Jan 14 - Torres del Paine
So we actually managed to get on the trail at about 3:45am. Anybody can hike to Torres del Paine, but we thought it might be more challenging to try in the dark. With a hangover.
We managed to make it to the base of this giant rock mountain, which it turned out we had to climb. Although at some point, we managed to lose the trail, which is probably Casey's fault as he was in the lead. So instead of going across the rock mountain to the look out, we went over the top. Much higher and farther than we needed to. We eventually came out at the other end of the lake. To give you an idea of how far away we were, there are actually people standing at the other end of the lake - we couldn't see them, but could see the flashes from their cameras. That was when we realised we'd gone too far. Not to mention the fact that we'd slightly under-provisioned for the supposed 4 hour hike. A tiny cereal bar each and a big chocolate bar to share.
Here we are hiking back down part of the rock mountain.
So we hiked back around to the main base area. On a positive note, our extra "efforts" got us a few pictures of what most people don't. And as there were some low clouds, we didn't actually miss the sunrise as there wasn't one, and we were at the main base when the sun finally came out from behind the clouds.
So after a brief photo session at the look out, we took our broken bodies back down the mountain.
We got back to the campsite around 10:30am - after about 6.5 hours of some of the more difficult hiking of the entire trip. We then had lunch, packed up, and headed down to the camp at the base (another 6 or so km away) to try to find a transfer to the park entrance and catch our bus to El Calafate in Argentina. We made it in time, but unfortunately the bus was full so we had to hang around for another 24 hours as the bus only runs once a day. But I don't think anybody was complaining as we all needed the break.
A relaxing dinner at the bottom.
We managed to make it to the base of this giant rock mountain, which it turned out we had to climb. Although at some point, we managed to lose the trail, which is probably Casey's fault as he was in the lead. So instead of going across the rock mountain to the look out, we went over the top. Much higher and farther than we needed to. We eventually came out at the other end of the lake. To give you an idea of how far away we were, there are actually people standing at the other end of the lake - we couldn't see them, but could see the flashes from their cameras. That was when we realised we'd gone too far. Not to mention the fact that we'd slightly under-provisioned for the supposed 4 hour hike. A tiny cereal bar each and a big chocolate bar to share.
Here we are hiking back down part of the rock mountain.
So we hiked back around to the main base area. On a positive note, our extra "efforts" got us a few pictures of what most people don't. And as there were some low clouds, we didn't actually miss the sunrise as there wasn't one, and we were at the main base when the sun finally came out from behind the clouds.
So after a brief photo session at the look out, we took our broken bodies back down the mountain.
We got back to the campsite around 10:30am - after about 6.5 hours of some of the more difficult hiking of the entire trip. We then had lunch, packed up, and headed down to the camp at the base (another 6 or so km away) to try to find a transfer to the park entrance and catch our bus to El Calafate in Argentina. We made it in time, but unfortunately the bus was full so we had to hang around for another 24 hours as the bus only runs once a day. But I don't think anybody was complaining as we all needed the break.
A relaxing dinner at the bottom.
posted by Tanis & Casey at 11:27 AM
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