Sorry this picture is sideways, but you get the gist. Here we are at the lookout for the towers on the first day. The tower on the far left is the tallest of the three although it does not appear that way from this angle. Over the rest of the trip we realized how rare a windless day in Torres is..
This is an example of the trail maps they had along the way. We really enjoyed them for two reasons, they are nice to look at and they also were surprisingly accurate in their representation of the topography. On day two the winds were so strong in places that Amy and I were both stopped from moving forward on several occasions and knocked over once too. We spent most of the day along a lake. THe wind was whipping up lake water into such a thick mist that there was a rainbow over it for most of the day. The portion of the rainbow on the lake would grow and shrink with the wind gusts. 
This is an example of the trail maps they had along the way. We really enjoyed them for two reasons, they are nice to look at and they also were surprisingly accurate in their representation of the topography. On day two the winds were so strong in places that Amy and I were both stopped from moving forward on several occasions and knocked over once too. We spent most of the day along a lake. THe wind was whipping up lake water into such a thick mist that there was a rainbow over it for most of the day. The portion of the rainbow on the lake would grow and shrink with the wind gusts. On the third day we hiked up another valley in hopes of more spectacular views. Half way up I had lost hope that we would be able to see much since the fog and rain only seemed to be building. We did see some hanging glaciers and shadows of high granite peaks. After 2 hours of climbing we reached the view point. At first the ridge tops were covered in thick mist, but slowly the sun broke through and the wind moved the mist over the peaks. We got really lucky with our timing and enjoyed another glorious vantage of the peaks of Torres del Paine.
On the way down we had another bit of luck. Lou spotted two wood peckers working away at the trees. They were quite interesting and fairly large. Once we were back in town we found a bird guide and id the birds as Magellanic wood peckers which are apparently a bird that many people travel down here to see. Amy had to return to San Diego after completing the W so Lou and I finished the circuit on our own. This was a great trip to try out our new gear for the CDT. We are both really happy with our new back packs and sleeping system we have. This is the first back packing experience either of us has had the didn´t leave us with bruised hip bones and sore shoulders. Even at the begining of the trip when we had 8 days of food we were able to hike comfortably. One last photo of the trip. As I mentioned we hiked in all kinds of weather and all types of terrain, but only once did we have to surrender the trail to the wild. I just couldn´t get myself to walk over this large spider, so we walked around. I am so very glad I never saw one on my backpack, in my shoe, or crawling on the tent. We did see two others on the trail over the last two days of the hike. 
We are heading to El Chalten in Argentina tomorrow for more backpacking.
On the way down we had another bit of luck. Lou spotted two wood peckers working away at the trees. They were quite interesting and fairly large. Once we were back in town we found a bird guide and id the birds as Magellanic wood peckers which are apparently a bird that many people travel down here to see. Amy had to return to San Diego after completing the W so Lou and I finished the circuit on our own. This was a great trip to try out our new gear for the CDT. We are both really happy with our new back packs and sleeping system we have. This is the first back packing experience either of us has had the didn´t leave us with bruised hip bones and sore shoulders. Even at the begining of the trip when we had 8 days of food we were able to hike comfortably. One last photo of the trip. As I mentioned we hiked in all kinds of weather and all types of terrain, but only once did we have to surrender the trail to the wild. I just couldn´t get myself to walk over this large spider, so we walked around. I am so very glad I never saw one on my backpack, in my shoe, or crawling on the tent. We did see two others on the trail over the last two days of the hike. We are heading to El Chalten in Argentina tomorrow for more backpacking. 
1 comment:
amazing place! I am jealous!
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