One morning we got up before sunrise (not hard to do in this part of the world at this time of year) and climbed into the little Toyota Yaris we had hired, and drove towards Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. The sun rose just as we were driving into the Park and got our first view of the Torres del Paine, swathed in grey cloud, but still visible.
We decided to just hike up to the viewpoint to see the Torres, as avalanche risk meant we couldn’t do the circuit hike in the park anyway. So we drove over the bridge of doom, and further into the park.
This time of the year was very much low season, and we only saw two other people the whole time we were there – a couple out on the path to Torres del Paine, with overnight backpacks.
We found a carpark, and wandered around til we found a likely trail to start hiking up. The streams we were crossing were full of rocks with little ice rings surrounding them, but were still flowing. As we gained altitude, patches of snow quickly appeared, and we were soon walking on a very snowy trail – becoming thankful that there had been other people around silly enough to come out here in the cold season.
The weather wasn’t looking promising, and the snowy path was getting deeper, and as we reached the Campamento Chileno it started to snow on us. We sat in the shelter of the verandah of the locked hut, and watched the snow and the grey clouds, and wondered whether it would be worth going on – would we even be able to see the Torres? After some food it had stopped snowing, and we decided we may as well keep going, at least for a bit, to see what the path was like – if the weather turned bad again we could always turn back.
We started trying to make quicker time, remembering how little daylight we had down in the far South here. We start slogging up the final hill, a slippery track of snow covering boulders, with big steps up, and of course snow covering everything we can use to balance ourselves or push up on. Between the snow and the pace we’re scrambling up the hill, we’re getting thoroughly soggy. But we finally make it to the top, and see the Torres del Paine, with their pet glacier and lake. Although there’s blue sky behind us, the Torres remain swathed in grey cloud – it seems they like to be atmospheric.
And then we hike out again, and the weather and the colours of Patagonia were beautiful.
