This walk was 22km out and back so it was a solid day, especially for Sam. But the effort was worth it. From our previous posts, you'll see we have done a few good hikes this trip, but this one topped them all even considering the huge numbers of people. Torres del Paine lived up to expectations both visually and in popularity.
The walk starts from Hotel Las Torres on the eastern side of the park and ends at the Mirador Las Torres which is a small lake at the foot of the famous towers. Luckily the impending bad weather held off for another day. We only had a few drops of rain and snow although there was a reasonable cloud cover most of the way.
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| The view from near Hotel Las Torres |
On the way it was interesting passing through two of the park refugos or mountain huts. These are the only places where you are permitted to overnight in the park if you are doing multi day hikes and they are generally well fitted out with restaurants (the food comes up on a horse train), rooms and tents (already set up) with massive prices to boot. A day walk gave us the luxury of the PN (Park Nacional) trekking experience without the cost or complexity of trying to book accommodation controlled by three separate providers and combine it into the one trek. It also helps plan activities around the onset of bad weather.
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| Refugio half way up the mountain - although I didn't have one the beers are still about the same price as an expensive city venue in Oz |
Some pictures of the different parts of the trek.
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| Bridges are for 2 or 3 people only |
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| A very windy traverse |
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| Half way up the mountain |
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| The rock slope below the Mirador - for an idea of scale the large boulder at the top was the size of a house |
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| The Mirador - end of the line |
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| We demolished two amazing pizzas at the Hotel las Torres on the way back |
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