Hitting the Trails in Torres del Paine

I really love hiking.  On most days, there’s really not much I’d rather do than go for a hike.  I love being outdoors, the sustained physical activity, the sense of accomplishment that comes with every summit – in short, the whole package.  My parents are great people, but they are definitely not hikers.  I first developed this interest at Camp Walt Whitman, the New Hampshire camp where I spent summers as a child.  In sharp contrast to most of the other kids, our weekly hikes were my favorite thing about camp, bar none.  The only thing I liked more were the overnight backpacking trips.  Fortunately, I married someone who loves hiking almost as much as I do, and our kids, despite growing up in Brooklyn, simply don’t know anything different.

And I’m not a fair-weather hiker.  I’m usually just as happy to go out in the cold or rain as in more favorable weather, particularly if I can be warm and dry at the end of the day (i.e., not camping).  Which is good, because we had some pretty unfavorable weather the past few days in TdelP.  Let’s just say that I have a newfound respect for the wind.

Day 1 - our first snow of the year!

Iceberg on Lago Grey

After our first day of hiking in the cold and snow, which I wrote about here, we went out for a big day two.  We started off on a 30-minute catamaran ferry ride across the cold and windy Lago Pehoe, to the start of a trail which would take us 22km along the shores of another lake, Lago Grey, to Glacier Grey, one of the park’s largest glaciers, and back.  Supposedly a brisk seven hours.  But we hadn’t factored in the wind.  Imagine a sustained wind so powerful that it lifts spray off a lake and makes it feel like driving rain.  You can’t hear a thing, and you can easily lean into the wind with your full body weight.  The gusts can knock you down, as Yo and Ruby learned.  Then imagine walking into and around that for about five hours as you hike along cliffs hundreds of feet above an iceberg-ed lake toward a huge glacier, at the base of magnificent, spiky snow-capped mountains.  It was fantastic, although we had to turn around before reaching the mirador closest to the glacier in order to ensure we didn’t miss the last ferry back.

Day 2 - On the catamaran over Lago Pehoe

Lago Grey with Photobomber

Lago Grey and Glacier Grey

So many rainbows in Patagonia!

Wind whipping up the spray (that's not fog) 

The Cueros del Paine

Despite the adventure of day two, it wasn’t until the following day that I really learned what the wind was capable of.  We awoke to clouds and rain, and our plan for a hike to appreciate the famous views of the Torres was clearly not happening.  But we still wanted to get out there, so we picked a couple of shorter routes, starting with a short, flat hike to a waterfall (Salto Grande).  Sure, it felt a bit rough as the wind buffeted the car on the drive to the trailhead, but the hike was very short and we were well-equipped.  Full rain and wind gear on, we emerged from the car and started up the short hill where the trail began.  Headed straight into the rain and wind, it felt like being blasted in the face with a firehose of sleet.  We were all about ten feet from one another, and after just a minute or so of being blasted around by the elements, it was clear that we needed to take these wind warning signs seriously.  Yo and I motioned the kids back to the car, which itself got blasted full of water when Yo couldn’t close the door for a few seconds because of the wind.

To be taken seriously

After all that, time to go back and have some hot chocolate at the cabin, right?  Actually, no – quick sandwich in the car, and a short drive to something maybe not so exposed.  Less than an hour later, we were climbing Cerro Condor, a short but steep 45 minute walk up to a mirador with a view of, well, mostly clouds.  The walk was partially sheltered, but when it was exposed, it was very windy, though by that time, it had stopped raining hard.  It wasn’t until the very top of our climb that we felt the strongest winds of our trip yet.  As we attempted to cross a narrow saddle between two hills, which formed a wind tunnel, we literally couldn’t keep our feet as we climbed.  At two points, I had to grab Ruby hard to make sure she didn’t get knocked way off her feet and down the steep hill.  We climbed low for a few feet to look at the lakes beyond the saddle, but we couldn’t go on from there safely.  By that time, we had had enough for the day, and retreated back to the cabin for a nap.

Day 3 - Climbing Cerro Condor

Yo and Oscar struggling to keep their footing at the top saddle

O&R fighting the wind on the way down

After all that, our last day, yesterday, was relatively calm and completely sunny.  We went for a great two-hour hike up a hill surrounded by guanacos and rheas, which are Patagonia cousins of ostriches (who even knew those things existed???), and enjoyed unobstructed and inspiring views of the Torres and the Cueros del Paine.  I didn’t even wear my windpants!  Kind of a boring way to end the trip, but it felt like a nice reward after all the wind and rain. 

Day 4 featured great views...

Strange animals...

...and more rainbows!

(And once again, I’m completely in awe of O&R, who held it together beautifully in support of their father’s unreasonable love of all-weather hiking).