Chile (February-March 2016):
Dientes, Lagunas, and Turbales de Navarino (Days 3 and 4)
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Day 3: Base of Cerro Bettinelli to Lago Windhond
View toward the north during the ascent of Cerro Bettinelli, with Laguna de los Dientes at the center of the photo.
Maurice and Christian near the summit.
At the summit of Cerro Bettinelli under moderate wind. Lago Windhond is visible at the center of the photo. It is separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land.
Views from Cerro Bettinelli...
...toward the north, with Picacho Diente (1118m) visible in the middle of the photo...
...and toward Valle Windhond (southeast).
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Views from the southern ridge of Cerro Bettinelli at the beginning of the descent toward the south (first two photos) and the west (third photo).
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Further down, view over Lago Windhond, the large lake in the middle of the photo.
Visibility then improved slightly and we were able to see the skyline of islands located south of Navarino.
In the forest above Lago Windhond (left) and colorful foamy secretion from a dead tree (right). Most of the descent in the forest was on steep muddy terrain cluttered by fallen trees. As fertile soil on most of the island is thin, trees develop horizontal roots. This make them easily knocked down by strong winds. On the other hand, they need these winds to grow as they bring much needed nutrients from the sea.
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Views of Lago Windhond during the descent, with the large flat turbal before the lake.
Reaching the river that flows down from Valle Windhond into the lake. Some trees along the river have beautiful foliage.
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The turbal is a 3.5km strip of flat terrain on the left side of the river leading to Lago Windhond. It is made of dense layers of diverse types of spongy vegetation retaining large amounts of water and creating an amazing mosaic of shapes, colors and ponds. I could not resist taking many photos.
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We set up our third camp near the river at the beginning of the turbal. We then walked toward the lake. However, wind became increasingly stronger. We had pitched our tents on relatively soft ground and we were worried that the pegs may not be able to hold the tent. We decided to turn around back to our camp about 700m before reaching the lake.
Day 4: Windhond Turbal to Laguna de los Dientes
We traced back our path of the previous day and returned to the beaver-lake area. We had to climb Cerro Bettinelli again, as there seems to be no other easy route on either side of it.
Back to the beaver lakes.
Views of Cerro Bettinelli and beaver lakes while climbing up toward Laguna de los Dientes.
Laguna de los Dientes dominated by Cerro Gabriel (742m), where we set up our fourth camp.
