MesdagBaseCamp

Day FIVE...Torres del Paine

2009-01-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

After a great night sleep, and a big breakfast, we had to get going so we could catch our bus back to Puerto Natales. It was a beautiful day which made for a great hike.
This is the view from the trail on the way to our final destination, Hosteria Las Torres. Our final day was a nice easy, 2.5 hour hike down hill (for the most part). Hosteria Las Torres is a hotel visitors can stay in as well as a refugios for us stinky hikers.
The shuttle for our bus showed up right on time. We were in a 15 person van that made us un-load before venturing accross the smallest bridge I´ve ever seen because we were ¨too heavy¨..hmmm..... so, Noah and I promptly got out, and began walking....
Can you believe this van fit???
NEW YEARS EVE!! In the photo is (from left) Geranimo, Owen, Bill (co-founder of the hostel) and my self. We were tired, but happy. It was truely one of the best trips I´ve ever taken....

Day FOUR...Torres del Paine

2009-01-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

Day 4 was going to be tough so a good, hearty breakfast was in order..... in addition to Finn enjoying his noodles for breakfast, we also had to doctor up his blister which was getting worse...
hitch-hiking...
And, now, time for Owen to work on the blister at hand.... All in all, Finn gets 5 stars for never complaining about his blister at all....
Today we were heading from Los Cuernos, all the way over to Campamento Chileno, and then up to the Towers (Torres del Paine).... This was 8 hour day that was also through some steeper terrain that made for tired legs. The weather was constantly improving from our first day of heavy rain so we were all happy that the only thing we had to deal with was the wind.
Did I mention we didn´t have our luggage for this trip? I´m wearing all men´s clothes that are obviously too big for me. BUT - they kept me warm and dry so I can´t complain....
This is on the way to camp. Owen still had enough energy in him to climb to the top of this rock, it was really windy so it was hard for him to remain standing.
Tired legs and a blister will earn you a ride on Dad´s backpack.
If you look close enough, you can see the trail on the left side of the valley in the side of the hill, this was the trail that was taking us to a good resting area before we made the final push to camp.
One final push to camp from our rest area, and boy, everyones legs were really tired. In this photo, we have about 1 more hour before we get to our camp. The last hour, though, hard, was through a really beautiful forest.....
WE MADE IT!! After setting up camp.... we managed to gather enough energy to climb for another hour to view the Towers. Because of unpredictable weather in days past, (there were reports of people heading up to the Towers in the morning only to be greeted by a socked-in valley with no view) we took this beta and made the executive decision to push on, and see the Towers when we new we would have a wonderful view. I was exhausted..... but I´m so glad we did it.....
Awwwww..... what a great looking couple....
It was so cold up at the view point. We were actually snowed on a little..
YES!! The Mesdag´s all made it to the top!!
Finn was ´done´ at this point and earned another ride, this time he was IN the backpack...
Bed. yawn.... a VERY VERY long, and really fun day!!!

Day THREE...Torres del Paine

2009-01-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

Day 3.... ya, at this point, I had a blister, and Finn was working on his first blister. Other than that, spirits were high and we were ready to move onto our next camp...
This was our easy day in that we were moving on from Campamento Italiano to Campamento Los Cuernos. This was a beautiful 3 hour hike through the woods and on the beach...
The wind on the beach was sooooo strong, it actually blew me over into a bush (no, I´m not kidding).
One of many river crossings we encountered on our trip...
This photo was taken from the beach looking up at the Cuernos (the other side).
Camp. There was a refugio here which is where we enjoyed a hearty hot meal with many other trekkers and got ready for a good night sleep in preparation for what would be our longest, and most difficult day - day 4.......

Day TWO...Torres del Paine

2009-01-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

Day two we woke up after sleeping in - it was great. After eating breakfast and breaking down camp, the plan was to start hiking towards our next camp site - Campamento Italiano. This was the lake we camped next to for our first night.
The hike to our next camp took us about 2.5 hours and was a beautiful hike...
ahhhh..... the glacier water is the best in the world!
This is the bridge into camp. This suspension bridge only allowed two people on the bridge at one time do to the stability (or lack there of....).
After setting up camp and having a snack, we began our day trip which was heading into ´Valle del Frances´ (the French Valley). This was a 5 hour round-trip journey that took us into some of the most beautiful terrain I´ve ever seen... at that point..... The photo above was taken about 10 minutes outside of our camp.
This mountain kept having avalanche releases (don´t worry mom, we weren´t anywhere close to the snow!)
From the view point, you would look to the left, and see this very cold, glacier covered mountain and to the right, you´d see the most beautiful rock formations with no snow at all, the Cuerno´s (above) was amazing!!!
After we returned to camp, we hung out for the rest of the night. This is the suspension bridge right next to camp - absolutely beautiful!

Day ONE... Torres del Paine

2009-01-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

We began the first day of our trip by waking up at 6:00am and catching a bus into the park at 7:00am. All was great, we had a 6 person team (Owen, Rustyn, his sons, Finn and Noah, a friend named Gerinamo, and myself). After a 2.5 hour bus ride, we arrived at the boat to take us on a 30 minute journey to our starting point and our first camp site at Camp Pehoe.

We arrived at our camp site with very cold weather and LOTS of rain....the camp site is a Refugio which was almost like a ski lodge. You can rent a room, eat a hot meal, or hang out in the bar if you want to..... I wouldn´t call this ¨roughing¨ it by any means, but I must say the cocktail at the end of the night was great! This camp site had a cooking area for all of the campers that provided fuel to run stoves and drinking water. This is essentially where people are either starting their hike, or ending it.
After setting up camp, we began our first hike that would take us out to Glacier Grey.
There were lots of beautiful things to see along the way....
The hike to the glacier was great. Being that it was so cold, we were hiking pretty fast to stay warm. The winds can be so strong here it´s unbelievable.
You can see the glacier in the back ground.... at this point, it was almost 8pm. It stays light until about 10:30-11:00pm which allows for sleeping in every morning and having a nice long day to hike late into the evening.

Our Bags

2009-01-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

So...our bags showed up the day after!!! we left for our hike. But they´re back and thats good.

We had to borrow EVERYTHING. All of our clothing, tent, sleeping bags, pads, stove, ect...everything. It was a very humbling experience for people who are use to having everything.

More Photos

2008-12-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas

2008-12-26T11:50:00.000-08:00

It is officially the day after Christmas and Santa did arrive. He brought a remote control car for Finn, and a remote control dinosaur for Noah.... we watched ´The Grinch´last night after whistling Christmas songs and eating a heaping bowl full of ice cream - a great celebration! The big celebration down here was actually on Christmas eve night where the hostel prepared a huge feast, and many local friends showed up to celebrate.

Our bags still haven´t arrived and we´ve now decided to head into the park tomorrow for our trek with borrowed gear from friends of Rustyn´s. We (Owen, Jenny (the dog) and me - yes, they have a dog named Jenny and a cat named Owen)...went to the market today to gather food for the 5 of us and stopped by the ´fruit guy`to get dried fruit for our journey. Jenny is a pretty funny dog in that she use to be wild and is now domestic. She´s pretty tough and will walk us to the store, and wait outside until we´re done shopping and walk us back to the hostel...

It´s amazing how many people come through this town before they head into the park (Torres Del Paine). There are some pretty big name climbers in town that are heading into the park for more than a month.. pretty impressive.... We´ve met amazing people from all over the world, and we still have over a week left on our trip!

After today, we will be out of communication until New Years eve when we return to bring in the new year with all sorts of people....

Have a great next few days..... we´ll write again soon!

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

Today is Christmas eve and there is actually a christmas vibe down here. Christmas trees and the traditional music to go with it but all in Spanish. The hostel is FULL and people are being turned away left and right. But there is a 3:00 talk put on by Rustyn or Bill that tells everything you would need to know about the park and everyone is invited to even if they dont stay here. So the place REALLY full then. Jenny and I stayed at Erratic Rock II last night, which is all private rooms with double beds. Nice place. Today has been a pretty chill day, we met up with Dave Turner today, nice guy, saw some video from a helmet cam of someone here at the hostel that Dave took Ice climbing, which turned epic and it was all caught on film,
Jenny right now is off getting a massage, a gift from Rustyn (no, rustyns not the one giving it to her).
Im getting one tomorrow.
There is also a cool cemetary in town that i forgot to take pictures of the last time I was here.
Tonight we are going to do chistmas with the family. Because if all goes well our bags will show up and we will be heading into the park in the next couple of days. If they don´t, were still heading into the park.

Merry Christmas to everyone from the Mesdag´s.

Traveling light

2008-12-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

This is me pretending to carry my missing bags.

Puerto Natales

2008-12-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

We finally made. I forgot how long of a journey it is to nearly the bottom of the globe.
Seattle to Atlanta to Santiago to Punta Arenas bus to Puerto Natales. 28 hours.
But we made it. Weather in Seattle made us worry a little about whether or not we would get out of the city. And a huge thanks to Delian who chained up the jeep fought the snow and delivered us to the airport, not without a quick stop at Ladro of course where we saw a snowboarder come down QA hill and a cop doing donuts in the intersection (no joke).
Airports a mess, people at their wits end, planes two hours delayed, de-ice the plane, bumpy take off, and were outta there. In Atlanta we run as fast as we can to make our next flight. We arrive at the gate with 4 minutes to spare and the people at the gate gave us a look like they couldnt believe we made it. 9 1/2 more hours and were in Santiago. This part was smooth except for the part when we got on the plane, our bags without us knowing DID NOT!!! Sweet!
4 more hours on another plane, this one a little more bumpy with a few sudden drops. we make it to Puerto Arenas. That is were we realized as we were the last people waiting for our bags, that our bags must still be in Santiago.
Anyway, the trip still goes on. Were not going to let out lack of bags dictate our trip here.
Outside the airport a bus pulls up and a guy leans out the door and asks "Owen?". "Yes" I reply. My brother Rustyn had already bought our tickets and the bus came to pick us up. The trip is though the county, very beautiful. Two lane road that winds around a mostly flat landscape with a few up and downs that lets us look even farther into the already expansive view.
We finally arrive in Puerto Natales, our looong journey is finally over. At least this part of it.
Tonight we stay in the Hostel. We get in say hi te everyone, their all expecting us, and happy to see we finaly made it. Rustyn, my nephews Noah and Finn, Jenny and I all take a cab across town, (about 4 minutes) to get dinner. Then its off to bed. We left our house in Seattle at 8am Sunday and arrived in Puerto Natales 8pm Monday. Were tired....

Christmas in PATAGONIA

2008-12-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

Check back soon for updates on our trip to Patagonia.