Date:30.12.08/From Campamento Chileno to Look out of Torres del Paine (means Paine Towers) and back to Campamento Torres/6.4km/2.5hours of walking.
As we knew the weather in Patagonia was totally unpredictable, so we prepared one more spare day to visit the Look out of Torres del Paine in case the weather was bad.
On day 5, we set off in the rain and climbed the 4.9km uphill road to the campsite Torres. All the way up, I just hoped the weather would be good later on and we could have the perfect experience of the first sight of Paine Towers.
As we expected, the weather continued to be windy and rainy, so after setting up the camp, we cooked our lunch in the shelter and then took a nap. At around 5.30pm, I was suddenly woken up by the singing of birds and sunshine which penetrated through the tent.
Struggling through the super warm sleeping bag and climbed out to the icy air, I found the blue sky shown up in the canopy and the edges of the towers were appearing.
So we set off to climb the last 750m of boulders road in order to reach the Look out.
Actually the way up was not too long, but the boulders were really dangerous to climb.
Luckily, the way was well-marked with signs.
After 45mins of really breathtaking climbing, we finally came to the shiny Look out of Torres del Paine. As the sun set behind the towers, they were totally surrounded by a golden lining.
The sunset broke though the vertical granite Torres del Paine.
Totally in shadow of the sunset.
Enjoying the quiet of the towers and the jewel green lake. The water in the lake was super delicious.
Touching by the moving of clouds over the towers.
After spending almost more than 1 hour in the Look out, enjoying the happiness that the incredible nature had given me. I was already very satisfied even if the weather in the next day would be bad and we could not see the sunrise.
And rethinking all the hardship I had during these days of trekking, all the memories became as sweet as the scenery I was enjoying at that moment.
Date:31.12.08/From Campamento Torres to the Look out of Torres del Paine again, then from Torres to Laguna Amarga to take the bus back/21km/From 4am to 1.30pm.
Thinking that I might not be able to watch the sunrise in the Towers, I got up in the cold weather at 4am and found that the sky was clear and I could see the edges of the towers. Once again, we set off in the dark to go up to the boulders road of the Look out.
Surprisingly, I found the second time of climbing was much easier and we only used 35mins to reach the top.
The icy blue towers before sunrise.
Sunrise should be at 5.20am, but the sun only came out after the mountains and cloud at around 6.30am.
The Sun finally came through the cloud.
First, it was Cerro Nido de Condor lit by the sunrise.
Then, it was the North Tower and the Central Tower, but the South Tower was always covered by cloud.
The best moment with the three Towers. The world is never perfect, that's why I it makes my memories sweeter.
Filling with satisfaction and unforgettable memories, we set off to leave Torres del Paine, a wonderful adventurous experience that cannot be exchanged with any treasures.
Date:29.12.08/From Campamento Italiano to Campamento Chileno/21.5km/9.15am to 6pm
Day 4 was the hardest day among all the trekking, but not because of the altitude, steepness or roughness of the road, but because of the Devil wind (I named it as "you know who") I had ever met in my life.
The lovely weather continued on day 4, on the contrary of the cold and rainy in day 1 and 2, we had a clear sky and sunny weather. First, we used 2hours to trek with all our gear from Campamento Italiano to Campamento Los Cuernos, took a rest and then continue to another 11km.
Good weather on day 4.
With the good weather, we could see the on our right hand side, the Lago Nordenskjold, and our left hand side, the Cuernos del Paine and Monte Almirante Nleto.
The shore of Lago Nordenskjold.
Lago Nordenskjold.
Encounter the "chocolate cake" again.
Our first test was to cross many medium width to big river. And this big and rough river really made my legs shaking when I crossed it. And my shoes were totally soaked.
After crossing this river, all the other small rivers became nothing in my eyes.
You could do horse riding if you don't want to walk such a long distance.
My second last picture taken before the figthing with "you know who".
After 5hours of up and down walking, we were exposed to the windy area between Monte Almirante Nleto and Lago Nordenskjold. At first, we didnt find it is too difficult, just the wind would really blow my head off and there was not much trees and plants on the road.
Then when I was pushed forcefully by the wind from the back down the slope just like a sailing boat and fell down uncontrollablely, I realized that the wind was not joking to us.
When we walked further, the wind started to get stronger and stronger, and we began to stop walking when the wind was blowing crazily. Later, we even needed to knee down in order not to blow away by wind. It is really not joking, but I flew forward a few steps and rolled over my friend when the wind suddenly ascended its speed.
Finally we walked close to some brushes, and the wind turned quiet, I thought it was the end of the windy area. But then I knew it was just the start of another misery. We met two trekkers in the bushes who were coming from the opposite side, they warned us there was severe wind near the small lake, so we took the advice very seriously and prepared to fight with the wind.
At first, it was quiet, so we RAN, because we knew we would not able to move an inch when the wind started again.
And it was true, because after 5 seconds of running, we heard the wind roaring from behind and we could see the mist arose on the surface of the lake amid the slapping of the strong wind. We kneed down immediately, but found that it was not sufficient to save ourselves from the wind, so the only way we could do was lying down on the ground totally and pushed ourselves downward as much as we could.
I could tell while the wind ascended to its strongest, it was over 100km per hour, which was resemble to the typhoon signal no. 8 in Hong Kong.
When I looked back to the mountain behind, I found it looked like a devil opening its mouth blowing out the air forcefully and his eyes were completely angry. The strangest thing was when I said he was a devil, the wind started to blow severely.
As I was so piss off by the crazy wind, I shouted, "Let dry my shoes!"(as it was totally soaked). And the wind really began to blow strongly instantly and non-stop.
Then I realized this special wind was really devil and I should not joke with him.
So later I kept saying he was "you know who" and begged him let us pass his sphere of power.
I almost risked my life to take this picture during the slapping of the devil wind. Did he look like a devil?
1km for us took us ages to cross, when we finally survived from the "you know who" and came to a small river, I found my face was totally covered by soil, my shirt was filled with small stones and my hands were scratched.
But it was not the end of our trekking, while we were exhausted, we still needed to trek uphill to Campamento Torres to set our camp. After we walked uphill for 500m and saw a campsite, we were too happy to set our camp and then found that it was not Torres, but Campamento Chileno. But as we were too tired, so we decided to move the next day.
When I think about this day and talked about it, I think it was really a funny experience. And after I talked with some trekkers who trek the same route on that day, I found we were "super lucky" to encounter "you know who". As they said they didnt meet any problem on the road and the weather was very good. Only when we talked with those trekkers who trekked in similar hours with us had the same experience. Two big french guys said they also fell down amid the wind and scratched their legs.
Date:28.12.08/From Paine Grande to Mirador of Valle del Frances and back to Campamento Italiano/22.6km/10am to 7pm
As day 3 would be quite a long day, so we set off a little bit earlier and carried our gear to walk 7.6km until the third night campsite, Italiano. Then we set our camp and carried only our cameras, food and water towards the look out of Valle del Frances.
Maybe our God of Travel hears our prayings, or it is because the worst must has its ending, so we finally got the good weather today. And it gave us wonderful scenery of this incredible trail.
Sunshine on the road from Paine Grande to Campamento.
Beside the campsite, it already gave us fantastic view, thanks for the clear sky.
At first, I didnt realize that this day will be a tough trek, then I realized that from Italiano to the Mirador was all the way up, that was from 250m above sea level until 1000m. And the trail was really steep and slippery, so after 3hours of up up up trekking and 2hours of down down trekking, I could hardly move my legs.
But I was very glad that I make it to the Look out, otherwise I could not enjoy such an amazing nature scenery.
Sometimes, we could hear the glacier is cracking down and there was the "snow fall".
The God of Travel was clearing the sky for us.
Sometimes, we needed to cross a big river.
First encounter of the "Chocolate cake". It is the famous Cuernos del Paine (means Paine Horns).
When we arrived the first open area, we could see another jewel-like lake, Lago Nordenskjold at the back.
All trees were reshaped by the Patagonia wind.
We climbed over the snow line, everywhere was covered by snow.
We reached another open area, all the trees were "topless", certainly due to the strong wind.
A feeling of loneliness.
Finally, we reach the Look out, the view was fantastic!
From left to right, Cerro Los Gernelos, Cerro Trono Blanco, Cordiller Paine and Cerro Cabeza del Indio.
Pictures cannot capture the 360 degress of this beautiful scenery, video neither. The best is only in my memory.
Date:27.12.08/From Paine Grande to Mirador of Glaciar Grey and back to Paine Grande/22km/12.30pm to 7.30pm
We put our camp in Paine Grande, and set off lightly towards the look out point of Grey Glacier.
The weather was more of less the same as day 1, rained a lot, sometimes sunshine, sometimes strong wind.
After walking about 2 hours in the rain and came to an open area, I saw some glaciers floating on the Lago Grey.
When we climbed to the top of a windy small hill, the first view of the Glaciar Grey was really breathtaking.
In the national park, everywhere is fresh running water from the glacier. So we were never worried about lack of water to drink and cook.
The rain in the spring Patagonia gives lives to many beautiful flowers.
Way to the look out of the glacier.
Except all the rain and wind on the road, luckily, we were able to have a little bit of sunshine to lit on the snow mountain when we arrived the look out of glacier.
The incrediblely blue and huge Grey Glacier.
When we walked further from the look out, we could even come to the edge of Lago Grey and touch the glaicer which had fallen apart from the main body.
The feeling was super refresh, and I could only touch it for a few second as my hands were totally freezing.
For the past 6days and 5nights, I spent my time in the toughest trekking I ever had in Torres del Paine in Chile. It is such un forgettable experience that I want to share at once.
We did the trekking route from west to east, from day 2 onwards, which is the route people usually called "The W".
Date:26.12.08/From Administrativa to Acampa Paine Grande/17.5km/
12.30pm to 7.30pm
The beautiful seaside of the city, Puerto Natales, Chile.
We took the bus from Puerto Natales to the National Park of Torres del Paine. The weather was so cloudy and when our bus entered the Park, it was raining. I was quite disapointed, but I believed that good weather would be coming after bad days.
Once arrived the administrativa, we waited for half an hour for the rain to get lighter, then we set off to our first night camping site, Paine Grande.
Although the weather was not perfect, I was still excited by the fact that I had started the trekking in Torres del Paine and could be once again, enjoyed the wonders of nature.
Walking in the wild, I could only hear the wind roaring and the wild birds flying.
As the other trekkers usually pay 11000CP(chileno pesos, about 17USD) for a 30mins boat trip to reach Paine Grande, and I am the kind of backpackers who want to save every penny if I can. So I chose to walked 7hours to reach the camp site while enjoying the scenery, rather than pay for the boat. And we didnt meet a lot of trekkers on the road.
The trekking of Day 1 was easy, while enjoying the greenery and singing of birds, we also encountered the amazing invisble hand of nature, which shape all the trees into fantastic artpieces.
Every tree which was reshaped by the strong Patagonia wind was a piece of sculpture.
Sometimes, I found some beautiful flowers survived in the Patagonia environment under the shelters of broken trees.
After a continuous raining, sunshine, raining condition, when we reached the Lago Pehoe, which was not so far from the campsite, we encountered the most beautiful rainbow on this jewel-like lake.
This was definitely the highlight of our first day.
Paine Grande, the campsite of first night, which is situated besides the beautiful Lago Pehoe and in front of the snow mountains.
