Torres del Paine

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We spent five days in the Torres del Paine National Park in the southern part of Patagonia, Chile. The Torres del Paine circuit is a pretty well trodden route and we went at peak time so it was busy. Little fear of forgetting the Spanish for ´Hi´ - we used our Hola on average every five minutes.
We checked the weather beforehand; the forecast was good apart from the 50+km/h winds. The night before we left for the walk the wind was howling. We had visions of huddling in our tent on an ice-shelf on an exposed mountainside.
The next day, as every day, we had beautiful sunshine to walk in. Our chosen route forms a ´W´ shape, walking around and between the torres range, so you end up repeating sections of the track. We took it pretty easy the first day, doing about 5.5 hours walking. Looking at the map at the end of the day, it became evident that we would have to put in 8 to 10 hour days to complete the rest of the walk. Our laziness meant that our W got a little bit mis-shapen.
The views were fantastic of the mountains, blue lakes and rolling countryside at the foothills. The mountains were loaded with snow and you could frequently hear and see thunderous avalanches from the peaks.
The best part came at the end of the walk, when we camped near the bottom of a glacier on a beach in a spot looking like it should have a beach bar serving cocktails. Except you could see the icebergs floating by (OK we´re not quite talking Titanic scale, but still cool). We watched the sun go down at a great viewpoint sitting on the rocks opposite the glacier. We had one of those holiday moments.
We had a slightly less positive holiday moment before dawn the next morning when someone unzipped our flysheet to try to steal some stuff. Paul sent him packing with a very English shout of ´Bugger Off´.
Scores: 8.5 from Madeline
4 on day 1 from Paul increasing to 9.5 at the glacier😊

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Photos

The Torres
Day 1. The three Torres and the two intrepid travellers

Into the Valley
Day 3 - Up the middle of the ´W´

Snow Laden Peaks
And a mini avalance above us

Back down the valley
The view from above

Craggy Bluff
And craggy old geezer

Sundown at Acampamiento
A welcome (if windy) campsite after a long days walk

Glacier Grey
Day 4 and one of the best views of the trek

Cool Spot
N-ice! (n Cheesy)

The moment we´ve been waiting for
Mad´s hot seat for the sundown over the glacier. Can´t beat this.