As I sit here freezing in the New Year in bitter cold Chicago it reminds me of my time when I nearly froze to death while hiking at Torres del Paine early March of 2015. I spent nearly 2 months hitchhiking through Patagonia. Never did any weather conditions come close to that hike at Torres.
I should start by saying that for anyone going to Torres del Paine, and the rest of Patagonia for that matter, please be prepared for all weather conditions. I was naive and thought I could handle any extreme weather when packed with minimal gear. That hike made mentally made me stronger knowing the limits of my body. As a result and I would do it again in a heartbeat, only with more gear.
Let's begin...
I packed 12 days worth of food in my 40L pack (I normally travel very light) with the intention of doing the Q hike around Torres del Paine. Beginning the hike from the final bus stop after the lake at Posada Serrano all looked beautifully amazing. We had stunning panoramic views as we looked across and hiked towards the sharp peaks in the distance. After maybe 1 hour of picture perfect weather, then the wind started picking up to blowing constantly around 30 mph and gust to who knows how much. We trekked on with the wind howling in our faces and thankfully the wind was still shinning bright. Roughly 30 minutes later, what we could see coming in the distance didn't get our hopes up. Tall dark clouds loomed in the distance.
The hike in.
The wind roared and soon it was raining sideways, light at first though it soon picked up to a torrential downpour. Thankfully looking back it I never saw lightning or heard thunder. It rained and rained. We eventually made it to our first camp at Campsite Italiano, then on to Refugio Cuernos, and Campsite Torres. All day and nearly all night (for the parts I was awake) it rained. The trek and view up to Glacier Gray, rain. Valle Frances was technically closed but I hiked up a good portion just to keep my body moving. As per the trend, no view and more rain there. The temperature never really got above 50°F the entire hike. Barring one 30 minute stretch of sun on day 3 it was cloudy and raining for the entire 4 day hike. Yes, 4 days. I ended up not doing the entire Q hike because I was so cold and miserable I wanted to hike out. All my spare clothes (hiking and sleeping sets) were soaked, tent and sleeping bag were soaked too.
The real kicker is on the 3rd night at Campsite Torres it snowed. Temperatures dropped to around 20°F and all I had was my wool sleep sheet. Yes, I am an idiot for not having a proper sleeping bag. I boiled some water, filled my nalgene, hugged it to my chest, and tried to get some sleep. I woke up every 45min - 1hr shivering. I would shiver my core for warmth. I lost all feeling in my toes. Thankfully my head and fingers were half decent nevertheless my mental capacity was extremely slow. It was a feeling I had never felt before. At around 3am I couldn't take it anymore. I got out of my tent and literally started running in place and in circles trying to get my core temperature up. I was able to sleep til around 4:30am when I finally decided to just hike to the famous Las Torres (Towers viewpoint). It was actually a beautiful hike. Snow was coming down, clouds were thick and low, and funny enough there was no wind. It was eerily quiet and peaceful. The hike up definitely warmed me up.
Me at the viewpoint by the lake infront of the towers.
I waited at the top for the sunrise view. Eventually others started to show up to see the sunrise view. Though much to our disappointment there would be no view. Clouds blanketed the entire lake. You couldn't even see the end of the lake where the base of the towers come down. I was a little bummed. We all lamented at the top together to begin to long decent down. It was there I decide to hike out. I was sick of the weather. I thought maybe a nearby range would have different weather. Boy did I luck out with the weather in Calafate and El Chaltén. That's a story for another time...
View looking back as I was leaving the park.
Sadly I don't have too many pictures of the hike because it was raining all the time. I have a few videos from my GoProI, never really took out my camera because I didn't want risk ruining it.
Thanks for reading!