After enjoying breakfast, the driver will pick you up at 09:30 to drive for one hour towards west, admiring mountains change and mountains appear as you move on the winding Park’s main road. You arrive at the pier at Pudeto to take a ferry (catamaran 11:00 am) across the amazingly turquoise Lake Pehoé. The ferry will take you (40 min) to the north shore of the lake, by Lodge Paine Grande where you will later spend the night. After dropping off the luggage at the camp you will hike for 2 hours across easy rolling trail to the mouth of the Valle del Francés (Frenchman’s Valley).

Along the way you will enjoy wide views of the Cuernos (horn-like granite peaks), passing by deep blue Lake Skottsberg and surrounding the south face of the enormous Mount Paine Grande (3.050 mt/10,000 feet), the highest in the Park. You will arrive at Camp Italiano, from where you will start one-hour ascent up the valley above Glaciar Del Francés. On the way up the moraine, the lenga and coigüe (Nothofagus pumilio and N. betuloides) forest around you is shaped by the wind to resemble a Japanese garden.

Once at the lookout the views are amazing with a range of 360 degrees: panoramic views of the lakes below, surrounding granite peaks, and the hanging glaciers of Paine Grande in front of you. There you will enjoy our lunch watching avalanches cascade and condors soar. Your return will be by the same trail to Lodge Paine Grande, where you will have dinner and spend the night.