Which way do I look? (Hiking Torres del Paine)

Just when we thought we had seen the most incredibly gorgeous place in El Chalten, we arrived in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park for a 5 day, 4 night trek on the 'W-trail', aptly named for the trails shape (a very inconvenient letter for a trail, which caused backtracking thrice).  After some uncertainty with the weather and the warmth of our sleeping bags, we attended a prep talk and rented a warmer bag and got psyched for our trek.  The bus picked us up from our hostel in Puerto Natales and took us the two hours to the park where the mountains loomed over the rolling hills from every direction and llamas looked up from grazing to see the bus pass by. The sun dramatically broke through the clouds as the weather was constantly changing on every part of the mountain range.  

Photo by Dave- on the way to Campamento Grey

Photo by Dave

We decided to hike from West to East, so our hike began with an overpriced catamaran trip to the Torre Grande Refugio.  It is impressive how many people come here to hike in this park, although not surprising in the least as it is by far the most beautiful place I've had the opportunity to hike before.  The refugios allow visitors who might not normally come and hike for as long because there were rooms that you could rent, food that could be prepared for you, and a small store to purchase highly inflated items for the days trek.  All was very expensive, but a good option for those who didn't want to camp.  They also rented tents and other camping equipment which for some might be a good option as well, although you don't know if they will run out of equipment, and the next Refugio was on average 4 hours away.  We took all of our own camping gear and food which worked perfectly for us.  

Photo by Dave

Camp site Refugio Los Cuernos

Eating dinner at our camp site at Campamento Italiano

Each days hike provided drastically different, and unbelievable 360 degree views.  We hiked on high cliffs through big boulders next to aqua blue glacier fed lakes.  We hiked through hilly landscapes where the mountains surrounded us.  We hiked through blizzards on ridges where the peaks would suddenly appear as the dark clouds moved past and then would disappear just as quickly.  We hiked next to glaciers where the snow would avalanche sounding like thunder.  We hiked through forests (both alive and dead).  We "hiked" through insane winds (as we found ourselves hanging onto rocks for dear life at parts so not to be blown off the edge down to the enormous lake below).  We hiked up steep, steep, steep mountains, and hiked back down them (did I mention they were steep?).  Overall, it was incredible.

Photo by Dave

Photo by Dave

Photo by Dave

Photo by Dave

Photo by Dave - Getting delicious cold drinking water straight from the glacier fed streams!

One of the main highlights was waking up and hiking for an hour in the dark (yes, I shockingly got up early!) to the Mirador Torre lookout to watch the sunrise over the mountains and illuminate the towers that the park is named after.  We had been advised to take a sleeping bag up to the outlook, which we luckily did as it was freezing cold and the winds were roaring.  We had also made some tea which was soul warming.  What an incredible sight. 

Photo by Dave

Photo by Dave

We are now back in Puerto Natales, clean, doing laundry, and figuring out our next adventure.  It has been painfully difficult whittling down the tons of photographs to the few that we're posting now!