Torres del Paine

Day 1. Bus to the park and on catamaran to Lago Pehue. There is a campsite there but the day is really nice so after a late lunch we decide to hike up to a campsite at Lago Grey. We received our map of the park when we paid our entry fees so we knew where we were going. The map didn’t give us the details of the terrain. We hiked uphill for about 3 hours over some pretty rough terrain and with light winds the going wasn’t too bad. The next two hours were pretty much downhill (where it wasn’t going uphill, because there are no flat parts to the trail). We complete a planned three hour walk in 5 hours. Not bad for our first effort and I kept telling Kaye that it would get better (her, not where we walked). Got slapped often for that. We made it in time to go down to the lookout and have our first close look at the glacier, impressive. Made camp that night just before dark, and cooked for ourselves in what can only be described as a rough bit of structure with some tin and old blue poly tarp on it that doubled as a campers kitchen. The wind that night blew our little tent around quite a bit but it stood strong even with the rain belting down.

WOW a #2!%# big glacier

Day 2. We were still dry, surprisingly. The day looked pretty good and we had a plan. We would break camp and hike up two more campsites where we planned to spend two nights before returning. Great plan and it would let us hike up to the pass without our big backpacks and see the view over Grey Glacier. Here we go, here we go, here we go… and then. We had hiked with our full kit for about two hours uphill. We went past the first camp so we knew that we were still on the right track. Well there was only one. Half an hour later the problem was encountered. A ravine about 30m deep with a steep climb down the side we were on. We could see the other side. A steep reach up to a dangling rope which you use to swing about 45 degrees horizontally on and then use to help gain some access to climb up to a steel ladder that goes up for another 20m. To cut the story short, Kaye spat the dummy and clearly indicated to me that she wouldn’t be doing that with her full pack. I clearly indicated back to her that I wasn’t doing it twice and certainly wasn’t carrying her backpack over there for her.

Luck was on her side. A guy coming from the other direction convinced us that the best strategy would be to leave our packs where we were, do the ravine without packs, go up another 20 minutes and see the glacier from a lookout located pretty close. Ok so we had not needed a follow-up day walking pointlessly with our packs. We took heed of the good advice and are still together. Amazing. The view of the glacier was great. We had lunch there, returned to pick up our packs and hiked back to Camp Grey and set up our little tent once more. “Be strong little tent” I whispered to it as I put it up (with Kaye’s help). We decided on the way back to grey that the following day should be a rest day. A declared public holiday from vacationing… yeah I like that. The hike back was all downhill because to get where we did was all uphill.

Day 3. Declared public holiday for vacationing couples. Nice day it was too. Warm and sunny for the most part with a vicious wind that blew coldly off the glacier. Well… you had to be out of the wind to be warm and it was sunny. We caught up on our washing and utilised an empty midday campsite to take hot showers. Needed them after three days. The clothes dried in about 20 minutes. Be strong little tent!

Day 4. I can only imagine that last night was like sleeping in a plastic bag as it gets sucked into a black hole. Howling wind, driving rain, trees being blown about and lumps of ice falling off the glacier with thunderous noises that echoed from across the lake. OK so you really had to be there. We were still alive and dry (at least until we left the tent). Breakfast was a hurried affair and taken in the shanty town kitchen once more. If nothing else it held off some of the rain. We packed up our brave little tent (wet, how much does this thing weigh when wet?) and set off for Lago Pehue, our start point from three days ago. We had met several people over the couple of days we were camped and met some of them again at Pehue where we camped that night. Very quiet by comparison. We had an 80km wind behind us and rain for the whole walk back. Pity for the people walking up to Grey today because that was going to be in their face for three hours at least.