Good morning Traveler,
Last Friday evening at 5:55pm my heart sank.
"Mimi, We just received an official statement from the Torres del Paine National park informing that the access of visitors to the Base Las Torres and Valle del Frances paths will be temporarily restricted due to the low temperatures and low visibility and the presence of white wind. This is to avoid any accidents in the area.
Park rangers are assigned to the area and will be monitoring and assessing the situation.
Juliana contacted Las Torres to better understand the situation since Jessica and her friend are in the affected area."
Not the message you want to receive when you teenage daughter is in the middle of Patagonia sleeping in tents with no cell reception.
White wind?
What is that?!
In my brain it was Mt. Everest-style winds fiercely blowing about banks of snow, blocking their vision and possibly making them take a wrong turn onto a trail to nowhere.
I immediately did what I could to gather more intel and figure out if there was a way to find out if she was ok. My partner gave me the number to the refugio.
I called.
No answer.
I emailed with various people I knew who reassured me that campers will be provided with extra blankets if needed (that didn't seem like quite enough!). My partner told me their guide would be in the area the next day and they would look for Jessie to make sure she and Siska were ok (that actually gave me a light hearted moment wondering what it would be like to be in the middle of Patagonia and have a stranger walk up to you and say "your mom would like you to call her." Imagine!)
Then I took my own advice that I gave her not even a week earlier as she was preparing to head out on a 3 month adventure with no real structure.
Worry pretends to be necessary. Productive even. But it's not. It accomplishes nothing.
Instead I helped her populate her brain with more helpful thoughts like "I've got this." "No matter what happens I can figure it out."
So I talked myself into not worrying.
I had existing dinner plans with friends that night. I went. I was a little preoccupied so I told them what was going on. But I enjoyed myself and appreciated their company as a distraction. We all agreed she was ok.
18 hours and 11 minutes later at 1:06pm on Saturday afternoon I received a WhatsApp and a very brief conversation followed:
Hi mom it's Jessie!!!! All is well. We just arrived at camp Frances!
Me: You're alive!!! Are you ok? We heard about the weather.
Jessie: Yes! We made it up to hike yesterday before it closed. Left at 3am. All good!
Me: Whoa! Because you knew weather was coming?
Jessie: Nope. Because we wanted sunrise! Okay got to go! Love you all!
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