TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK (CHILE)

After experiencing some seriously amazing scenery in Argentinian Patagonia, I crossed the border to Chile in the hope of experiencing more spectacles in the world famous Torres del Paine National Park. Following a day of organisation and rest in Puerto Natales I took an early bus to the park, the weather unfortunately being rather overcast and looking like it might rain on this my first day. One thing that I learned very quickly in the southern regions of Argentina and Chile was that in order to enjoy Patagonia, the weather needed to be almost perfect because otherwise the almost freezing temperatures, rain, snow, sleet and wind make it just about impossible to sruvive, let alone enjoy any of the magnificent scenery. Being so close to the Antarctic, meant the weather was very cold and highly unpredictable however I was very fortunate during my visit to Torres del Paine, especially considering I was there much later than most travellers (late March/early April).

The park served up some more magnificent mountain scenery with many incredible views of one of parks glaciers and more awesome colours in the changing forest foliage as the seasons changed from summer to autumn and onto winter. Having the chance to witness this amazing kaleidoscope of colour made we wonder if taking the risk and travelling to Patagonia during autumn, might be worth it although I later found that other travellers who had visited the park only a few days after me had been met with terrible weather so I guess that I just got lucky !

Each day of the 4 day hike was very different. On the first day I hiked to a vantage point close to the base of the Grey glacier in the north west of the park but had to complete the return leg partially in the dark with the aid of head lamps, my first night hiking experience. That night I froze in my tent, but luckily wasn't feeling too bad the next day where I was treated to some magnificent scenery in the famous 'French Valley'. Fortunately for this part of the hike I was able to drop my backpack (and return to it later) enabling me to enjoy the scenery to a far greater extent. Thankfully I managed a much nicer sleep that night with the aid of a sheltered campsite and a 'thermarest' borrowed from another hiker staying in the nearby refuge.

Day 3 was literally just getting as close as possible to the three 'Torres' and basically involved a hard slog up the mountain for most of the day, with not a great deal of interesting scenery. However, the effort was more than worth it the next day where after a quick hours scramble over boulders I was able to witness a trully breathtaking sunset which changed the colour of the mountain peaks from a dull grey to a brilliant orange. Despite the cold nights and my lack of apetizing food during the hike, I thoroughly enjoyed the 4 days and made some great companions along the way. The scenery was just as impressive as that which I experienced in southern Argentina and with a little luck from the weather gods I enjoyed some trully magnificent sights !

Photo 1: Amazing mountain scenery viewed from the lake crossing on day 1.
Photo 2: Photo depicting the conditions on day 1 - 'fresh' (i.e. cold and windy)
Photos 3-6: Amazing autumnal colours in the tree foliage.
Photo 7: View of the glacier and floating icebergs on the first day.
Photos 8&9: Sunset over the glacier on day 1.
Photoss 10-13: Snow capped mountains in the French Valley.
Photo 14: Myriad of thickly growing trees in the French Valley.
Photos 15&16: 5:00am sunrise at the 'Torres'.