Hiking enthusiasts come from around the world to trek the remote Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine) national park; a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve listed in National Geographic's 50 places to visit in your lifetime for its almost mythical natural beauty.Despite infamous unpredictable Patagonian weather, patient visitors are rewarded with lasting memories of surreal mountain vistas with hanging glaciers and ice-falls, deep rocky gullies, tranquil glacial lakes, unique wildlife in ancient Magellenic forest and most famously the Towers of Paine themselves; monolithic spires of pink granite which attract the worlds best rock-climbers.
Planning to undertake the 9+ day trek self-sufficiently, Geoff, Etiennette, Nicole and I spent days prior preparing light-weight, high-energy foods. Too little could be costly in an unfortunate situation however too much would add unnecessary burden to our already heavy backpacks, complete with tents, mats, stove, pots, cutlery, fuel, warm clothes and drinking water.
On entering the park from Puerto Natales, we first witnessed the majestic stone towers partially enveloped in thick swirling cloud and I had my doubts for the civility of the weather for the rest of the day. Regardless, Nicole and I wanted to warm our muscles up before climbing the slopes so walked an additional scenic 25km alongside crystal-clear glacial Lake Laguna into the park, which Geoff and ET skipped. Although we snapped many great photos, the weather later turned to heavy, relentless rain which left us a day behind our friends, who pressed on through thick snow into the ´Valley de Frances´ on Day 2, whilst we attempted to dry out all our equipment (which had been soaked through despite extensive use of plastic bag wrappings in our packs).
I reminded Nicole who had never done a multi-day hike, that "what you live through only makes you stronger" and ironically, despite remaining positively pesamistic for days after, the weather generally cleared up for some brilliant hiking, including our planned 2:30am ´by moonlight´ start on Day 7 in an attempt to reach the wind swept base of the Torres themselves before the light of sunrise.
Upon final ascent, after slowly scrambling up a seemingly endless boulderfield in the dark, Nicole was literally down on all fours, hanging on for dear life with a force of wind that could easily knock full-sized adults off their feet; a pretty scary experience by most hiker´s standards which hopefully we caught in some of our photos.
Finally, I should make special mention of some colourful characters we shared a laugh with whilst camping along the way, including the generously helpful wardens at Campsite Italiano, the amusing kitchen staff at Refugio Cosco, many trekkers who offered to lend us their stove for cooking after Geoff and ET left on ahead AND the crazy warden at Campsite Torres who spoke not a word of English but found it amusing to pretend beating Nicole with his stick after initially meeting us whilst mini-wresting during a failed tent-pitch attempt one afternoon ;POn to the ´great indoors´ for a hot shower at last ...
