Torres del Paine, Chile - Day One! Visiting the famous towers

Torres del Paine, Chile. January 4, 2011. A hike like no other. In an absolutely amazing place near the end of the earth. With the promise of amazing scenery, we set out for five days. I'm hiking with my dad. We've always been a very outdoorsy family, so this should be just up our alley. We've decided to take 'easy way out'; meaning we will be staying in huts, called refugios, and would have our meals prepared for us there. So we do not have to worry about carrying a tent, sleeping bags, food, cooking necessities, etc. That does sound easy right? Well, we still have to carry all our clothing and other personal necessities. It adds up quickly when you have to be prepared for absolutely every kind of weather. We are warned that it is extremely windy and that these winds can turn sunshine into a torrential downpour in a minute. It can even snow in January (i.e. summer)! So we must expect to be wet when trekking and need a dry set of clothes. We also need warm clothes so pack up the hat, gloves, scarf and warm sweater (or two? what if one gets wet?) It's going to rain so rain jacket and rain pants are a must. An extra pair of dry shoes to wear at the hut. And a pair of teva sandals for the dreaded river crossings we've heard about. It all adds up. When I climbed Kili last year, we had porters. So this would be the first time I carry all my stuff on a mutli-day hike. All goes into waterproof sacks and then into my sturdy backpack. I'm ready for the challenge.



Day 1 started with a two hour bus ride to the park. The weather looked clear and sunny. We drove through dry and flat plains. Then in the distance you could see a circular formation of mountains rising up like an immense fortress. From that point of view, this 'castle' appeared to stand alone on this tundra-like landscape, making for an impressive sight. The castle is watched over by the roaming guanaco, a llama-like animal, native to southern Patagonia and nearly hunted to extinction not that long ago, but seemingly thriving now. The moat is a small river, and crossing it means crossing the narrowest of bridges. The van we are riding does not even have rear-view mirrors, as there is literally less than an inch of space on either side. A sign reads: "In bad weather, passengers must exit vehicle before crossing." We have made the journey and arrived inside the fortress...





After checking in at the park, we were ready to start hiking at 11:00, heading towards our first refugio, Refugio Chileno, 5 kms away.



The climb was uphill, as we make our way along green rolling hills. Coming around a bend we faced a strong wind and I hoped I would not loose my hat, or, even more importantly my footing, as we were trekking along a narrow path with a steep drop-off. We reached Chileno at 13:00, got our beds and left our heavy bags, packing only water and a jacket.





After a quick lunch we were off to see the towers for which this park is named: Los Torres del Paine. The towers were 4.2 kms away. The first part of the hike was pretty easy, especially with our now very light packs. The second part was over very steep and rocky terrain. But we made it. The view was jaw dropping. Three huge rock towers pointing at the sky, and below them a lake. We were very lucky that they were not obscured by clouds, as this is often the case, and we took many, many photos.





It was hard to leave such a magnificent place. But eventually, we hiked back down the steep slope and through the forest to have supper and a well deserved sleep at our refugio. It was hard to imagine what could top this first day. We had four more days in this park, after all. Would it be downhill from here? (No pun intended. - And no, it would not be downhill, literally or figuratively! There was still plenty of uphill to go!)

Approximate distance travelled: 10 km
Approximate hiking time: 5.5 hrs