Saturday 16th January – Torres del Paine, Chile

We’re assured that it’s going to be an easier hike today... just 18km in challenging terrain to see the Torres del Paine or the “three towers”. After going up the mountain side for a couple of hours, we entered a beautiful forest in a valley, before we made the final ascent up the glacial moraine. We were incredibly lucky with the weather as the clouds cleared just as we reached the top and we enjoyed the spectacular view with lunch. Our efforts during the day were undermined by our campfire dinner of slow roasted lamb... many bottles of malbec...and a dulce de leche dessert. Needless to say we sleep well!

Friday 15th January –Torres del Paine, Chile

There’s no time to take a breath...it’s another early start so we can begin our 8 hour bus ride to Torres del Paine, in Chile. The long border checks are very frustrating but it’s a beautiful day and the drive is spectacular as we pass fields of yellow, old dilapidated farmhouses and gorgeous snow capped mountains. As we get closer, we get clear views of the “three towers” which the area is famous for. It’s about 6pm by the time we arrive at the campsite and we have dinner by the campfire, as it’s freezing, before squeezing into our tiny (and I mean tiny) two man tent.

Thursday 14th January –El Chalten back to El Calafate

We woke up rather sore and feeling sorry for ourselves, with yet another 22km hike ahead of us to Laguna Torre. The saving grace was that the hike was slightly less challenging than the previous day and we were distracted by the beautiful scenery which included a glacial moraine and pretty forest. After hours of walking, we finally reach the picturesque glacier and the lake for a lunch stop, but within 5 minutes of sitting down, we’re hit by piercing cold winds travelling at 100km per hour and we struggle to stay put as the wind blows us around - there goes lunch! We’re forced to find an alternative spot and after another 4 hours of walking we arrive back at our hostel with enough time to have a quick shower before hopping on a hour bus back to El Calafate.

Wednesday 13th January – El Chalten

I (Rich), started our 8 hour hike that day with some trepidation as it was only 3 days ago I’d finally been able to walk / limp without the use of a crutch. We left the hostel at 8.30am in the hands of our local guide Pillar and pretty soon we were headed up into the mountains. The weather was spectacular and after traversing a long valley of meandering mountain streams and marshy scrub with vistas of distant mountains and glaciers, we came upon the final ascent for the day. It was up the gravelly mountain for an hour until we came upon the glacial lakes of Madre and Hija overlooked by the peak of El Chalten itself (described by the locals as “smoking” due to the way clouds constantly from around its peak). We witnessed a small avalanche and an ice fall, snow cascading into the lake like a waterfall. The hike back took us on a slight detour to Lago Capri but few of us really had the energy left to appreciate the scenery. Our 8 hour hike had turned into 11.5 hours and after covering 25km we were all exhausted so we opted for a night in at the hostel with some spag bol and a good bottle of red to help my foot recover.

Tuesday 12th January – Moreno Glacier & El Chalten

This is what we came for! A couple of hours drive from El Calafate beside Lagos Argentina we come across the amazing Moreno Glacier. We spent 4 hours taking in the vastness and majesty of the glacier that ends at the lake. The statistics are impressive: the glacier is over 2 km wide, 220km long, around 200m high at the edge of the lake with 40-60m above the water surface, it is in perfect equilibrium moving 2m every day but not growing or receding. But much more impressive than that was to see it action as huge blocks of ice weighing hundreds of tons would sporadically come crashing into the lake before our very eyes. The resulting boom was like an explosion and sent waves rolling across the lake before the massive chard would upend itself in the lake becoming an iceberg of brilliant blue that is hard to describe .... so there’s lots of photos above.
Ming (see Jan 10) also kept us entertained scurrying around with his yellow vest and two video cameras capturing the glacier in all its glory plus endless hours of inane activity that would threaten to put any viewer into a coma. Amazingly his dedication to the trivial and obscure (such as people putting on raincoats, unloading bags from busses, filming the inside of busses and hotel lobbies) remained unabated for the entire trip.
We drove back to El Calafate in the afternoon and set off on the 3 hour local bus to El Chalten that evening. Arriving late we all headed to the nearest restaurant for a quick bite so we could get to bed at a decent hour (1am) to prepare ourselves for our first big hike.