24. March – 02. April 2011
After some time in Argentina it was time for a side trip to Puerto Natales in Chile to hike the Torres del Paine circuit.We arrived around noon and with shopping and packing the afternoon went by quickly. Unfortunately, we wasted an hour at the info-talk about the park where we didn't get much useful information. For dinner we went to a very nice African-Chilean restaurant. Not the typical combination. The atmosphere was nice and I even got a curry that tasted good. (I was trying curries every now and then in South America and almost gave up on finding a good one – Maybe it helped that my expectations went down as well)
There was only one bus going to the park at 7.30 am in the morning, which meant another day of getting up early. We arrived at the park around 10 am and started the hike right away. Most people hiking at Torres del Paine NP walk the “W”, a hike that resembles the letter W on the map. We decided to hike the circuit around the Torres, finishing the hike with the W – a ten day hike.
The weather the first few days was almost perfect – at least for this time of the year. It was quite late in the season and it was too cold to sit around after getting to the campsite but it was sunny every now and than and wasn't too windy. The first two days we were hiking at “the backside” of the Torres. 
Mostly the trail went over meadows. Sometime along burned trees or forests, sometimes along lakes or rivers. We could see mountains and glaciers in the far, the sun was shining and it was very nice, easy hiking. On day four we had to get over the 1200 m high Gardner pass. According to the guide books this was to be the most difficult part. But again we were lucky with the weather. Only a little bit of rain and snow and almost no wind. Since the trail up to the pass is very exposed, it can be extremely windy up there.
(Later we found out that only 5 days later due to the weather conditions, it wasn't possible to get over the pass anymore) So, getting over the pass wasn't as hard as I thought. And the view from up there was amazing. We could see the Grey glacier from above. With rainbow!! We walked along the glacier for a few hours before getting to the campsite. Amazing views. Especially if you like snow and ice. 
As the nights before (and the following as well) we had visitors at night. Mice! They tried to get to our food. Ate holes in my rain pants and Rudi's backpack. Since they couldn't get to the food, they ate the toilet paper and even gnawed holes in the water bottles, when there was nothing else lying around. The worst thing about the mice were the noises they made when walking near the tent. The next morning we got to a little bay with great views of the glacier, many small icebergs and condors. It was very beautiful and we spent quite a lot of time there. Exploring the bay, watching condors and taking pictures. At night we did not cook the usual 800 grams of Spaghetti with Ketchup, Salami and cheese but had dinner at the refugio to celebrate Michas birthday. 
The weather got worse over the next days with more and more rain. And snow. But the landscape was still nice. Our plan was to camp at the end of valle del frances, but on the way we met people that just came from there and suggested we don't camp there since it was snowing to heavy. So, we followed the recommendation and walked to the next campground. The next morning we made a day-trip to the valle. Snow was getting higher the further we got into the valley. At one point we had to start making our own trail in the ankle deep snow because no other hikers had walked that far on that day. We didn't see the apparently beautiful scenery surrounding the valley but it was fun to walk in the snow anyways. And pretty as well, with all the trees and mountains covered in snow. 
The next day we hiked to the valle ascencio. There was even more snow here and we had to set up camp in the snow. At least this night there weren't any mice. After we set up camp we hiked for an hour through the almost knee-deep snow to the Torres mirador. And we were lucky and there were only a few small clouds in front of Torres. The last day we only had to walk back down to the last refugio to take the bus back to Puerto Natales. After a nice hot shower and clean clothes, Micha invited us for dinner (Patagonian lamb and wine). THANKS!
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