Las Torres Del Paine - National Park in Southern Patagonia, Chile
While most of you were buying your last gifts for Christmas or enjoying a few drinks in the pub after work, myself and Bruno braved the cold like two lunatics in an attempt to complete the famous W trek in four days. Neither of us had ever trekked before, especially not in such bitterly cold conditions and we certainly felt like two novices among so many hard-core trekkers dressed in their North Face fancy gear.
Our starting point was a night stay in Puerto Natales, a sad little town several hours from the park and our last taste of civilization, if you could even call it that. This was to be our luggage drop off point and a place where we could prepare for the trek. Our hostel had a prep talk for fellow trekkers, to give advice and inside tips on how to conquer the route successfully. One great tip was to remove the waterproof cover from your rucksack, as these apparently have a tendency to fly off with gale force winds and litter the park. Instead the solution given to avoid wet clothes was to line the contents of your ruck sack with black bin bags. Great idea, or so we thought until we realised after our first day of trekking in non stop rain that we were the only fools who had left it behind it.
The W route below in red - mission completed in four days after one case of food poisoning, some painful knee joints and extremely tired feet. Although the great feeling of accomplishment and the laughs we had along the way certainly made up for all our moans.
Bruno trying to look like a pro.
Fresh glacier waterfall.
Having lunch huddled under a tree for shelter from the blustery winds when a mini avalanche came thundering down the valley in front of us. Amazing!!
Enough, I need to rest my backside. As we lay on the edge of the lake ten condors circled over head. Wonderful moment.
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