The first day we started hiking from Administration (last stop of the bus... After 4 hours to arrive there!!) at 12:30. We went all the way to the campground "Italiano". The weather was quite cloudy at the beginig but became really nice after few hours. It was quite a flat part, walking in some very large fields of pampa toward the mountains of Torres del Paine. Stef and I are walking both more or less at the same rythm and rather fast. A really good match for this 7 day trekk. All the begining we are almost alone as we are not yet on the W and one amazing thing about Torres del Paine is that no matter if you are walkig always around the same lakes, mountains or pampa, the views are constantly changing. It really never gets boring durin the entire hike and during the entire 7 days. Our bgs are quite big considering we are carrying everything to be independant for 8days (more than 15kg each) but I got used to it quite well (I was worried as it's the first time I do this kind of trekking). The camp Italiano is at the end of a valley wih a glacier above a cliff (glacier Frances) and every once in a while, a bloc of ice falls down the cliff and makes a big thunder like noise. It's really cool and impressive. All along the hike, people are really easily talkig to each other even for only 2 or 3 minutes and it creates a very special atmosphere. In the campings as well. The first night we met 2 French guys with whom we talked quite a bit. Ah, ne thing: when I say camping, it's just a place where you are allowed to put your tent cause it's forbiden to camp where ever you want. And in the campin you have only tilets most of the time. You have to go get the water at the river and there is no shower or only cold most of the time...
The next day, we left the tent and our bags in the camp and went up to the Mirrador Frances at the end of the valley. Really nice view on the glacier, the mountain around and the lake at the bottom of the valley! Then we went down, packed our stuff and the tent and continued to camping Cuernos (which is at the same time a refugio so there are hot showers and tables to eat and so on). We arrived quite early and after setting the tent we went to swim in the lake. The water was quite cold but I stayed somethin like 30min in it because it was just too incredible to swim in a lake with this blue/green color and with such an amazin view around. I got quite famous in the camping for that cause the only persons who went swimimg usually didn't stay more than 1 min in the water :) At the camping we met a french couple doing the trekk for their honey moon, a group of guys from Chile with whom we spoke a bit, drank mate and shared a joint (quite popular in Chile from what we understood...) and as well a Californian guy (51 years old) and a German and an Australian guy. The weaher was clear blue sky all day long!! Really nice!
The next day we woke up with wet sleeping bags because we didn't set the tent perfectly well but we dried them on the way to the camping Torres. The morning was suny but it got cloudy and we had a bit of rain on the way to the end. After setting the tent we went up to mirrador Torres from were you are supposed to see the three Torres which is the most famous thing in the park. It was very cloudy when we arrive so we stayed there for 2 hours (we arrived quite early) and then the sun arrived on the Torres. We met a 63 yo guy doing the W on the way with the tent, the food and every thing as well (and he was doing pretty good!!). The wind started to be a bit stronger (we had almost none the first 2 days) but nothing incredible for Patagonia. We went to bed quite early because the next day we wanted to go up again to mirrador Torres to see the sunrise (which is at 5am here!!!).
On day 4 we woke up at 3:45am to leave at 4:15am and do the 45min steep hike in rocks all the way to the mirrador Torres again. We left with our lamps on the forhead in the middle of the night; it was windy and snowing on the way up bit lots of people did it as well because it's quite a famous thing to do here he sunrise on the Torres. It was really cloudy and cold but we could see first the sunrise on the valley and then after a while, the sunrise on the Torres which got out of the clouds at the right moment. We took our breakfast there drinkin powder milk mixed with the water of the lake. Really happy to have done the effort to wake up even if the weather was not promising. We met the group of Chilean guys up there as well. We then went back to the camping, unmounted the tent and left to go to camping Seron. At the middle of the hike we left the W an had the mountain for ourselves again. The weather was cloudy at the begining, very windy at some point (Stef got stuck at one point because the wind was too strong in a part of the trail quite dangerous... He had to hold onto a big rock not to be blown away (the big backpacks give a big surface to catch the wind)), a bit rainy in the middle and super sunny at the end. We met 2 French guys at the camping (Thibault and Alexandre) with whom we spent quite some time. At the end of the day, both Stef and I had quite some pain in the feet due to all those days of hikes.
The 5th day we woke up with a lot of sun but by the time we got ready to leave it was all cloudy and rainy; that's the weather we had for the entire day. We went to Dickson which is supposed to be the nicest camping of the park but becaise of the bad weather, we decided to keep going all the way to camping Los Perros. Quite long day (31kms) but even if the weaher was not the best, we still had very nice views. At los Perros my shoes and feet were completely wet and I tryed to dry them in the room for eating. This roomwas really funny to be in cause every one from the camping was there trying to dry there stuff (jackets, tshirts, pants, gloves and so on where hanging all around the place) and not wanting to go back outside i the rain to go to their cold tent. We met again Thibault and Alexander which both had a shitty day and just wanted one thing: to get out of the park. Alexander even burned his hand on a hot pipe in he camping and had to spend the evening and night holding a bottle of cold water to make the pain go away...
The next morning the shoes were still wet and it was till rainig outside. We had to pass a high place in the camp during the day (1200m, called el passo). Stef and I took our time to get ready and left after most people already left. During all the begini g, the path was actually transformed into a small river because of the rain and everythi was super muddy; we had to jump or go around big paddles to try not to by 100% wet. While going up we catched up most of the people and the rain transformed i to snow once out of the forest and a lot of wind was blowing it right into our faces. We passed two Chilean sisters (Isadora and Amide) which stayed with us to pass el passo. We had absolutly no view and the co ditions were really hard but it was still really fun. A real experience of Patagonia! Once at the top, my tshirt was covered in snow and my beard transformed into ice. The way down was really steep but a bit less wet. We went all the way to Grey and got some nice views of the glacier of the same name even if we could not see it all (it's the begining of the sea of glacier which is more than 200kms long!!!). In the evening, we spent our time eating all the things left as it was our lat night; I took my first shower of the trek and we met again most of the people that were in Los Perros the previous day. We talked for quite a while with Alexander, Thibault, Amide and Isadora there but went to sleep quite early cause the next day we wanted to catch the boat which crosses the lake to join the buses at 10am and we still had about 10kms to walk to the boat.
The 7th day (December 19th), we woke up early to go quikly see a mirrador next to the camping and left to join the boatat paine grande. It had snowed during the night and all the mountains and trees were covered with a thin white film. When we arrived at Paine Grande, the view was completely different fro the one we had the first day (we passed there as well the first day) thanks to the snow. We managed to have quite some blue sky and even to tan a bit shirtless while waiting for the boat. The view from the boat was a great way to leave the mountains and even if we were happy to go toward a hot shower, a good bed and food which is not pasta or rice, we were quite sad to leave this amazing place. It was for me by far the best place to hike I've ever been. Stef was a great guy to be with during this adventure and all the people we met on the way made it a very unique experience. I hope I'll be able to come back and do it again (maybe with better shoes cause mine are almst dead after this trekking...). After the boat we had to wait for 3 hours the bus because of wrong informations thst 2 rangers gave us but we managed to arrive to Puerto Natales in the afternoon. The hostel we found was actually shitty so the shower was half cold but we were too tired to change place. We went to eat some meat in a restaurant (I tried Guanaco which is a sort of lama; pretty good!) and after few beers went to bed.
The next day, Stef left for Punta Arenas and I stayed one more day in Puerto Natales (changed hostel) and walked a bit around after getting organized for the next part of my trip. The city has a really nice view on the mountains and has a quite interesting atmosphere as it is full of hikkers. In he hostel I met a group from new Zealand, a Swiss father and daughter and a French and Spanish studyin in Santiago.
December 21st I took the bus at 7am in direction of Ushuaia where I'll spend few days (probably until after Christmas).
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