams in the early days of Patagonian mountaineering. The track now climbs more steeply through a beautiful and ancient nothafagus forest before open ground is reached near the French Glacier itself.
Right hand branch of the French River. Some how I managed to hide 30 hikers!
Nothofagus forests above Camp Italiano
We stopped for “one minute only” at a lookout and waterfall looking down onto the glacier. However, we’d made such good time after lunch that our “one minute” became five … but it was a good twenty minutes later that we consider returning home!
Our goal: the lookout rock and the water fall … but wait …
From this lookout we could see hanging glaciers across the valley, and could hear all manner of rumblings and thunderings, and crashes and roars. Then we spotted it, high up, coming down the mountain side, out of the clouds: a river of snow and ice cascading over a cliff face like a massive waterfall. We followed, with our eyes, its path down rock faces, across snow fields, until many minutes and hundreds of metres later it reached a fan of white snow leading onto the French Glacier.
Wow!
But the lookout also gave us a view down the valley, back the way came … and we had to go!
The end of a great day, with Paine Grande just showing, and Pablo in front
Pablo was a very enjoyable guide, and I think he really enjoyed our little group. He clearly loved the natural environment, and was very adaptive in his guiding. So we had our freedom to make photo stops, and he trusted our ability to make up time if needed. In return, we honoured and respected his feelings “to get a move” on when necessary. We worked well together. I’d love to have him visit Tassie, and show him some of our favourite spots. I think he’d enjoy Tassie!
There were no puma on the way home today. But very close to home we saw an eagle on a ridgeline near the road sitting in judgement over the world below. Then, with a few lazy flaps of wings, it was off into the darkness.
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