D25 -- We are the Champions!

We had agreed the night before that we’d wake up at 6:15 to check the weather and if it wasn’t raining we’d head to Las Torres. If it was, we’d go back to bed. Well, we woke up (careful not to disturb our roommates) and it wasn’t raining, but it was threatening to. We decided that we should just go for it. We’d come to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine to see the Torres, after all, and we’d endured too much to just quit near the finish line. So we got ready and invited another woman, Sue from Minnesota, to come along with us since her boyfriend had gone up the day before without her.

The first hour was mostly uphill through a pretty forest, but the second was climbing over rocks and boulders up a very steep incline. That’s when the rain started. It was not heavy, but it was steady and horizontal and freezing cold! Fifty-something Sue was a like a machine, but Thomas and I took it slow. It was probably the hardest portion of the trek due to the steep ascent, terrain, and weather, but we did it! We got to the mirador, or lookout, and were rewarded with a view of the famous Torres.

By this time our hands were red with cold so we took a couple of pictures and got the hell out of there! We hiked another three hours to get to the buses that would take us out of the park. Thomas in particular was exhausted.

In all, we hiked about 40 miles in 5 days in awful weather. It was an amazing experience, but I will think long and hard about ever doing it again!

- Elva