Torres del Paine and the W Trek: The Torres Themselves

Day 4

We still had 2 days of hiking left to get to the Base las Torres viewpoint. On the penultimate day, we found ourselves descending to walk along the shore of the beautifully blue Lake Nordenskold. It rained off and on, and we kept leapfrogging a group of slower hikers who caught up to us whenever we stopped to put on or take off our rain gear. Finally everyone settled on an outfit they were comfortable with- for some this meant getting wet but not overheating, and for others it mean staying dry but a little too hot. We were glad to leave behind out trail companions, who had begun to tease and mock us.

And speaking of leaving people behind, we eventually had to split our group in two- Maya and Matt to the El Chileno campsite, and Briton to the Hotel las Torres campsite. The trail to the El Chileno site wound through a meadow and a grassy region that had become almost too muddy to walk through due to the rain. The last stretch brought us through the appropriately named Windy Pass (that's Windy as in Gusty, not Sinuous- although in fact it was both). A train of horses passed us, bringing supplies to El Chileno, which felt like a nice bit of closure after stepping over horse poop the entire day. 

At El Chileno, it was fully raining and a sign hung outside the check-in area which read, "Don't ask us about the weather- we don't know." When we checked in, they handed us a hammer and a bucket of nails to secure our tent to the wooden platform.

Windy Pass 

On our way through the Windy Pass, we met some friends we'd made on the trail who told us that it was currently snowing at the Torres. The next day we had slightly better luck. The weather was nice and although the Torres were mostly covered in clouds, they did briefly appear (at maybe 75% visibility) while we were there. As we left, the clouds cleared again- but the trail was getting more crowded by the minute, so we left.

The lake at the base of the Torres- the Torres are to the left, covered in cloud

This is about as much of the Torres as we saw- enough for me!

We caught an evening bus back to Puerto Natales, where Karen was waiting for us with a Chilean specialty: take-out sushi!  Instead of raw fish, it features a LOT of cream cheese and (cooked) chicken.  The next day, we killed some time by checking out a cave where the remains of a Milodon (giant sloth) was found.

A replica of what the Milodon looked like.

A section of the cave where it's remains were found.

 For dinner, we indulged in some much-needed FRESH produce at home.