After day one, I was pretty wiped out. I had not fully recovered from my vomiting and delirium for basically 24 hours straight. Then, only two days removed, I did a MASSIVE hike, in the snow, below zero, with 4600 feet of elevation gain. Looking at the schedule, I saw that W Trek Day two was much simpler than the earlier day. And, I was admittedly quite tired (we arrived quite late to our camp) so I didn’t double-check the distance/elevation for the next day. I had understood it to be only 175 meters elevation gain. It was not… It may have ended at 175 meters above sea level, but the total elevation gain was more like 2100 feet. And, we hiked about 11 miles that day. I did it, and I made it, but I had planned to rest a bit that day, and catch my breath. I knew we would arrive early that afternoon – we arrived at 3:00. And, I did get to rest a bit.
The hike was gorgeous, with the Lago Nordenskjold next to us the entire day. It has a very strange blue/teal color, but was gorgeous as backdrop to our day.
Unfortunately, Sally (previously mentioned) did not make it to Refugio Cuernos unscathed. She met with some gusty wind and fell, face-first, on the trail. We had a doctor in our group and he was worried she might have a broken skull and/or neck (fracture, but still potentially dangerous). So, she was set to be boated out the next morning. There is no road that goes there and helicopters cannot land with the wind. So, they have supply boats for the refuggios along the way. Spoiler, Sally ended up having only a broken nose and nothing else. Still, not good, but much better than the outcome it could have been.
I went to bed feeling the beginnings of strep and feverish and chilled and worried I might not be able to make the rest of the trip. I woke up feeling even worse and elected to join Sally on the rescue boat back to Central Refugio. So, my W trip was only two full days, and a partial third day of our four. The next day of the trip would have been huge, almost as big as the first, and I just knew if I finished it out (or tried), I would end up very ill or maybe not make it. It was an easy out… so, I called it there. What a bummer, but in retrospect, it was definitely the correct decision.