Wilkgo: Torres del Paine 1

I started to upload some photos of our trip to Torres del Paine in Chile in March a couple of weeks ago but never finished or wrote about them. We are now in a chaos of boxes and packing and leave the Falklands on Saturday. Our phone and internet will be cut off tomorrow so no time to write much about them.

We caught a bus up to the park and spent the first afternoon walking about 12km towards the mountains. This is beside the Rio Grey

These are some of the views of the mountains we had that first afternoon. On subsequent days we climbed up valleys into the heart of the mountains below some of the peaks.

This is Lake Pehoe which we camped beside the first night.

Our campsite was behind this refugio.

The next day we walked round the edge of the steep mountains until we reached this valley (Valley Francais) which we then climbed up.

As we ascended we had some excellent views of these peaks - Los Cuernos or the Horns.

We set up camp at this small site that does not have any facilities except a river. It was originally established by some British climbers. Then we walked on up the valley to a viewpoint just below Los Cuernos.

There were some dramatic views in the evening sunshine.
During the night we had snow and rainn so everything was quite muddy when we packed up after another trip to the viewpoint in the morning.

This is a kind of fungus which grows on some of the trees. It causes the big swelling in the trunk and the white fruiting bodies are edible and called Indian bread but I don't think they have much flavour.

As we were walking back down the valley the next day we suddenly heard this incredibly loud roaring sound and turned to see the whole valley filled with a wall of snow which was coming towards us at an incredible speed. We were on a particularly exposed part of the path so scrambled up a bit and threw ourselves to the ground. Simon managed to get behind a small rock and I grabbed hold of a couple of diddle-dee plants. It was very frightening as the wall of snow hit us accompanied by by a very strong wind which nearly dragged us along and we thought we might be about to be killed. However we survived just battered and quite shaken.

This photo of Simon was taken some time after the avalanche when we were trying to get the snow out that had been driven inside our clothes.

About 15 minutes later snow was still pouring down the mountainside onto a small glacier below.

This view of the other side of the Cuernos was taken as we walked further round the mountain.

I felt exhausted by the time we reached our next camp.

The fourth day we continued along the southern side of the mountains and saw these fire bushes.

We then had another long climb up Valley Ascension towards the Torres or towers. Having set up camp in another wooded and muddy sight we decided to walk on up for another hour, climbing steeply to the viewpoint just below the Torres.

It was as well that we went up in the evening although it is considered best to be there for sunrise when they are lit up by the rising sun. It was very wet during the night but we did get up in the dark and return to the viewpoint by torchlight (I got lost once on the way up!).

Sunrise was obscued by a blizzard!
We then packed up and descended the valley. Some tourists take the easy way up so far before walking. The horses wait until they return.

The tourists have conventional saddles but the guide has a traditional gaucho saddle which are still used here in the Falklands.

We had a long days walk that day after our pre-dawn start but sneaked into a campsite we passedaat lunchtime for a very welcome hot shower before starting off around the eastern side of the mountains.

As it was nearing the end of the season some of the refugios and the facilities at some of the camp sites were closed for the winter however there was a very pleasant grassy field to camp in.

The next day we walked beside this river for a while on our way to camp Dickson which was very nice and friendly.

The highlight for me was that the warden sold loaves of freshly baked bread which was a delicious treat after the stale rolls I had been carrying since the beginning of our walk.

This is Lago (Lake) Dickson which we camped beside. This picture was taken the next day as we started climbing again. There is a glacier flowing into the far end of the lake.