Patagonia Trip Day 8, Feb 29th, 2008

Torres reprise, manic weather, and a speedy finish to the "W"...

2:24pm, Hosteria Torres, TDP

It got hot overnight. When I woke up at 2am, and took off my extra legging layer, I could see some stars out the tent window. Maybe a clear sunrise in store? The camp ranger had said the forecast was for clouds, but maybe we'll be lucky...


6:43pm, on bus nearing the Argentine Border

We get up at 5:15 and I look out the tent window. No stars, and the moon is blurry behind some clouds. Not a good sign. Victor knocks on our tent, and we tell him we're almost ready, and will catch up to them on the trail. We pack all our layers in Wendy's small pack and my detachable fanny pack, expecting wind and cold at the Torres lookout, and start hiking with our headlamps on, up the steep trail. Several specks of light from other hiker's headlamps can be seen ahead up the mountain, and there is plenty of activity in camp. Everyone knows that catching a sunrise at Torres is hyped up as one of the most amazing sights in Patagonia, and almost everyone camping here is making their way to the Mirador.

It definitely helped that we had hiked this trail yesterday afternoon, as finding the trail up the creek, and across the boulders in the dark was a bit difficult. The orange dots painted on the rocks to denote the trail were tough to see, without knowing where to look. Wendy and I traded turns leading. The sky is heavily overcast, and a sunshine does not look favorable, but we continue on, and catch up to Victor and Christine about 2/3rds of the way up. It takes us 45 minutes to reach the top this time, at ~6:30am, and there's already lots of people here, all staring at the clouds that are covering the tops of the Torres peaks.


The scene when we arrive, with 45 minutes til sunrise. As it lightens, the clouds lift more from the peaks...


Victor gets a pic of me taking photos with my tripod...

I've seen mornings like this clear up for the sun before, and try keep everyone optimistic. We take lots of pics, and I use my tripod in the low light. The skies continue to get more cloudy, and 7:18 rolls by with no morning sun, though it's still pretty with dull blue and green colors in the lake, and random clouds drifting by. We hang out a bit longer, but most people start trickling back down the rocky slope, probably dissapointed at the fruit of their efforts. At least we got to see the Torres with blue skies yesterday. I count 23 people ahead of us going down the mountain.


A wider stitched view...


I used my tripod for a few group pics...


A look at the other hikers admiring the less than stellar views of Torres (I had hiked uphill a bit further to clear from the crowds). It started getting more cloudy, at which point everyone knew there would be no chance of morning light, and began heading back...


A look down the boulder field at the masses descending back to camp...

We take the familiar path back to camp. Wendy is a natural at boulder hopping and moves quickly down the rock field. I should invite her on some 14er hikes this year in CO. Back at camp, Wendy cleans out the tent while I cook up our breakfasts. We eat, break down the tent and ready our packs, all in a hurry to maximize the time left we have here for one last side quest. We take the light backpack and head towards Campo Japonese, further up the trail, hoping for views of Silence Valley before we head back down the valley to catch our bus. We begin hiking at 9:15, and the skies turn sunny. The trail continues through the forest past Campo Torres, and enters an open rock field, where we can see sun shining on the Torres peaks (the sun arrived a couple hours too late for us). There are multiple stream crossings, and the trail follows a grey-green stream up the middle of the valley. It's a fairly flat slope.


Another shot of our tent spot nuzzled in the cool forest. A pic of the camp rangers hut (the bathroom was on the back of the sharp peaked hut...


Wendy refills our water bottle from the black hose at camp for our morning hike. Shortly after we begin the hike, we see the tips of Torres in clear view with some sun...


A look up from a rock field we crossed. A balance beam stream crossing among the rocks...


Those cool trees with the moss...

Not too many views, but the forest is very pretty. Man, Wendy is fast! I'm going full speed and she's always a short ways behind. We reach the pretty blah looking Campo Japonese in 48 minutes, and talk to some people we meet there. They say the lookout is 2hrs further, which is a bummer, cause we have to be back for the bus. We decide to continue further a short ways, in case we can get any partial views of the peaks ahead, and climb ~350' up a very steep trail. Unfortunately, the only view we get is of the 1000+ feet more of rock slope ahead, and so we turn back and return to Campo Torres. The clouds have settled back in now.


Lots of bending crazy cool trees in this area. We see a bird sitting on a rock in the stream. The water itself had a green tint to it...


Plenty of greenery on the last day of February. Campo Japonese has a makeshift shelter out of tarps. This camp is supposed to be for "climber's only"...


More bendy trees in the sunlight...


Our side quest this morning didn't yield any lookouts, but the forest walk was pleasant...


The sun hid behind the clouds again. This tree grew horizontally along the ground. Wendy crosses the balance beam again on the way back...


Cairns marked the trail across the rock fields. A small stream crossing near the end of our return hike...


One last pic of the forest, back near camp...

We grab our already packed bags that we had left at our tent site, and begin the hike out at 11:30am. The camp is very empty already, and we see Victor's and Christine's tent is gone. It starts drizzling as we speed hike to Refugio Chileno in just 40 minutes. As we near the hut, the rain pics up. Wendy decides to keep moving ahead, as she's in the zone and doesn't want to stop at Chileno. I cross the bridge to Chileno and dump our garbage (can't miss an opportunity to lighten the load, as Campo Torres had no bins). I see V & C sitting inside the refugio, as I run by the windows, and wave. I motion that we're hiking on. The wind and rain are increasing now, and it's no longer the light drizzle that we've been used to throughout the trip so far. The question is will it get worse or better? V & C will probably wait it out a bit, but Wendy is already 10-15 minutes ahead, so I gotta keep moving. Had we known the others would have been at Chileno, we definintely would have stopped to hike back with them.

I still wear just my single Icebreaker merino wool layer (BTW, merino wool is unbelievably INCREDIBLE-- after wearing it for 6 days in a row it's still soft, warm, breathable, and doesn't stink), and most everyone else has their full rain gear on. It's getting colder and windier, as I climb up to the crest of the trail, but I'm still warm with the one layer if I keep moving. The trek is only a couple hours from being over, and I don't care much about getting stuff wet now. That is, except for my camera, which is protected in my right side pocket, since the wind is blowing rain into the left side of me.

I see a small blue Wendy dot way ahead, and am stuck behind a slow moving group of 8 people. Eventually I run past them on a wide gravel section, and power walk up the slopes to catch Wendy. The wind is fierce and cold, and we are near the crest. I finally get my rain jacket out and put the hood over my head, leaving the body to lay over my packpack. My camera still feels dry in my pocket, shielded from the wind. My rain jacket repeatedly blows off my pack and flaps around my neck which is annoying.


You can see the rain falling on the left side of the pic, if you look closely. The wind peaked as we reached the high point of the trail...

We reach the crest at what seems like the peak of this isolated storm, while down the valley, the sun is shining. But here the wind is whipping the light rain hard at us. We keep moving, and I snack on some twizzlers in my other pocket. As we start the descent towards Hosteria Refugio (2hr sign from the crest) the wind eases up, and the rain gradually stops. The ground is wet and muddy. We see some horses coming up the trail, loaded with supplies for Chileno (and potentially offering rides back for paying customers?), and we stand clear to make way. Wendy and I have been blazing down the trail, and I still can't believe how fast she is, as she's always just behind, while I'm at full speed.


A black rider!?! Just one rider leads these five horses. A couple had bags strapped to them, and two were empty. Perhaps some people will be riding back on them...

We jog lots of downhill sections early on, but it's all wet descending trail for a couple miles, and our knees get drained, so we take it at a walk most of the way. The sun comes out, but I can't find any rainbows. Soon Hosteria Torres is in view! The long descent is almost over! We take our time, snapping pics in the sunlight, and appreciate the views during our last minutes on the W trek.


Finally the ground levels off and we reach the last stretch of the hike. We see horses in the distance and know civilation is near..


A look back. The valley we descended is on the right...


After the final bridge, we were just 1/4th mile from the end. A close-up look at the glacier on the near peak...


Another look at the river and mountain...


Last steps for both of us on our Torres Del Paine trek...

The skies are clear and beautiful as we arrive at the end of the trail. It's 1:30pm, just less than 2hrs since we left Campo Torres! Wow, great speed! There's a small mini-mart located just past the trailhead, which we go check out. They have a small selection of wines, toiletries, ice cream, food, snacks, fuel, and camera supplies, at fairly reasonable prices. Impressive. We walk to Hosteria Torres, and find it to be a 4 star hotel. It's way fancy, and we're gross after 6 days in the wilderness. It feels alien to be there, and we head back to the trailhead to wait for Victor and Christine.


Some victory pics of us at the trailhead...

We watch a shuttle bus come, and load up several waiting hikers, and depart. We'll be taking that bus later when V & C arrive. It's 1000 pesos ($2), and will take us to the major bus station where we'll get our ride back to El Calafate. In the meantime we eat some hummus for lunch on the grass. The mosquitos are annoying, but soon the wind picks up, and we are free on them.

Victor and Christine arrive at 2:30pm, and we congratulate them on a triumphant trek. We then wait for the next shuttle bus, which I had heard runs "regularly". After 50 minutes of waiting (and chatting about our successful adventures), there is no bus, the wind has been increasing, the temperature has been dropping, and we see a big rain cloud coming from the valley we had just come from. Horizontal rain begins hitting us, so we move behind the mini-mart to wait it out. Everything is now clouded over, and it's cold. I run inside the store and ask when the next bus is, "4pm". So we just have to wait it out for another 35 minutes, and stay huddled behind the store...


Wendy points out the see-through window in a 2000 Chilean peso bill (our shuttle bus money). Man, we were getting a strong taste of Torres del Paine's changing weather. It alternated from sunny to stormy several times...

The weather finally relents and starts to clear. The bus comes, and we load our packs in the trailer and hop on board, ready for our ride to Laguna Armaga. The skies continue to clear, and during the 20 minute bus ride, we have fine views of the Torres. Just before Laguna Amarga, we reach a very skinny bridge and the bus stops. Everyone gets off and walks across, later followed by the bus (must be a maximum weight limit?). This gives us an awesome opportunity to take some pics of TDP! The Torres are cloud free now too!


Some great pics of the Torres we had visited earlier this morning, now all clear. Certainly impressive towers...


I was surprised we had to all get out and walk across the bridge, but it resulted in a great photo op to capture these pics of the Torres. The bus follows...


A look at the Torres from Laguna Amarga before we get on the bus back to El Calafate...

We get back on the bus for the final couple minutes of the transfer, and immediately upon exiting the bus, we hear a guy shouting "El Calafate". Our bus driver got our attention, and we transferred our packs into the new bus, and leave in a few minutes. On the ride out of the park we see more guanacos and more awesome views of the Torres.


A look at Torres del Paine as our bus heads to Argentina. Some clouds started gathering over the Torres peaks again. The bus stopped for us to take some pics of a guanaco herd...

We stop at a small town on the border of Chile/Argentina and we all buy hamburgers or sandwiches for dinner with our remaining Chile pesos. There's confusion afterwards, as a second bus is used to bring us across the border, while our bags travel separately. Apparently this is a convenient work around that gets us through customs faster, and this time the border crossing is a breeze. Just a quick few minutes at the Chilean border station, and then we don't even have to leave the bus at the Argentine station as our bus driver collects the passports and gets them stamped for us. Once past the border, we switch buses, join our bags, and have the long 3.5hr ride back to El Calafate.


Eating burgers and sandwiches at the border crossing cafe. A look at some houses from the town...


The sun sets at a gas station stop near the border, setting the clouds pink...

Tomorrow we have a big bus tour of the Perito Moreno Glacier, with a boat ride, and we'll need to re-stock for El Chalten in the evening. I'm hoping to persuade Wendy to do another 3 night backpacking trip there.

Chile is now history. Sad to leave, but fortunately there is still more adventure in store. Wendy rocks at backpacking, hiking, and rock scrambling, and is fast! I gotta get her on some 14ers...


Taken from tomorrow's 8:42am log in El Calafate...

We all drone out to Spanish easy listening on the bus radio during the ride back to El Calafate. All of a sudden it's 11:30pm and we're entering town. The bus drops us off at our hostel, and we check in at the desk. Room #9 this time, a couple doors further from the bathrooms. We empty our packs, and take long hot showers. This feels like familiar territory, even though we were here for just one quick night 7 days ago, and it will be nice to stay in the same place 2 nights in a row, without having to pack up all our gear the next morning.

We prep a day bag for the 8am glacier tour tomorrow. I didn't even need my 3rd camera battery until the bus ride back, but still get started charging some empty ones. We inquire about a boxed lunch for tomorrow (need to let the cafe know ASAP tomorrow), and I send a quick email out to family before bed.

Feels like I'm very clean for the first time in a long time.

Distance hiked: ~11.4 miles

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