Torres del Paine pt 3

The night at our third camp, Refugio Cuernos, felt like we were in the middle of a tornado. All night long, wind howled at our tent and shook it as if we were in an earthquake. Neither of us got much sleep. When we ate breakfast the next morning, we learned that two friends had a tree branch crash through their tent. They were fine, but their tent was unrepairable. Another couple had a branch sever one of their poles as it cut through their tent. They were fine as well, but also had an unrepairable tent to carry.

Still can see light at 10:45pm

Breakfast on day 4

Day four was going to be the longest day by distance at just under 12 miles. The path was a steady climb up the foothills to Campamento Chile.  After a quick lunch, we set off again up the valley to Campamento Torres which lies about 45 minutes away from the Torres themselves. One of the reasons we hiked the 'W' from west to east is so that we could save the famous Torres for the final fifth day. Some of the best views of the trip were still ahead.

Facing the sporatic rain and heavy wind head on 

Gust of wind racing across the water with a rainbow in tow

The lone boulder

Only one at a time across the bridge

Heavy wind and a smile

Raging river as we get closer to Campamento Torres

Amazing cut through the mountain

Spectacular forest

We made it to our last camp at the doorstep of the Torres. The winds were not letting up, so we picked a spot that provided good cover. There was a mix of campers on their last day, and many on their first day trekking east to west. It was clear who was which. We barely had enough energy to cook our raviolis, and ultimately decided that the sauce wasn't worth the energy to cook so we just added hot sauce. It was very tasty. The guy next to us was working three burners at once. Sausage and beans in one with a homemade sauce in the other and two types of rice in the third. We stared in disbelief as he actually twisted off the top to a personal-size bottle of wine to go with the two-course dinner. We didn't need to ask if it was his first day. We made our way to the tent and prepared for a 4am wake up to see the Torres at sunrise. The plan was to hike 45 minutes up the steep terrain until we reach the lookout point for the towers.

We made it to the top

Waiting for the sun to shine

Breathtaking view 

We made our way down and packed up our gear. It was another three hour hike back down to the shuttle that would take us back to Puerto Natales. As we arrived at the shuttle pickup, we couldn't believe that it was over. We set down our packs, walked into Hotel Las Torres, and ordered a beer. The trek was difficult, but the only memory will be of the unimaginable beauty of the park.

A much needed beer at the finish line

Once we got to Puerto Natales, we dropped off our gear and went back to our hostel. We flew out the next day to Puerto Montt, but not before Shanta finished her celebratory beer at the airport. 

She hiked Torres faster than she finished that beer!

Torres del Paine pt 2

Day 3 started early around 8am. It was a tough night since it was bitter cold. Many times during the night, we heard what we though was thunder. It turns out huge chunks of ice were falling off the mountain and crashing nearby. The sound was deafening but still had us in awe. We started with our usual meal of bread, granola, honey, and coffee that I brought from Colombia. The morning was off to an interesting start as another camper's stove caught on fire and in a panic he kicked the set into a pile of dry leaves. Not the best idea. The park ranger quickly extinguished the flames but gave the camper a harsh scolding. They don't want a repeat of the recent fire that burned over 90 square miles in 2012. The agenda was to hike the middle arm of the 'W' known as the French Valley. We would come back down the valley and continue a short distance to Refugio Cuernos. The nice part was that we didn't have to carry all our gear up the French Valley since we were passing our camp on the way down. The French Valley is an absolutely surreal landscape with waterfalls, lush forests, and towering mountains on all sides.

One of the many streams we passed

Most of the crashing ice came from this mountain

The cordillera

Traversing the forest

Amazing trees

Fearless bird

Bottle refill station

Top of the French Valley in the distance

Another view

Overlooking the valley

Taking a break

Looking down the valley

Getting closer to the bottom

We picked up our packs and headed to Refugio Cuernos

View of the lake

Couldn't believe this exists

Looks like a hot tub before the lake

Again we were wiped after day 3, but the views kept us going. Once we arrived at Los Cuernos, we found a nice restaurant with rooms on the second floor for $100+ per night. Everyone who wanted to hike the trails but did not carry any gear booked these rooms. There is an area for campers to set up their tent next to the refugio so we found a good spot and decided to check out the restaurant. The first person we saw was a man taking up an entire bench in the restaurant to get a foot massage because his room was "too far up the stairs". The price for food was steep so we bought a cheap bottle of wine, played some cards, and went to our tent. On to day 4.

Torres del Paine pt 1

We left Santiago and took a night bus for the southern Lake District town of Puerto Montt. The next day, we flew from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas in the southern Chilean Patagonia. From here, we took a three hour bus to the hiking mecca of Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine National Park. Here's the deal: Torres del Paine is a hiking wonderland that sees around 150,000 visitors a year, 60% of which are foreigners. We had this park in our sights since Colombia, and it was time to conquer it. There are several ways of going about it. You can do a day hike from Puerto Natales, take a two day excursion, do the 5 day 'W', or do the entire loop in 10 days. The bottom line is that it's all up to you; you go at your own pace, without a group or a guide, and simply follow the path. Since we were new to carrying all of our supplies on our backs, we settled on spending 5 days on the 'W' hike.

The 'W' Loop

The idea is that you rent all of your gear: tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, stove, gas, and pots. You bring food for five days including instant soup, pasta, peanut butter, honey, bread, jam, trail mix, nuts, chocolate, water, and medicine. The weather for November is supposed to be good, but in Patagonia, 'good' can turn to miserable in a matter of seconds. The journey began on the left side of the park where we were dropped off by our bus from Puerto Natales. We paid our entrance fee of $38 USD per person and we were off. Instead of starting at the base of the 'W', we decided to do an extra five hour hike to reach the start of the trail.

Here we go

The mountains ahead

Starting the 5 hour connpoint 

Great day to start on

We have to climb those?

Still not at the 'W' 

Interesting color, probably not edible

Trucking along

Almost at the 'W'

Amazing views

Feeding

On the 'W' with ice broken off of Glacier Grey

Glacier Grey

Camp 1

Since we decided to hike the 5 hours to the 'W' then an additional 3.5 hours to the first camp, we were wiped once we arrived. We set up our tent and had shivering spasms from the sheer amount of walking that day. We went to sleep at 9pm and woke up around 8am to start the day again. This time we would backtrack the left leg of the 'W' and continue to the right to the middle point of the trek. It would be 3.5 hours to the start of the leg and an additional 2.5 to the mid point.

More ice from Glacier Grey

Easy hiking

We filled our bottle at each stream, all clean water

Many of the trees on the left side of the W burned in a 2012 fire

Keeping up 

Moving into the forest

Lakes with all shades of blue

Here it is

Refill at a stream

Almost at camp 2

About to swim across

Obligatory couple picture

Our humble abode

The hawk that kept watch over our camp 

Day 2 ended with a considerable amount of soreness and the weather was starting to get colder as well. The sights more than made up for it though.