Hiking Torres del Paine: Day 5

Before we fell asleep on Day 4, Tom and I made a deal. He'd wake up an hour before dawn and take a look at the sky. If the sky looked clear, he'd wake me and ask if I wanted to hike an hour up to the base of the Torres to watch the sun rise over the mountains. If it looked cloudy, he'd let me sleep in.

All night, I dreamed of clouds.

Tom woke me up in the middle of the night and said to me, "I can see the stars."

My response: "[unprintable] stars."

"You don't have to come," he said.

I paused for a minute. Tom was going to hike an hour uphill over big rocks and potentially watch a spectacularly beautiful sunrise. If I didn't get up, he'd climb without me. And I'd have to hear about his experience for the rest of my life. 

Climbing a mountain in the middle of the night, looking like a miner

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...

Hiking Torres del Paine: Day 3

Sunset over the lake by our campsite, Refugio Cuernos

Day 3 was our longest hike, eight hours in total. Although the scenery, as exemplified above, made it well worth it, our evening meal left much for want.

Soup, instant mashed potatoes, and lentils. Mmm.

The rain had again assaulted us during the night only to stop around 6 o´clock AM, making for a wet tent, but dry packs and boots.* We kept telling ourselves that if it rained today, we'd be okay because at least we'd been dry for half of our trek. We could muscle through the last half wet. We hoped it wouldn't come to that, but at least we convinced ourselves that it wouldn't be the end of the world. Still, the cloudy skies were ominous as we packed our gear and made our way to the cooking shelter for breakfast.

Breakfast was oatmeal and cappuccinos (again). No Quik today. Our supply was running low.

As this was to be our longest hike, we started walking early. Here is a map of our Day 3 route.

Day 3 route is the purple line

Hiking Torres del Paine: Day 2

No more than an hour after waking up on Day 2, we found ourselves on a rickety wooden bridge overlooking the beautiful Glacier Grey.

If the above photo was a video you'd hear moving water, more wind than even Aeolus could conjure, and not just a few curses from Rachel.

And now let me back up a bit...

This is the trail that we hiked on Day 2. The purple line is our path. Where we finished on Day 2 is actually where we began on Day 1. [Rachel's note: Nothing is worse than hiking for 2 days only to end up exactly where you started.]

It rained through the night, but when we woke up at Refugio Grey there was a lull in the storm so we packed our things quickly to take advantage of the temporarily forgiving weather.

We lugged our gear over to the cooking shelter and fired up the propane burner to boil water for oatmeal and cappuccino packets (with the addition of Nestle Quik). We talked with two young Chileans we'd played cards with the night before, had a few sips of their mate (a very bitter tea best enjoyed in a wooden cup and through a straw), and then left our bags at camp to continue up the ravine to catch a glimpse of Glacier Gray before retreating back the way we'd come.

Hiking Torres del Paine: Pre-Trip and Day 1

This week, we're posting every day about our trek through the Torres del Paine National Park in Southern Chile. Spoiler alert: We lived through it.

The Torres del Paine National Park was a "must-see" for us. Located at the tail end of Chile, the park's scenery is legendary and the 242,242-hectare park is a hiker's paradise. One of the most popular hikes in the park is affectionately referred to as "The W" due to its shape (see the map below). As we traveled throughout Argentina, nearly every traveler we met told us the trek was amazing, terrible, gorgeous, challenging--all at the same time--and yet still definitely worth doing.

Our route the first day was described as fairly easy. We'd start at Lago Pehoe, and walk for about 4-5 hours to the first campsite, following the purple route below. Over the next four days, we'd hike sections of the orange trail.

Day 1 is in purple. The remainder of the "W" is in orange.

Now, I'm not what you'd call an awesome trekker. I like the outdoors when the weather is sunny and warm. I like the cold when I'm bundled up in front of a fireplace, watching the snow fall. My idea of physical activity is a ten-minute jog or an easy dance class. I trip a lot. I have a bum knee. But for some reason, I thought it was a good idea to tackle this 5-day trek at the end of the world in unpredictable (and often cold and wet) weather. Thankfully, we made our way down to Puerto Natales, Chile (the nearest town to the park) so quickly that I didn't even have time to freak out and change my mind until after we already purchased park tickets and rental equipment.