The beginnings of a sunrise broke above the horizon just as we scrambled to level ground. We reached our destination on time, and hiked down the hill to find a rock at the small lake's shore. Our unobstructed view of the Torres above us proved astonishing as the first light of the day crept down them, giving them a reddish glow. We sent a silent thanks to Diane for suggesting that we take a sleeping bag with us to shelter ourselves from the wind. But our main thanks was to the weather gods for giving us a day without cloud cover.
The atmosphere in the filled basin was joyous, us all sharing a common struggle and reward. We lingered longer than most, likely because of our extra layers of warm clothing, but finally turned back, our descent slowed by many peeks over our shoulders to see if they still looked as impressive. We made breakfast and packed up our tent, heaved our packs onto our backs and began our walk out.
Subject to the ridiculous bus system in and out of the park, we waited around for nearly two hours before we were able to climb aboard a bus home. We completed our trek by walking from the bus station through town, stopping along the way at three different stores to drop off rental equipment. It was all we could do to coax out muscles out one last time to get groceries for dinner before we trudged up the stairs to our room. We felt jubilant over our accomplishment (and fearful of our 6am alarm), as we stretched out in our twin beds for a well-deserved sleep.
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