{"id":1637,"date":"2015-03-06T14:42:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T20:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theagostins.com\/?p=1637"},"modified":"2015-03-06T14:42:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T20:42:55","slug":"torres-del-paine-john-gardner-pass-summit-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rickagostin.com\/?p=1637","title":{"rendered":"Torres del Paine: John Gardner Pass Summit Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the alarm went off at 6am it was accompanied by rain and lots of it. So we stayed in the tent hoping it would taper off. About 7 am it did and we quickly grabbed our stuff and decided it would be smart to pack our bag in the dry\/warm cooking shelter\u2026 we weren\u2019t the only ones with that idea.\u00a0\"Campamento<\/a><\/p>\n

We quickly ate some breakfast, got our bags packed and discussed our plan to go over the pass with a couple of fellow hikers. One in particular, a search and rescuer from Oregon, warned us not to go, that the weather wasn\u2019t great. A couple of others said they were waiting it out too. But we felt good, and Liz had eaten her \u201csummit day apple\u201d, that she had carried with her for the last 7 days, for breakfast, so we headed out for John Gardner Pass. We were moving really quickly, in the zone to get over the pass, and not ones to spend more time than necessary in the cold and rain. We passed two larger groups of trekkers as we made our way through the woods, and all the other people who had been in front of us. It was now raining quite a bit again. As we reached treeline we were feeling good and we could still see the trail in spite of the rain turning to snow. That was our rule for the pass, \u201cIf you can\u2019t see the trail from treeline turn back.\u201d We can see the trail, we\u2019re feeling good and we\u2019re moving quickly, we\u2019ll be on the summit in no time!<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Torres<\/a><\/p>\n

Above treeline the wind really starts to pick up. The snow is now blowing directly into our face. As the snow continues to dump and starts to stick in places, we realize most of the trail markers are spray-painted rocks, not an issue, unless they\u2019re covered in snow. We\u2019re now flowing the few cairns and poles that are spread along the trail. This begins to prove difficult as the wind and snow are making it near impossible to look uphill for more than a couple of seconds at a time and searching for the next trail marker is becoming a real challenge. We\u2019ve lost the pep-in-our step we started the morning with and stopped taking pictures because our hands were freezing cold. We\u2019ve now resorted to Liz hanging back at a trail marker while I go uphill looking for the next one then call for her to come up once I find it. We agree that if we don\u2019t make it to the summit in the next 20 minutes, we have to turn back.<\/p>\n

But we knew we were getting close to the top of the pass when the wind started to accumulate the snow in drifts that went up higher than our knees. We fought through the deep snow for the last 50m of the climb, and just as we could see the summit we got a glimpse of blue sky as well.<\/p>\n

At the top the wind is the first thing to give away that we\u2019ve arrived. It\u2019s blowing so hard the snow can hardly stick (which resulted in the deep drifts we just climbed). We see a small rod with a Chilean flag and few other things attached to it we now know were at the top of John Gardner Pass and we\u2019re elated!<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n