Lake Dickson is the first big event . Leaving the boggy channels of Paine River on our second day , we climb a ridge . Pow ! A view so perfect we are gasping with pleasure and surprise . Ahead , a glacier sparkles in the late afternoon light like a million candles . At its foot lies Lake Dickson and floating in this sky-blue sea of tranquil reflection among the mobile icebergs is a peninsula of grass and woodland , and our first Refugio ( mountain refuge hut ).
Most of the refuge huts in the national park are run as going concerns in the summer months . A bed , hot showers and the use of the kitchen are all part of the package and sometimes there are meals available . Camping comes with outside toilets and cold showers . Some refugios however are simple huts that double as living quarters of shepherds living on the remote pastures of bordering estancias and offer only camping and cold showers .
Day three and we climb at last into the mountains that we had been skirting until now , via ‘ the valley of dogs ’ through an impressive stand of Magellanic forest . Suddenly a strange ‘ whoosh ’ sweeps through the trees . “ What was that ?” my partner Leanne exclaims leaping backwards . We both glance nervously about as though expecting an avalanche to come crashing through the trees . Crash ! and even the ground seems to shake beneath our feet .
Hurrying forward , we leave the forest and climb the morass of boulders that signify a glacier had once been this way and discover the answer . Glacier de los Perros had just calved
24 . DRIFTTRAVEL . COM