Torres del Paine

After a day of wandering around Puerto Natales I was able to email a reputable tour company and arrange a day hike to the base of the Torres.  The Torres ("Towers" in English) are three mountain spires that the entire Torres del Paine national park is named after.

My tour guide Laura (or "laa-ooo-rra", which is how she pronounced it) picked me up at 7:30 in the morning.  There were three other people in my group; Audrey a Frenchwoman around my age and a middle aged Brazillian couple.  

The drive out to the park proper took about an hour and a half.  On the way there Laura told us the forecast today was not good.  We can expect to have rain the whole way up and back, with 70km/hr winds.  If it's cloudy, we may not even see the Torres.  Ohh boy...  

Once we got out to the entrance to the park there was already a long line to get our entrance tickets.  Laura took us past the long line to the desk, argued in Spanish with the park attendant and succeeded in getting us our tickets in about 5 minutes.  Honestly, this part and the drive out there was pretty much what I was paying for.  I was told you really don't need a guide on the trail (and you don't), but to have other people arrange my transport and entrance made the money I spent worth it.  Oh, and the forecast posted in the entrance pavilion confirmed Laura's earlier dire predictions.

Once we were through the gate it was another 15 minute drive to where we would start the hike.  There were some very fancy luxury hotels at the base of the hike.  I had looked them up and spending a few nights there would have cost more than my whole trip.  

The van pulled into the parking lot, we got out, looked up, and.... It was beautiful.  A few odd clouds in the sky, hardly any wind and a comfortable 15 degrees Celsius.  People talked a lot about how much of Chile is covered in "microclimates", the idea being that because Chile is so narrow and is bordered by ocean and mountains the weather is very unpredictable.  In this case the microclimate gods were on our side, and had decided to give a big middle finger to the weather forecasters.  Huzzah!

Laura handed out trekking poles, snacks and our lunch.  I had my own trekking poles because I was just that keen.  Laura explained that the first couple kilometers and the last kilometer are the worst bits, and with that slice we were off.  I wondered what the driver did while we were gone.  Maybe he likes to knit.

The climb took us up the west side of the valley, so the whole way up we had brilliant views of the river that carved the valley below us and the opposite side that was covered in a black sand.  Despite what Laura said, Audrey, myself and Laura found the going to be not so hard and we were making good time.  However, we then realized that we were missing the two Brazillians.  Laura went back to fetch them.  Waiting on the Brazillians became a recurring theme, but I didn't mind.  It gave more time to enjoy the vista and take pictures with Dilly, my stuffed green traveling companion. 

Wait, have I mentioned yet that my niece Julia gave me a stuffed, green dog to take with me?  His name is Dilly and he was always by my side.  Well, by my back.  There is a pouch in the top of my daypack that is perfectly Dilly sized.  I'm pretty sure I have more pictures of Dilly than myself this trip.

Anyhow, the trail up was lovely, not too hard, but also CROWDED.  You were never not in the sight line of at least half a dozen strangers.  And the people hiking up were very diverse and unexpected.  Couples with baby carriers, people in their 70s, whole families and people who I would have thought were far too obese to make the climb, but hell, they were doing it.

Half way up, after about two hours, we stopped at Chileno, the first "Refugio".  This is where people doing multi-day treks setup camps before doing day hikes up to the Torres.  It was a very busy place.  They had bathrooms (but no toilet paper - a good note for anyone planning to go up there), showers, a cooking area and a store.  A store that sold beer, by the way.  While we were there we saw a long train of horses pull up, carrying nothing but cases of beer.  I've heard from others that some people party there way all through the W trek.

After our lunch of sandwiches and fruit we took off.  At this point we were walking beside streams that were run off from the glacier that covers most of the Torres del Paine park.  You could take your water bottles and fill them up right from the glacial stream.  And oh boy, when you're hiking hard you have never tasted water as delicious as that.  It's the only water I've had that tastes better than Yellowknife water.

After some more trekking we got to the fabled "last kilometer".  And Laura was not kidding about that being the toughest part.  I do think she was kidding about calling it a kilometer though, because I think it was closer to two or three.  At this point the vegetation is all but gone, the inclination at least doubles and you are now grappling over boulders instead of idly strolling through the forest.

It was the first time I really felt decently challenged on the hike, but it was mitigated because the whole trek up was a traffic jam.  In many places only one person could fit up the trail at once, so you were often standing to the side to let other people by.  And you will be sick of saying "ola" to.  Every.  Single.  Person. You pass.  

Once up there though, the Torres was just around the corner.  I waited at the top for the rest of the group to catch up and then we all proceed in together.  And it really was quite the scene.  There was a glacial lake right in front of the Torres that was such an odd shad of blue.  Kind of like a teal.  I was told that was because of the sediments in the water.  And up there Laura told us the Torres are much younger than the surrounding rock.  The Torres, she said, are only 12 million years old and were pushed up through the surrounding older rock, which is why they were so much lighter than anything around them.  12 million is nothing geologically speaking, so I've been meaning to double check her figures  but haven't got around to it.

I have lots of pictures there, which do much better justice than my words.

After about 45 minutes we headed back down the trial.  And wouldn't you know it, that fabled rain started about 15 minutes before we reached the parking lot and cooled us off very nicely.