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What a start to the day. Just as we left the refugio to get breakfast (which was served in the Refugio Torre Central 100m away) the sun had poked its head up over the horizon and cast an incredible pink glow over Monte Almirante Nieto and the Torres del Paine. Unfortunately it only lasted a minute or two.
After breakfast we set off with Mandi and Tom along the eastern side of the W, along the path to Mirador Base Las Torres (The Towers Base Lookout), about 9.5kms each way. We started off along the valley, crossing some pretty suspension bridges along the way before turning up the hill and following the Río Ascencio.
The path hugged the rocky mountain side, and so we were happy not to have had the winds that we had the day before or we might have blown off! We soon reached what was roughly the mid way point, the Refugio Chileno nestled in beside the river, which we had wanted to stay at this night but since it was full we would have to return back to Torre Norte.
We stopped in for a toilet stop and a snack from our pre-packed lunch bags before continuing on our way. As we made our way higher up the gully we started getting glimpses of the towers with blue sky around them which was very exciting. We walked through some forest areas covered in beautiful beech trees, then hit the steep, rocky uphill slope littered with enormous boulders from a glacier that would have once taken that path, until we reached the lookout.
At the top we came over a rise and in front of us was the beautiful glacial lake from Glaciar Torres, with the 3 spires of the Torres del Paine behind it. On either side were menacing rocky cliffs with grey and dark brown colours. We had made it to the towers, the namesake of the national park.
And what a day for it! There was quite a bit of cloud rolling in from behind the towers, but there was some blue sky around allowing the sun to show off the turquoise blue of the lake. Despite the weather being really pleasant all day, it was freezing cold and super windy at the top, but we didn't mind with that view.
We had some lunch and just stared at what was in front of us, then took a whole bunch of photos. After about an hour we were getting pretty cold and decided we should probably head back down again, so off we went.
Going down hill now we were able to enjoy our surroundings even more. The dark green of the beech trees, the grey of the rocks and the blue sky backdrop was very picturesque. Waterfalls fell from the cliffs and streams ran alongside the path where we filled our water bottles with fresh glacial water.
What an incredible start to our W Trek. Great weather, great company, phenomenal scenery. It was going to be a fun few days! As we digested another hearty meal we tucked ourselves up in our warm bunks early to get a good nights sleep.
LAPFWT
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