December 30, 1999
Day 69 Torres del Paine: hike to Look out
The whole night our tent is shaken by the wind while rain pelts the sides. But when we wake up this morning there are blue patches of sky in between the clouds, and it is dry.
We pack our daypack with water, lunch and our rain jackets and Patrick has his camera bag. Today we want to hike to the Torres lookout, hike of about 20 km. We walk past the hosteria and follow a clear dirt track to ta river valley behind.
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There we cross the mountain stream on an old suspension bridge and head steeply up the westside of the valley. The trail climbs to high above the river which has carved itself into a narrow steep canyon in the black rock.
After about an hour we reach a highpoint from where our trail gradually descends along a wide scree hill. In the distance we can see the Refugio Torres, a mountain hut where overnight backpackers can eat and spent the night. We drop in to enjoy a hot cup of chocolate milk.
A strong cold wind is blowing down the valley as we continue up along the river. For about an hour we gradually climb, sometimes crossing side streams on steppingstones. Then the trail abruptly turns left, up a long steep hill full of big and small granite rocks. High above it the towers that give Torres del Pain its name.
We scramble from one red dot marker to the next, sometimes losing the unclear trail but the only way is up from here. About 45 minutes later we reach the crest of this enormous scree hill. We are at about 900 meters altitude, below us is a windswept green glacial lake high above us the highest tower reaches 2850 meters.
It's hard to grasp the scale of all this. We find a sheltered spot and eat our lunch. Patrick hikes down to the lake for some different angle shots. All in all we spend about an hour at this magnificent spot, waiting for clouds to part and the sun to throw light over the pink granite towers.
The hike back takes about 3 hours neither of us feels like cooking, so we eat crackers and cheese for dinner.
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