set up camp at Refugio y Campamento Las Torres
hike to Mirador Las Torres
hike back to camp
cook dinner
what ended up happening:
got to camp
realized we lost keelin, who had somehow wandered off with our 3 friends we ran into who weren't camping at the same place as us
realized we couldn't set up camp because she had the tent
spent the next hour trying to find keelin
end up having to chase after keelin from a distance because we saw her and the others walking farther away from us
*while all this was happening natalie and rapha were trying to solve our cocinilla (mini gas stove top) situation *essential to cooking all our pasta dinners*, which we no longer had since the airline reprimanded us for trying to take it on the plane earlier in our trip*
looking back, this could have been a potentially very bad situation, considering that:
1. we could have lost a group member
2. we would have lost a tent with that group member
3. we would have had to fit 4 people and 4 huge backpacks in a strictly 2 person tent
however! we started day one of the W around 1:00 pm with 18 km (a little over 11 miles) to go
at Parque Nacional Torres del Paine there are two main circuits taken by hikers:
the "O" - aka "the circuit", but chileans call it the "O". takes about 8-9 days to complete
the "W"- because the trail is in the shape of a W. takes about 4-5 days to complete
we decided to do the W due to time constraints (we only had two weeks to see as much of the south of Chile as possible while there was still nice summer weather), and we started on the east side
the first leg of the hike was unbelievable steep, and uphill, for over an hour. we were so glad we were able to leave all our gear and backpacks at camp otherwise day one probably would have taken us 4 hours longer than it did
the trail was beautiful, past crystal clear rivers, through forests, and over rugged terrain
one definitive characteristic i noticed of all the hikes to the lookouts on the W was that you had really had to work to get to that miraculous view from the top. granted, on the way up you are always surrounded by surreal scenery and landscapes.
for instance, the grand finale of day one is reaching Las Torres ("the towers"), but you don't even see a glimpse of them until 2.5 hours into the trek. and the last hour you are climbing straight up a mountain over boulders and lose dirt until ta da, there they are:
and then i got thirsty...
... and accidentally dropped my designer sunglasses in the lake
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| woops. |
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| natalie and keelin |
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| what we had to climb up/down to get to/from the lake |
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| straight down into the valley. we climbed up this. |
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| the water is so pure throughout the whole park that we drank out of the rivers every day. it was probably the freshest water i've ever tasted |
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| carpintero ("wood pecker"). i was very enthralled watching this guy |
the trek down the mountain was probably harder than the upward climb due to the immense amount of pressure put on the knees. as i would learn the next day, the 2 hour descent pretty much ruined my knees for the next 4 days.
we made it back to camp around 8:00 pm! i was very excited to see this bridge again because it meant we were only a few minutes from our tent and FOOD
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| lots of pretty horses :) |
back at camp we were lucky to find someone who let us borrow their cocinilla. pasta time!
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| the sun setting at camp. we pretty much had to cook in the dark that night because we returned to camp so late, but soon passed out after an exhausting day. but not before my friends got a kick out of saying "night mere" |
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