Chilean Patagonia





We
started our adventure in Chilean Patagonian with a day in Puerto
Natalias, the staging area for excursions to the Torres del Paine
National Park. It´s a wind swept port city surrounded by volcanic peaks
topped with snow. Every 10 minutes the weather changes dramatically. One
second it´s sunny, then raining, then windy, then sunny again, then it
starts to snow, then it´s sunny with rain (apparently from the clouds a
dozen miles away). It is definitely apparent how the Patagonian weather
can change instantly without notice.

On
December 5th, we caught a bus into the park, left our big packs at the
Refugio at the trail head and started our four day trek of the route
called the ¨W¨. We hiked up, up, up the valley to a boulder field for
another hour of scrambling up an even steeper section to an amazing view
of the ¨Torres¨, a series of granite towers frosted with snow, looming
above a glacial lake of a shade of turquoise-blue I´ve never seen
before. The shear rock cliffs snagged the passing clouds causing a
smoking chimney effect. At the start of the hike it was cold and a
brutal wind was blowing but the sky cleared and in this boulder strewn
natural amphitheater, we were protected from the wind and sat in the sun
for over an hour just soaking in the views. Eventually we hiked back
down the mountain for a self cooked pasted diner and warm night in the
Refugio.


Los Torres (The Towers)