No time for "woosers"

Mom used to ask me all the time, when I was younger, to go for a walk. I detested going for a walk - not because my mother is bad company, but because I figured why should I walk when I have a perfectly good bike which will get me there faster?
Well, how times have changed.
I have just completed the longest walk of my life, thus far. Aproximately 130 km, with side trips: the full Torres del Paine circuit.
To give some perspective to this accomplishment, imagine hiking from Edmonton to Red Deer in 11 days (not so hard, you say). Now throw a bit of rugged terrain in the way ( a little harder). Just for fun, imagine some pretty large hills, say around 400 to 800 metres elevation gain or loss. Now make the trail nice and rocky, and add some boggy sections that have to be negotiated on rotting logs or muddy tufts of grass clinging to the slope. Throw in a few river crossings to add some spice, along with gusts of wind that can knock you sideways. Still not enough challenge? Oh, yeah, and you have to carry all the supplies you will need for the whole excursion (food, fuel, tent, clothing & sundries) which adds up to a load of about 60 lbs on your back.

This is what trekkers call ... "fun"

It was fun, believe it or not! There is something about that level of physical challenge, when, if you rise to meet it, makes you feel immensely powerful.
The first couple of days test your mettle by sheer length of the trail. We started with a 20km hike on relatively easy terrain, but with the packs at their heaviest, it was a really long march for that last kilometre into camp. Julie ( a lone traveller from Vancouver who became a member of our hiking party) was suffering horribly from blisters already. We patched her up with moleskin and duct tape & kept going.
Day two was only a couple of km shorter, but for bodies which had been sedentary on the Navimag ferry for half a week, it was pain pain pain.
Day 3 was a shorter jaunt to Glaciar Los Perros, but the terrain got more challenging. More ups and downs, more tree roots, more rocks to clamber over.
Day 4 dawned to whipping winds, and because of the comfort of the camp and our low energy, we decided on a rest day. Julie´s feet needed a break, and the weather didn´t look very good for crossing the pass - it was reputedly the most challenging part of the trail & not advised in bad weather. So we all slept until we couldn´t sleep any more, then installed ourselves in the cook shelter for the remainder of the day.
The rest was desperately needed, but a couple of things happened that confirmed that a break had been the right decision. First, we met a group of guides and porters who were serving a small party on an all-inclusive adventure tour. These folks wanted to walk the circuit, but in style and comfort. They carried only day packs, while the crew took their gear and plenty of food and treats from camp to camp. These were clearly fellas to befriend. We never mooched, but since we happened to be sitting around the cook shelter, the cook for the guided group offered us a few tidbits of salami and cheese (precious things on the trail - they don´t keep long!) Shortly after dinner was done with their guests, the pisco sour came out. They offered to share with us because they didn´t want to have to carry any extra supplies over the pass the next day. We couldn´t argue with that reasoning, and, never able to refuse pisco sour, soon we were swapping stories & trying on the gaucho (cowboy) gear of one of the porters. It was a scream. For the next four days, we kept pace with this party, and every night, we hung out with the guides. They always had a treat or two for us, and we became fast friends.
The other good reason for stopping was the weather. On the day of the dreaded crossing of the pass, the notoriously devilish Patagonian weather held in our favour, and we reached the crux of the trail (Paso John Garner - famous for gale force winds) under a crystal-clear sky. It was so calm on the pass that we stopped for a leisurely lunch overlooking Glaciar Grey. Mauricio (our guide buddy) said that he´d never seen the conditions so good in the six years he´d been guiding the trail.
The descent from the pass to the next camp was (as Lu puts it) " G.I. Jane." We dropped about 8oom elevation in 2.5km or so - stupidly steep. Most of the trail down involved hanging on to a tree trunk and jumping down to the next one. Crazy!
From Campamento Paso, it was a quick hop to the next camp at Lago Grey, where Lu and I splurged on a guided hike on the glacier. It was worth the price just for the zodiac ride across the iceberg-strewn lake. We were going about Mach 4 through choppy ice-water at the toe of a calving glacier. YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Up on the glacier, we tried a simple ice climb & took plenty of photos, even though it´s impossible to capture the place properly.
The next day, we got a taste of the famous Patagonian wind. I watched a tent (not ours!) fold completly to the ground under the force of it. By this camp, we had made it to the "front side" where folks could get a taste of the park by hiking the 4 or 5 day "W" trail, which we had now joined. The campsites became busier and noisier. We saw more people hiking in jeans (aaaack), or without packs at all, and we developed a fierce pride about what we had accomplished already on the circuit. Those hiking the "W" became "woosers" - not like the "C" for Circuit that we were doing. We were Complete. Capable. Courageous. Champions.
I have to give special credit to Julie, who kept on going, despite heels that looked like hamburger when we took off the bandages. She had a terrible cold and cough the entire trail, and became so ill that she had to leave a day ahead of Lu and I - before seeing the towers. She finished the circuit, though, and for that she is anything but a "wooser"!
There are so many moments I´ll remember from this extraordinary hike. We saw an enormous landscape on an intimate level. On the last morning in the park, Lu and I got up before dawn to clamber up a moraine for a sunrise view of the namesake of the park - the Torres del Paine. We were rewarded with a soul-searing vista as the rosy light of dawn played on the cold granite peaks. It was the perfect send-off.
I left the park with a bittersweet feeling. Our time on the trail was so intense, the weather so fantastic, that I don´t dare ever come back, for fear that it could never be so good again.

Time to leave Puerto Natales, and Chile, today. We are heading for El Calafate this afternoon, to see what Argentina has in store. It means that this epic adventure is almost at a close, which makes me very sad, but we´ll cram some more in to the next couple of weeks, I´m sure!