Hiking Torres del Paine: Day 4

Despite an uncomfortable night's sleep on the platform, we had some energy on the fourth day, which was probably due to the happy little fact that we were almost done.

This is how much energy...

That picture was taken near the beginning of the day. We didn't look like that at the end of the trail... Day 4 was our second longest hike.

This is what our path looked like.

After our 11 km hike to Refugio las Torres, we entered a valley and hiked 5 more kilometers to Refugio Chileno. It was a peaceful little spot, with dozens of people leisurely sipping their coffees and relaxing by the water. We resisted the urge to stop for the night.

Instead, we gathered up our energy to continue to Campamiento las Torres, the free campsite in the woods only 45 minutes from the Torres del Paine. Our plan was wake up the next before dawn and see the Torres in the glow of the sunrise, so we wanted to get as close to the Torres as possible to minimize the distance we'd have to cross bleary-eyed and stumbling at 5:45 AM.

This appears to have been the pose of the day.

More scary bridges

We'd arrived, but we decided not to stop here. Since the weather had been so cloudy every morning, we didn't want to wake up at 5:45 AM just to stumble up the mountain to see the Torres del Paine and wind up seeing nothing. We wanted a guaranteed nice view, and the afternoon was clear... so, even though we were tired, we decided to keep moving. We set up our tent, threw down our bags, and started climbing.

The Torres del Paine

[Rachel's note: I'm so glad that we decided to keep going, even though my legs were yelling at us to stop! The hike up was a bit tough, but when we arrived, the mist was lingering over the Torres and it made the whole place look magical.]

When we returned to Campamiento Torres, it was already dark. We gathered around the cooking shelter with friends that we'd met along the trail and prepared our meal. [Rachel's note: He means "meals." Plural. We emptied most of our food out of our packs and ate about four dinners.]

We had an early morning in front of us. Though we saw the Torres, we still wanted to catch it in the soft light of dawn.

The group of us in the cooking shelter

Mush is served

-Tom