Cerro Castillo Gap Spring Trek

Written by: Sara

Dear Cerro Castillo National Park,

Somewhere in Chilean Patagonia while I was backpacking and camping with my friends, you taught me things. The type of knowledge that goes beyond academics made me grow as a student, leader, and human. Between all the ineffable landscapes and long days of hiking, I found a piece of myself. This may have been at the top of the mountain in front of El Cerro Castillo, during my solo time in the woods, maybe even during the family meeting (community meeting) or check-ins with my advisor, possibly in all those moments.   

When we arrived there on March 28th, I was worried about the physical challenge. For this reason, I did not give myself a chance to think about the many positive factors that this experience would bring to me as well. A lot of things happened, but the most remarkable one was my first time seeing snow. It was during the 4th day of the expedition; Diana was the LOD. We woke up at 3 a.m. and started packing our things to leave for a big hike day. Our group left the camp at 4:50am, 10 minutes before our goal. It was cold and the trail was hard and steep, but I didn’t even realize because my friends were keeping a good vibe out there, and my instructor was telling us about the movie “Mean Girls” (what a good moment). 

A couple hours later, the sunrise started while we went up the hill. I was really tired, but Rowan and I were singing broken clocks by SZA, which kept me happy. A few songs later, someone at the top of the hill said that there was snow and that I would finally see it. When I arrived there, I saw a little space with a bunch of hard snow. It was really cool; we took a lot of photographs there, but I did not expect that some feet ahead the whole ground was covered with it. This part was fun; I was walking and sliding on ice, which was definitely my high point of that day.

It was only one of the amazing days that we had there. This chapter of our trip was about being strong, vulnerable, and living great things with nature.

Thanks, Cerro Castillo National Park; it was incredible to live it all with you.