Torres del Paine
Ok, I just conquered the world. Or at least it feels like that. I just came back from a 9-day trekking in Torres del Paine carrying a 20kg backpack (my backpack wasn’t even that heavy when leaving home!!) eating lots of instant meals and sleeping in a tent every single freezing night. And let’s put this straight; I don’t necessarily like camping that much, or hiking… for 9 days. I got trapped into this.
Team Seduction
Let me introduce you to Team Seduction; a Swede, 4 Yankees, the Ozzie and I, all recognizable by a red fingernail and lots of noise. This crew got together in El Chalten where everything was still quite tame. Five days later we were let loose in the National Park of Torres del Paine with the worst preparation EVER (leaving worried park rangers behind if we’d make it back alive) and no idea of what we were getting ourselves into. Having bin bags as bag covers, gourmet meals that weighed a ton, three people pushed into a two-man tent and one of the members conquering the mountains of Torres del Paine in flip-flops (leaving literally every trespasser stunned behind); we definitely were a bunch of amateurs.
We did the O-trek or circuit which means about 130km hiking up and down mountains coming across all four seasons in one day. Never ask about the weather forecast, because people simply can’t predict it.
Survival adventures
The first part of the trail we saw barely anybody. It was just us, a bunch of woodpeckers, beautiful valleys and even more beautiful mountains. The absolute highlight of this part of the trail was ”The Pass”. Feared by many because of its killers incline and the insanely long day… but damn, it was cool. The first part was like a proper survival trail; swinging from branch to branch, trying to avoid ending up head first in one of the many many mud puddles. Didn’t work out that well…
After a bit of mud wrestling the real incline started and combined with some snow fights and survival chocolates we made it to the top where we were in for a big surprise: a humungous glacier and endless views with double rainbows. Worth every single mud puddle I crashed into and every single blister I had on my soaked feet. This view has been seriously one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen! Words can’t even describe how insanely beautiful this place was.
The treasures of Torres del Paine
As if this wasn’t enough we got treated to many more glaciers, the most amazing rainbows, bright blue glacier lakes, waterfalls and snowy mountains, to top it off with a sunrise at the Torres del Paine. After 8 days of walking, we climbed our way up through snow (feet were unconscious by now), while it was still dark, to experience one of the most amazing sunrises I have ever seen. I’m not even gonna try to describe how special and insanely gorgeous this was, because there are no words to do it justice.
Team Seduction shenanigans
We wouldn’t be Team Seduction if this whole trekking was just about hiking. Oh no. At dinnertime we took over the dinner shack with some pots & pans music, we partied in a dome (which felt way bigger at the time), lost 5kg the first five days and gained everything within an hour of cookie munches, and made a proper song about the Mustache Man we kept on running into.
Yes, life wasn’t that bad under these conditions. But gee, I’m happy we’re back! Time for a shower, a feed and a big bottle of red wine. Thank you Torres for the pain, but mostly for the fun. It was a pleasure.
Marthe
Photos by: M. Barends, F. Mosesson, K. Huguelet ©
