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Published: November 30th 2023
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Wednesday was our big hike. Patagonia is known for a few things, but hiking is a big part of it. They have a huge nature preserve in Chile called Torres del Paine national park. There are numerous day hikes you can do and many varieties of camping, but we set our sights on the most famous hike: Mirador Las Torres.
We left the Airbnb at 6am (so nice not to have to repack before leaving!) in order to make it to the trailhead by 8. There are a few places you could stay closer, or in the park, but they were extremely expensive. Despite the drive we were happy with our choice to stay in Puerto Natales. We had read that it can be a 6-9 hour hike, so we wanted to start early. We got to the trailhead and started the hike promptly at 8am.
There's actually a hotel RIGHT at the trailhead called Hotel Las Torres, but when we looked it was $800/night, and there's literally nothing else around for an hour+. However, I was a little envious of the people walking out the front door of the hotel to leisurely start the hike at 8am, when
Horses at the Hotel Torres
We didn't know until now that we'd be back in the same place tomorrow! we'd been up since 5. I was also envious of all the people we passed at the beginning who were coming back already. They had stayed overnight in the park and did the early sunrise hike up to the top. Omfg no, but the photos looked amazing in the books.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. Patagonia is famous for having very unpredictable and rapidly changing weather, but we've been incredibly lucky. For our hike, it was 50s and sunny. But we had layers upon layers in our packs, so we were prepared for whatever was in store. And we were armed with freshly rented hiking poles!
The beginning of the trail is relatively flat, but it quickly moves into a solid but steady incline. We were huffing when we cleared that first incline, but we made it through that tougher part. Next the trail meandered through the woods for a while, but the whole thing was a steady slow overall gain in altitude. There's a little restaurant/pit stop a little more than 1/3 of the way up. They have little camping/sleeping platforms in the trees, which is where I imagine you sleep if you're doing the
sunrise hike.
After another couple hours of pressing on, we came to an area right before the summit. It said the next part will take 1 hour, you can't start out from the after 3pm, and this is where it gets difficult. Ha! Ho-ly cow we laughed out loud. While Jamison was happily billy-goating up the mountain, John and I were pulling up the rear, and one of us, not naming names, was getting passed by old ladies doing the hike. It was strenuous, to say the least.
That last hour became much more steep, and we were scrambling over rocky terrain. The last 30min or so was starting to get into a little bit of bouldering, and the last 10min was solid bouldering. And finally, after about 5 hours of hiking, we made it to the top! We stopped for a summit beer and gobbler sandwiches (turkey, cheese, and jam since we didn't have condiments), and probably spent about an hour or so up there just enjoying the view, and fighting the wind. And then, the slog back down.
I wish I could say it was easier going back down, but it's a different kind of
hard. By the last 1/4 my feet had been jammed forward so often that I was starting to get a very small blister on one of my toes. It felt like forever, but in 4.5 hours, we finally made it back down. A total of 12.5 miles (per my Samsung watch), 9 hours (including stop) and roughly 3500ft elevation gain (again according to my Samsung watch). We were thoroughly exhausted. What an accomplishment! Jamison said it's probably the hardest hike he's ever done. I'd compare it to Mount St Helens. Almost exactly the same until the end, when Mount St Helens gets insane with ridiculously steep and ridiculously soft sand that you are desperately trying to scramble up on all fours. This was a close second in difficulty.
The worst part was that we had to drive 2 hours back to the Airbnb after that. But the penne dinner we made with sliced cheese (we got creative with groceries) was amazing!! I've also discovered a type of wine on this trip called Carmenere, from Chile. I think it's my favorite type of wine at the moment. Perfect end to a very challenging hike. What a sense of accomplishment! And
No guardrails
It was actually pretty steep with loose soil/rock, and a narrow path. It wasn't until I looked down that I realized how bad it would be if anyone slipped. a great way to get the flavor of the TDP in one day. We settled in for another early morning, and once again repacked our bags to move on to the next stop.
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