Los Torres del Paine

Monday, Mar 17 – Day 91

Paine is a native Indian word for the color blue, and the Torres del Paine are three “towers” that shoot up from 2,600 to 2,800 meters in elevation, or about 8,700 feet. At the feet of the torres is a small lake that is fed from the glacier melt. Late in the summer, if you have a clear sunrise, the torres can take on a beautiful red glow. This is what everyone is hoping to catch, and is why you hike uphill for 10 hours the day before. But the campground is still an hour’s hike from the torres, and the Valle de Asencio trail finishes with another huge elevation gain up a pile of furniture-sized boulders.

The advice we got from the “rock talk” was to leave camp about 1 ½ hours before sunrise, and to take our sleeping bags, mats, stove, breakfast food and some dry clothes up to the viewpoint. It’s cold, cold, cold up there, and most people finish in a sweat from the climb. The sweat then freezes, and after a few minutes of standing around, they get too cold and have to come down. With our strategy, we can change into dry clothes, keep warm, have a hot breakfast, and stay up at the top for a couple of hours.

And the advice was dead on. While the sky was clear at the campsite this morning, it was cloudy and snowing from the viewpoint. Add in a 40 to 50 mph wind gust every now and then, and most people were only able to stay for a few minutes and didn’t get a good look at the torres. Once at the top, I changed into my dry shirt, leaned up against a nice rock and had a hot cup of coffee and some soup. Over the next hour or so, the skies cleared and we were able to get some nice views, though it was too late in the morning to get the color.

After returning to break the camp site, it was another 3 ½ hour hike back town to Refugio Torres (not to be confused with the campamento that we just left). This is supposed to be a short day because we started very early, and tomorrow is the big 20-mile day; 10 to 12 hours of hiking with all our gear. On the way down, we got to experience what is known as being “slapped by the hand of God”. Every now and then, 60 to 80 mph bursts of wind can blow through the valley and literally knock you over. Apparently, several hikers have died from being blown off some of the steeper trails here. The last picture posted here is part of the trail we did today. You can’t really tell from the picture, but it’s incredibly steep here and this trail is just made up of loose sand. If you slip and fall, you will roll 1,000’s of feet down to the bottom with no chance to catch yourself.

Five hours later, upon reaching RefugioTorres, we decide to treat ourselves to a bed, a shower, and a hot meal. Tomorrow’s weather forecast calls for rain, snow, and more wind. After a couple of beers and 2 bottles of wine with dinner, we begin to re-think our plan.