Yesterday we went on a hike in Villa O’Higgins. Villa O’Higgins is a tiny town at the bottom of the Carretera Austral (which is one of the more famous highways in Chile). The town is tiny, only about a half a mile by a quarter mile. There is a runway on which planes can take off and land, a few restaurants, and a bunch of houses. That’s it.
The hike we went on was to a flag on top of a mountain next to Villa O’Higgins. You could see the flag from the town and it looked like it could be at the end of a trail, so we decided to go for it. We looked at the map and the ranger lady told us we should do the loop around the hill, so that’s what we did. She said it would take us five hours, but all of the other hikes we eight hours or two days, so it was really the only option.
The hike was “medium difficulty” and started with a good few flights of stairs. This got us to an overlook and building shelter thing. After this the path forked into our path and the path we would be coming back on. We thought that the “medium difficulty” hike wouldn’t be so bad, but after about a minute of walking, we took that back.
It was REALLY steep. So steep in fact that there were parts with ropes to hold onto so as not to fall off. It was basically more vertical than horizontal. There were points, and I mean many points, where we thought we weren’t going to be able to do it all, but somehow, we did. We got to the top with broken knees and proud hearts. It was really hard work, but I think we were all very happy (and relieved) that we made it to the top, and in record time. It was supposed to take two hours but we managed to do it in one and a half. We got to the bandera (flag) and were very glad we didn’t have to hike up with a ten foot metal pole.
We decided, as the ranger said, that it would be much too dangerous to go back down the same way, so we chose the less steep way. There were still moments when we had to “butt-scoot”, but it was a whole lot easier than the other way. My knees started hurting really badly from the steep hike, but I know it would’ve been at least ten times more painful if we went back down the way we came up. I think we made about the same amount of time down as we did up, even though it was at least a kilometer longer.
By the time we got to the bottom, we were almost too tired to walk. We decided to go to a restaurant and were even rewarded with two sodas. It was a wonderful hike, but I’m happy to say I will not be doing it ever again.
2 Responses
Audrey, your pictures are amazing and really add depth to your descriptions. You are doing something that I don’t think I could do–hike long, arduous hikes in the mountains. But I feel like I am there with you as you four venture along your way on this amazing trip. Please keep up the stories and great descriptions. After checking the day’s weather forecast, your blog is the next thing that I see every morning.
WOW! The scenery is spectacular, and your descriptions of the physical challenges are cringe-worthy. You guys are TOUGH!