Torres del Paine, Chile - Day Five, The end is near

Torres del Paine, Chile - January 8, 2011. On Day 5 we finish our trekking adventure and return to 'civilization'. But before we do that, we still need to hike out of the park for 4 hrs to catch the catamaran. (We are taking a different route out of the park than we took to get in.) The catamaran leaves three times daily: at 10:30, 12:30 and 18:30. If we take one at 18:30, we'll only be back in town after 22:00, making for a long day and rendering it impossible to plan our travel for the next day. So we must make it for the 12:30 catamaran. The refugio begins serving breakfast at 7:30. So we figure the earliest we can leave is 8:00. The same hike in the opposite direction took us 4.5 hrs the day before, so if you've done the math, you've figured out the pressure is on to make it in less than 4.5 hrs to avoid missing the boat! Literally!

We hike back on the same trail climbing up and down the same gruelling hills, passing alongside Lake Grey where pieces of glacier still float by. But we take less time to enjoy the views and book it to make the catamaran. After 3.5 hrs we catch glimpses of Lake Pehoe, our destination. We make excellent time and reach the dock after less than 4 hrs of hiking. We have plenty of time to catch the catamaran.

On the ride across the lake, I stare in awe at the valleys, peaks and glaciers that have been our home for the past 5 days. It was a truly amazing experience and I'm so lucky to have been to this truly spectacular part of the earth.

In between these mountains, in the middle of the photo, is the French Valley, which we hiked up and down on Day 3. Also known as "The Big Day".

A closer view of the entrance to the French Valley. We ate our lunch across from this glacier (just left of centre in this photo), watching pieces of the glacier calve off on Day 3.

It's hard to see in the photo where the glacier ends and the clouds begin. But the enormous mountain in the background, on the left of the photo, is almost entirely covered by an equally enormous glacier, Glacier Grey, which we saw on Day 4. Only the peak of the mountain is visible.

Just left of centre, you can see a small finger like shape rising between the other mountains. By my best guess, I believe this is the back side of the Torres del Paine that we visited on Day 1.

A closer view of the back side of the Towers (right smack in the centre of the photo).

Approximate distance travelled: 11 kms
Approximate hiking time: 3:45 hours

Approximate total distance hiked over 5 days: 82 kms!!

Torres del Paine, Chile - Day Four, Overlooking Glacier Grey

Torres del Paine, Chile - January 7, 2011. Day 4 of our hike. By now we are seasoned trekkers. We will hike up to Refugio Grey, overlooking Glacier Grey, where we will spend the night. It is 11 kms away. From there we will hike a little further (without-packs) to get a better view of the glacier, as we've been instructed by those well-informed.

We hit the trail at 8:45 a.m., my blistered feet well-bundled in mole-skin (a life saving tool for any hiker!) after yesterday's big trek. We were motivated to get to the refugio early to snatch up the good beds. The late-comers get the top bunks and we especially wanted to avoid the top of a triple-decker bunk. The trail had a lot of up and down and was not easy with a full pack. We were rewarded by awesome views of huge chunks of broken glacier floating past on the lake.

Yes, my pants are all puffy in this photo because it's very windy.

Seeing the glacier up ahead, we thought we were nearly there. But it looked closer than it actually was, and we still had a long way to go. We reached the refugio at 1:15 p.m., meaning it had taken us 4.5 hrs. Surprisingly, we appeared to be the first ones there, and we were rewarded with our own little room. A tiny room with just one bunk bed.

The refugio was smaller than all the others we had seen, but very cozy and wonderfully situated on the lake over-looking the glacier.

We ate our lunch at the refugio and set out with light packs for a closer view of the glacier. We started our with a trip to the nearby mirador. We clambered over craggly rocks to get a closer view of the glacier.

The views were good. But not good enough. We set out for Campamento Los Guardas, 4 kms away, which promised to overlook the glacier. It was 3:30.

The trail to Los Guardas was uphill and treacherously steep in places. I was amazed at those doing it with full packs.

We reached our destination after 1.5 hrs, and found a stunning viewpoint overlooking the glacier. We were right on top of it, staring into its cracks and crevasses.

I could have sat there for hours. But we had to get back to the refugio for supper. (It doesn't look like it, but it was already 5:30 when these photos were taken. The sun just set so late this far south in January.)

Approximate distance travelled: 19 kms
Approximate hiking time: 7 hours

Side note: The showers back at the refugio that night had only cold water. Or rather, not just cold water, but freezing, glacially cold water. So I waited before taking a shower, hoping the hot water would come back. I saw others emerge from the unimaginable figidness, and was not willing to bite the bullet myself. My dad went for a walk and observed the heating system outside, determining that it was not a matter of waiting for a tank to heat up, as the water was heated on demand, so they must have run out of gas to heat the water. I asked them to check if that was the case, and soon enough we had a new tank of gas and hot water galour! Props to my dad for that!