Torres del Paine, Chile

We hoped to be on the trail for 9am today, so woke early to get on the road. They proved bumpier than usual so we made it to the start by 10am, at Las torres hotel. Our epic hike wound its way up a steep incline and into the Ascencio valley which followed a river up into the main massif. First stop about 2 hours in was Chileno lodge, reasonable time and much amusement to be had looking at some of the rucksack sizes of people setting out on the ‘W’- not regretting my decision to do day hikes at all! An hour on and after enjoying lush forest with straight thin trunks and numerous waterfalls we were at Torres ranger station. We took the decision not to do the 1km up boulder scramble to the base of the towers, me because I was not sure I could do 2 hours on top of my 3 hour return and justin because of the cloud. We knew we wouldn’t see anything at the top, Suzie set off though whilst we turned back. We made good time back, where Suzie did an excellent sprint coming in about 30mins after us. On the trip back in drizzly rain we reflected on how lucky we had been on our trip with weather and order of hikes. Light bar meal with a Chilean red put me into another exhausted but happy sleep.