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!!