Cajon del Maipo

"The best-laid plans of mice and men, often go awry,"
~Robert Burns

Tuesday, December 2nd to Wednesday, December 3rd 2008

The original plan was to climb the peak of El Mirador del Morado - which at 3500 didn't sounds very intimidating after tackling 5200m passes in the Peruvians Andes. Transportation was a bit of a problem since the local bus took Dennis and myself (Kathy stayed in the hostel) only as far as the town of San Jose del Maipo where it dropped us off to hitch hike to our starting point in the small town of Baños Morales. We ate our breakfast at the side of the road and waited for another hour before a truck going to one of the local mines picked us up. Just few hours out of Santiago we found ourselves in a different world - the crowded city streets were magically replaced by a roaring river and snowy mountains backdrop. I picked up my heavy pack and immediately felt sorry for the extra weight. I wanted to test out my equipment so I volunteered to carry my tent to which I added cold weather gear, sleeping bag, water and food accumulating to more than 10kg that I felt from shoulders to knees with every step I took. I knew however, that I only need to carry the pack to the lagoon where we'll camp where it will stay for the summit hike - or at least that was the plan.. We hiked up to the town, bought cold cokes and continued to the CONAF post where our plans were laid to waist. The helpful ranger informed us that although we are in late spring, the trail above the lagoon is blocked with snow and ice and not only it is impossible to scale the summits above it - camping is also forbidden due to avalanche risk... We consulted the ranger and our map for our options and decided to hike the 6km the the lagoon and back and than walk another ~12km in full gear looking for a campsite before continuing with day pack to refugio Plantat - a small base camp used as a setting point for some of the higher peaks around.

The walk to the lagoon was magnificent walking up a comfortable trail that led up the valley with natural springs on the way, to a peaceful lagoon below the owe inspiring peak of El Morado and the lower El Mirador del Morado - still laden with heavy snow that prevented our planned accent. we rested a little in the lagoon and returned back to the CONAF post in under 3 hours, very aggressive timing that we picked in order to have enough time to hike to our planned campsite. The dirt road led from CONAF through the village and along the north bank of the river below us, opposite the better truck road on the south bank which led to our campsite but also required us to backtrack for for than 1km to cross the river - so we continued hoping to find a good crossing up ahead. To make a long story short, we failed to cross and instead climb down and up the steep bank and continued up the trail to find a good campsite almost at sun down at around 21:00. After setting up our tents our immediate concern was water - our bottles were empty and we were thirsty after the long walk. With lack of other options, Dennis made the risky descend to the river below and fill our bottle with muddy river water which we purified with chlorine tablets - the water were safe to drink but tasted like mud all the same... We woke up early next morning and as I went to the toilet I luckily found a good crossing spot directly below me. We packed our camp and made the perilous descend down to the river again - this time with the heavy pack on my back threatening my balance. Luck found us again as we hit a small spring of ice cold fresh water near the river. It wasn't easy but we crossed and climbed to other side, at which point I was starting to feel exhausted from the intensive hiking and climbing with the weight I'm not used to.

We walked a little further and hide the heavy pack below the truck road planning to pick it up on our return. We continued to the small bridge that was our planned campsite that we missed yesterday and started climbing the trail that led to the refugio. At around mid day we found ourselves in a green meadow that led to the refugio accent near a small spring. I filled up my water bottle and encouraged Dennis to refill his with the water since they were cold and looked inviting. That was a mistake. Tasting the water we found out that we replaced our fresh water from the morning with a new brand that had a strong aftertaste of horse shit... not as funny as it sounds... Even worse, it turned out the the green meadow we had to cross was a nightmare hike with knee high thorny vegetation and a lot of small stream to cross - no to mention that it was much wider than it looked. I got first to the refugio accent and throw myself down near a small waterfall of melted snow where I drunk and filled my bottle. Dennis joined me and after looking at each other and the sky that started to get dark and stormy we decided to head back and not try to tackle the accent in our current physical condition and with lack of cold weather clothes that stayed in the hidden pack. We returned to where we hidden the pack - a route that although going down was as hard as going up due to our mounting exhaustion. As I returned with the pack a condor soared up above us lifting our spirits as we started down the long dirt road back. We tried to stopped the mine trucks that passed us by but it took another 20 minutes of hiking before we got to a place where they could actually stop and there a friendly driver took us to the processing plant opposite our starting point in Baños Morales. We hiked another half a hour and than caught the hitch of a lifetime in a fast brand new Toyota pickup that dropped us off after just a hour and a half in the center of Santiago! We surprised Kathy by returning one day earlier than planned and hit a well deserved shower and good night sleep. I may have not completed my goals, but I enjoyed the view and got a good training and some helpful insights for the treks ahead.. All in all a well worth excursion just a hour an a half outside the city.