Get Some Screen on Your Face We're Going to the Base

Every evening you discuss with the guides what you would like to do the next day.......this is it.......leaving for the towers at 7:00am

A beautiful clear morning.......taken from our room
 The hike to the towers is a 24km route which actually starts outside the National Park but re-enters the park about 7km up the hill.  This is not a walk in the park, but warnings about it being physically demanding and steep are true.......so true.  You start climbing after 2km, and don't stop climbing for at least the next 5km.........followed by.......one of my favourites.......the cross hill trail with a steep drop below you.  That leads down into Chilean Camp, then you are back on the stair stepper all the way to the top..........the last 2km have you climbing over the moraine just below the lake, and it is the hardest/scariest part of the climb.  Good time for a break to have some lunch, then you retrace your steps all the way back to the van.........yes, cold beers are waiting and are most welcome.

Step off the trail and you go down for a swim

Notice me hugging the uphill side of the trail........in fairness this was a wide piece

Jutta leading the way


Chilean Camp where you can pre-book one of these tents and have a sleepover

The towers appear

Chilean Camp Station.....food, drink, etc.

Made it.......we were pretty pumped........what a view
The remains of the glacier can be seen at the base of the towers........pictures from 1950 show virtually no lake at all.......the glacier covered the entire valley.......

Yeah.....I made it also


This is the valley with the sidehill trail

So something like a 3,000ft elevation gain we think, but not sure about that



Great spot for lunch

We had Piercy and Raoul from the hotel with us......they wanted to come along for the hike.....these guys are from Peru and are they ever fast, both up and down

Goodbye to the towers




This was the big one for us that we had been thinking about the whole trip.......24km is clearly outside our usual range, but when you break up the day and have a little lunch, it was very doable......legs are still killing me, but quite a feeling of accomplishment.

Comments

  1. Unknown1 February 2018 at 04:56

    You guys are trojans! I had been feeling good about walking 10 or so miles a day in Austin, but now I feel like a slug. :-(

    ReplyDelete

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