The middle leg of the W started with an early rise. A quick brekkie by the lake as gorgeous pinks gently glowed.
We'd be tackling the European leg of our journey today, heading to the Italiano base camp to drop off our packs. Then up through the forest to Francis Mirrador and then continuing to climb up the French Valley to Britanico.
While today was our highest climb, it seemed to be a more gradual and steady ascent. Francis Mirrador was, in Ana's words, 'the best view of the day'. It certainly had the most to capture the senses. A winding river at the base of granite monoliths and cracking ice from glaciers turned into avalanches and rockslides.
Britanico was more of a panorama. A row of monstrous boulders which stood side by side, from one side of the valley to the other. It felt like a cathedral with saints looking down upon us mortals.
Up here, there were really only two viewing spots for lunch break and Instagram photographs. Our guides from day 1 spoke of this and told us a story from a few weeks back where a guy, who'd been in their group on day 1 similar to us, had taken a serious tumble from this particular spot. Shaking our heads at the stupidity of some, we knew exactly where he would have fallen from and could see it replicating again in front of our eyes. Is the shot really worth the risk?
Once lunch had been munched down, we took off, back the same way we came to collect our bags and continue further towards Paine Grande, our campsite for the night. Did I mention it was a long one today? 9-10hrs of trekking.
Through our final push of the day, we were greeted by the most amazing mirror effect. With zero wind, which sounds unheard of down these parts... (the term Windygonia has been coined for a reason), the reflection of the mountains was out of this world.
