The Glory of Paine

Back from a week in los Torres de Paine, and finally clean, well fed, warm, and dry. We hiked 100 km in 7 days (25 of which we did in one. my feet were pretty pissed off by that point.) and it was painful, glorious, and one of the most spectacular experiences of my life. Theres too much to tell in detail, but I´ll give you some hilights.

- being surrounded by mountains like none i´ve seen, great spires and castles of tan and chocolate rock
- ankle deep mud
-hiking a pass in a snowstorm
-winds that literally blew us over (picture it: 50 pound backpack, eyes slits against the stinging snow, crouching on a steep slope that tumbles down to an enormous glacier, laughing with the ridiculousness of the situation and fighting not to be blown away)
- two avalanches (from a very safe distance away)
- 50 people, 6 languages, 20 campstoves, and a cloud of smoke crammed into a small yert made of tarps in an attempt to get out of the rain
- tent poles bending in the wind
- jumping from boulder to boulder across a river
- climbing down a slippery, sketchy ladder into a canyon full of piles of landslide-ready rock (some of it was breaking away as i descended)
-dodging by 1.5 feet a rock twice the size of my head that was bouncing down the mountain (never want to experience that again)
- washed out trails
-breaks in the clouds that exposed Los Cuernos del Paine, shining silvery and massive in the sun and looking 100% surreal
- rainbows rainbows rainbows!

I was quite the adventure. We didn´t get to see the Torres up close due to the rain, but sill saw some breathtaking views. Every time i´d look up and see the mountains or los cuernos i would be shocked with their beauty, despite the fact that i´d looked at them 10 times in the past half hour. Its beauty never ceased to amaze. After my first view of los cuernos, i had the halleluja section of the messiah running through my head for hours. Despite (and perhaps partially thanks to) the rain, we had an amazing journey.

Now we go further south to Punta Arenas where we´ll see penguins (huzzah!) and will, hopefully, make it down to Tierra del Fuego.