2023 11 Locura Chile 5 refused
We have only 18 km 12mls in front of us, so we start slow. It's a wide valley of different size rocks leading up to the summit we must cross. In the distance we see two Guanacos and a scared rabbit races off just a bit later. Except for the howling wind there is no noise, but the irons of our horses hitting the rocks. We passed the herd of horses and mules grazing in one of the bigger Gras fields. At about one int the afternoon we reach the bottom of the mountain we must cross and the trail that is shown on the map, does not correspond at all with what we have in front of us. An Avalanche of rocks must have destroyed anything resembling a trail and we were debating what route to take up the 400 m 1200 f high hill that toped at 4200 m. 12600 f. Little later we realized that heavy clouds where rolling in and visibility had dropped. Still, it would take only 2 hours to get to the top if everything went smoothly and so we followed Bernardo up the mountain. He chose the shortest possible way up, but that meant we had big rocks to content with. Unfazed He started to move the big bolders out if the way working his way up the mountainside. Meret and I followed bringing all 4 horses up to where the trail was proceeding. After about 90 minutes and there was not really a way to help Bernardo, I decided to climb up ro the crest to see how it was going to look like on the other side. At 4000 plus meters I don't run up the mountain easily anymore, so it took a while and many breaks to catch some air before I finally reached the summit. The other side did not look to bad, but where Bernardo was zigzagging his trail up the mountain, he had to either go 50 yards left or the same to the right if he wanted to reach the crest. On the way up I had run into a trail that was way out of reach for Bernardo and going down I found another on in the direction Bernardo was working, but we would have to cross some fridge size boulders to get there. It was past 3 in the afternoon, it started to snow and deep hanging clouds reduced visibility even more. Bernardo was only about half way up the mountain with major work still ahead of him, so I suggested to stop, to turn back to where we had started and try again the next morning, weather permitting, because I did not want to get stuck on the way down an unknown mountainside with snow coming down and us not knowing how far it would be to find feed for the horses going down that late in the afternoon.
After some consideration the two locals agreed and we rode down the mountain again, just 4 km short of where we had left in the morning. As we set up camp it stopped snowing and cleared up, making me wonder about the wisdom of my suggestion. I checked the weather on my sat phone and it said snow and low hanging clouds for next day with better weather coming after that.
We have only 18 km 12mls in front of us, so we start slow. It's a wide valley of different size rocks leading up to the summit we must cross. In the distance we see two Guanacos and a scared rabbit races off just a bit later. Except for the howling wind there is no noise, but the irons of our horses hitting the rocks. We passed the herd of horses and mules grazing in one of the bigger Gras fields. At about one int the afternoon we reach the bottom of the mountain we must cross and the trail that is shown on the map, does not correspond at all with what we have in front of us. An Avalanche of rocks must have destroyed anything resembling a trail and we were debating what route to take up the 400 m 1200 f high hill that toped at 4200 m. 12600 f. Little later we realized that heavy clouds where rolling in and visibility had dropped. Still, it would take only 2 hours to get to the top if everything went smoothly and so we followed Bernardo up the mountain. He chose the shortest possible way up, but that meant we had big rocks to content with. Unfazed He started to move the big bolders out if the way working his way up the mountainside. Meret and I followed bringing all 4 horses up to where the trail was proceeding. After about 90 minutes and there was not really a way to help Bernardo, I decided to climb up ro the crest to see how it was going to look like on the other side. At 4000 plus meters I don't run up the mountain easily anymore, so it took a while and many breaks to catch some air before I finally reached the summit. The other side did not look to bad, but where Bernardo was zigzagging his trail up the mountain, he had to either go 50 yards left or the same to the right if he wanted to reach the crest. On the way up I had run into a trail that was way out of reach for Bernardo and going down I found another on in the direction Bernardo was working, but we would have to cross some fridge size boulders to get there. It was past 3 in the afternoon, it started to snow and deep hanging clouds reduced visibility even more. Bernardo was only about half way up the mountain with major work still ahead of him, so I suggested to stop, to turn back to where we had started and try again the next morning, weather permitting, because I did not want to get stuck on the way down an unknown mountainside with snow coming down and us not knowing how far it would be to find feed for the horses going down that late in the afternoon.
After some consideration the two locals agreed and we rode down the mountain again, just 4 km short of where we had left in the morning. As we set up camp it stopped snowing and cleared up, making me wonder about the wisdom of my suggestion. I checked the weather on my sat phone and it said snow and low hanging clouds for next day with better weather coming after that.