On our second day in Torres del Paine we headed out early to do the Torres base hike. The trailhead for this hike is on the other side of the park closer to the Laguna Amarga entrance gate. As we passed our park entrance gate and were driving to the park we saw guanacos in good position for the pitcture with Torres del Paine.
The weather was beautiful and no low clouds on the mountains so we ended up stopping fair bit to take photos as we drove across the park.
By the time we reached the parking lot and started hiking it was 10:30am. At the bottom it was all sunshine and flowers and plenty of blue in the sky. As we started making our way up, the clouds started building over the Torres.
The entire trail is up and down there are no flat sections really except for the very start part near the parking lot. By 2pm we made it to the point where the very steep last part of the track starts. This is also the point where the trail gets closed at 3pm. We made it just in time and could proceed to the base despite our late start.
We were very happy when we finally made it to the top. It was very cold. There even was a tiny mix of rain or snow. But clouds cleared just enough for us to fully see torres. Spectacular site. We admired the view. Ate our sandwiches, got very cold and started heading back down. Descent was in some ways harder than ascent, very punishing on the knees even though we used sticks.
By the time we got back to the checkpoint torres were fully covered by clouds and the mountain was closed as it was past 3pm.
By the time we made it back to the parking lot it was past 8pm. A very long day. We had a celebratory Patagonia beer from the souvenir shop and started heading back to the lodge. The views were beautiful all along the way again. We were super tired, we missed the dinner, and legs hurt a lot but we were also very happy we made it to the top and that clouds parted and we were able to see torres and the lagoon.
The next day we needed a break from hiking and we took a trip to Lago Grey and a boat ride to see Glacier Grey.