News express

Just to let you know that I am alive... I am just coming back from a 3days and three nights trek in Torres del Paine.
I am still in Puerto Natales (Chile) tonight, but I'll hop on the first bus tomorrow to Ushuaia, my last stop in Patagonia!
Pictures to come when I get there... (if I get there...)
So the next posts will be about snow storms, avalanches, heavy rain and cold nights...

Torres del Paine - day 3 - Summer

At last... A day with a really nice weather. We got up at 4am to do the 1 hour climb to the Mirador before sunrise. Unfortnuately, it was a little bit cloudy still, so we did not see the pink color on the Torres, but we still have a nice sunrise. The Torres are really spectacular.
The next picture was taken from the mirador de las Torres (which have very inventive names, such as Torre central, Torre Norte, and Torre Sur...). I particularly like the mirror image in the lake.


We then went back to the camp, packed everything, and made it to the 14.30 bus. Obviously, this last day was like summer, which made it really difficult to leave...

We had been warned that it is quite common to encounter the four seasons within a single day in Torres del Paine... Well, in my experience, it has been four seasons in four days, but this experience was definitely worth it!!!
Oh, and you can't even imagine how good was the shower back in Puerto Natales...

Torres del Paine - day 2 - Spring

At breakfast, there was only one subject of conversation... How damn cold was the night. It was snowing in the morning at the camp. Thank you again to my sleeping bag, I slept non-stop from 9pm to 8am.

This day has been the longest one of all. Mainly because we did not have so much time to do the circuit. We walked about 9 hours (with the bags, this time)... and eventually made it to the last campground around 7pm. The weather was extremely windy, and still a bit cold, but way better than the day before.
The sceneries along the lake are breathtaking.

The base camp is the highest in altitude, which is perfect to get early to the "Mirador de las Torres", the most popular trek in the area (which can be done in one day as well).

For those who were wondering how we made it without water...

Torres del Paine - day 1 - Winter

You may have noticed on the previous pictures, the first night's sky did not look so good for the next day... So indeed, we woke up this morning with a tent absolutely soaked with water (it would not have been so much fun otherwise...). The night was also quite cold, I am glad I had taken my new sleeping bag. After a good hot coffee, we went to the next base camp. Two hours of walkin' in the rain later (singin', not so much), we made it to the second camp. Luckily, we had one hour without rain for lunch, and setting camp.


We then went without the bags for a 6-hour trek up the "Valle del Frances". About 100 vertical meters later, the rain had turned into snow (and obviously I was still wearing shorts, it dries way faster :-) ).


I saw countless avalanches, a couple of them really massive. (the next picture is from Miguel...)

At about 19h, we had a really good dinner (pasta for 4, just like the day before).

Torres del Paine - day 0 - Fall

So, Yesterday, we left El Calafate and arrived in Puerto Natales quite late. We then woke up at 7am this morning to pack a few things, rent some equipment, book bus tickets, buy food... The idea of the next couple days is to do the world famous "W circuit" in Torres del Paine. It is very common to leave with needlessly heavy bags since the weather can change very fast (About 18kgs each, for three nights, without water).
At 14.30, we took the bus to the entrance of the park, and at 17h30, a catamaran to the first base camp.

After having set camp, we went to the mirador of glaciar Grey. The weather was very Fall-like. Big clouds, but not really raining... yet.


We came back to the camp at 22h, cooked, had a glass of wine and went to bed (then I realized that the tent was not more than 1m80 long)...