Second day at Ecocamp, epic hike up French Valley, Torres Del Paine NP. Patagonia

Signed up for the French Valley hike on our second day here.  Henry said this is his favorite hike in the Park.  We take an hour bus ride to a ferry where we cross Pehoe Lake to a ridge and campground, where we start off on our 12.5 mile RT, 1600 foot elevation hike to the French Valley.  We had to get back to the ferry by 5 PM, and this was torrid pace.  We took very few break...but very spectacular.  And the creme de le creme was two large, one very large avalanches that we witnessed on the Cerro Grande on the last steep climb to the top.  Truly spectacular..the guides were in awe..so you know it was impressive.  this was a fairly large group as everyone signed up for the same hike..about 16 of us...one of the guys (long man Kurt, from China, then Canada, now Hong Kong, told me later that he was amazed by Brad and me.  I figured out through various talks with people that Brad and I were 20 years older than the next youngest people!  Brad frankly amazed me..I didn't think he would do it, but he and I both kept pace the whole time with the group...this was probably one of the most demanding paces for over 7 hours of hiking that I have done...certainly in a very long time.  But the day was mostly blue sky, very low winds...a rare occurrence in Patagonia!