Torres del Paine

I guess I never really knew what hiking was all about. I´ve gone on day walks but never had to carry around a tent, duvet, food, and stuff for 4 days...and that´s the short version of the trek (the ´W´) in the famous Torres del Paine park in Patagonia, Chile. Torres means towers for all of you non-spanish speakers... The park consists indeed of huge granit towers with black granit tops...quite unique, especially if you can catch a sunrise when all the rocks turn orange-pink...but that´s probably twice a year, if you´re lucky! The park is apparently a ´must´ for avid hikers who go around the whole circuit for 8 to 10 days. J and I figured 4 days would give us a good feel of the place...plus we didn´t have all the special hiking gear (ie: clothes that dry super fast, light rain coats, etc..)... we used trash bags to protect our packs... i think we probably got some funny knicknames, but never heard them to our face...only though each time we talked to someone they said they had noticed us...hehe. The park is quite tricky...the weather changes all the time...4 seasons in day! We got rain the first two nights...which didn´t stop us from hiking or anything, but just made the nights a little less restful. Add that to the fatigue of carrying huge packs around (12kg or so)...let me tell you that we were glad to wrap it up after 4 days...glad but happy to have lived such an experience...seen so many great landscapes and met so many interesting people.

The scenery is so breathtaking....the first day we camped alongside this turquoise lake... the water felt like mercury...viscous almost...we hiked up the first arm of the W toward the Grey glacier... just wao... smalls icebergs were floating in the river leading up to the glacier...the blue ice is so unreal! We hiked for 4 hours but didn´t go all the way to the refuge from where you could see the glacier from the top...quite amazing from the pics we saw...but just as well we didn´t push ourselves considering what laid ahead. Also, even though it´s light out until 11pm, we didn´t want to hike past 8pm...especially with the tempermental weather.

The second day we hiked up the ´French Valley´up to a mirador for some great views of the mountain, but the hike got tricky...tons of rocks which got slippery in the rain...so we headed back...still hiked for a good 6-7hrs. The third day was the hardest...had to carry our big packs for the longest time...a good 6hr30m...with a hill for the last hour that just wouldn´t finish...the views were worth it... but that last hour was a nightmare....it wasn´t all though....we got to camp...set up for the night...and went up to ´the´ mirador to see the towers....another 1hr30 hike up rocks...just rocks...like a huge pile of rocks...what a killer for the legs... but we made it...saw the towers...well, almost all of them... a little cloudy... at the foot of the towers you could see a green lagoon which felt like a crater from another planet....the pure size of it all is mindboggling and makes you feel like a little ant in the world. The last day was just hiking back down to base...with a huge smile on your face as you pass all the hikers going up, sweating and puffing away!

All in all: a really fun adventure.... Jonathan is great to have around...always game for everything...so fun...and so thoughtful. Great bonding! And you definitively want to make sure you go hiking with the right person...just setting up the tent or preparing food on a tiny gas burner could be the source of so many fights!!! But for us it was good old fun all along.