To give you some perspective of how really immense and tall these mountains are, these two consist of the left side of my Fitzroy pic, that big brown chunk of hillside and then the glacier on the far left. My friend Pablo, who I met in El Chalten and went on this hike with, is my lovely model in the orange jacket. And this shot is zoomed in, so you still have about double or more fully zoomed out. Let’s just put it this way…these mountains are ginormous. And that you have access to such massive grandeur, right at your fingertips, or more accurately, toe-tips, is why my love for Patagonia will never fade. Los Glaciares National Park, El Chalten, Santa Cruz Province Google Maps Location photo was taken from: https://goo.gl/GEFYhN
Torres del Paine and its massive peaks or cuernos (horns), as they say in Chile. Hiking to this viewpoint, was not an easy task, even though its a "shorter" trek than a lot of the other trails in the park (5 miles RT). What is deceiving about it is that it is a continual 5 miles of up and down trails. Think of an Excel doc charting the stock market performance since its inception, a steady slog uphill, with many ups and downs in between. This is what this hike was. But all of that and the effort to get there faded away when you were standing there in person.
After finally finding our way up the unmarked open hillside an hour later, to the top of Loma del Pliegue Tombado, this is what lay before our very eyes. Pure, unadulterated, raw beauty. When my eyes first gazed upon this, it was so moving, my eyes teared up. It took my breath away, for moments later, after that long hike, reality kicked in and I inhaled deeply for more air. Stunning Fitzroy and Torre with wisps of clouds touching their peaks; Glacier Grande and Torre with their radiant aqua blue color; Laguna Torre with its half water, half frozen ice surface. Of the numerous beautiful vistas I have seen on my travels around the world, I can probably only count on one, maybe two hands, views like this that took over my mind, body and soul so completely, as if time stood still. With the combination of a long adventurous hike, up steep, snowy and icy hills, unmarked trails and wind that would make a hurricane jealous, the reward of this at the end of the trail was such a delicious icing on the cake. A moment frozen in time, seared deeply into my memory forever. Los Glaciares National Park, El Chalten, Santa Cruz Province Google Maps Location photo was taken from: https://goo.gl/16kWBf
