1st day :
8h o'clock, the minibus goes by the hostal "chez Paulette". Since a canadian talked about this park 2 years ago, I had kept the name of this place somewhere in my memory ; and today, we're driving to get to this sanctuary. The clouds are thick and, worse than the rain, the wind or the clouds, it's misty and the haze hides the landscapes bordering the road. We rub the misty windows to peer into the sky looking for the slightest sunny interval. These clouds shows us the route. We'll start the "W" trek from the west. We hope the great wind will sweep away all these clouds to enjoy the Paine towers for the last day. The minivan drop us off not far from l'administración, main building of the Conaf (The Conaf is the organism which manages all the national parks and natural reserves in Chile). We put up our backpacks, the driver points the route out to us and our trio starts up.

Alongside a river, our first steps are difficult, we trudge on gigantic yellowish grass lands, the unflagging wind facing us.

The wind expresses itself and draws harmonious waves on the top of the lands. A little further, some mounds of earth are scattered over the ground, innumerable dead trees topping them. Trees that seem to be stripped by the gusts of wind ; only their carcasses hopeless wait a storm uproots them.

Beautiful Patagonia with harsh climate, 150000 inhabitants, 2 millions of sheep and half a million of penguins. We go on our progress northwards up to reach an area where horses are relaxing. They take advantage of the low season to rest.

More than 3 hours have passed since we left, the path forks on the left and disappears into a scenery of bushes and loose stones. It slightly goes up before offering us a high angle view of a metallic-blue lake. We can see the mountain range buttress on the background, the upper part of the mountain is hidden by the clouds. The tone is set, we got in one of the Mother Earth's kingdom. And she puts on her most beautiful clothes to welcome us. Our trek turns into a stroll in the angels' country.


2nd day :
After an invigorating night spent in the camping, laid out near the Pehoe refuge, we take advantage of the installations of the refuge to have breakfast before starting the stage of the day. We begin the most western side of the W route. It's a round trip along the Grey lake before ending with the Grey glacier. The path rushes into the valley, then goes up and opens out on a terrace overlooking the lake. Its waters are calm and some icebergs float along the banks.

The valley is marked by the wind scars. No blow today, but the trees are bent and all the branches headed for the same direction. The unceasing gusts given by the wind shaped the plants of this valley. Like obedient servants, faithful to their master, they reply in unison.

1h30 of walk later, we reach the point of view overhanging the glacier. The mountain takes it in before throwing up the excess of ice in a concert of smashing noises.

We stay contemplative for several minutes before heading back. Arrived at the refuge, tents dismantling, eating, and we leave again, westwards this time. 2 hours far from here the "Italian" camp is located at the entrance of the central so-called "French" valley. A pleasant walk through the forests, lake, rivers and mountains.

The icy sections are sometimes safer gliding on the bottom, let's go Ben !

We are alone in this camp. We unload our belongings and, lightened, we start to climb the valley slopes. The walk is hard and we begin to feel tired. The path is cut by a lot of icy sections which complicate and slow our pace. Following an ascent, our eyes stop on a new glacier, the "French" glacier. We witness several collapses of ice blocks that cause mini-avalanches at the point of impact. We enjoy a son et lumière show. We are only three spectators tonight.

With the sunset, we turn back up to the camp. All night long, we'll hear the destructive activity of the glacier.

3rd day :
A long walk in the middle of this beautiful nature. We end the day at the gate of the Paine towers, in the "Chilean" camp. Exhausted, we go to bed with the dusk.


4th day :
The sun hasn't risen yet and it's time to get out from the sleeping bag. To slip into cold clothes, and to get out the tent. Outside, température is about -10°C. The gaz hardly goes out of the cartridge and the stove flame is faint ; I warm the cartridge up in order to help the gaz vaporization and to heat water up. A bit of hot liquid and a few biscuits into the stomach, we leave the camp, leaving all our equipment on the spot. 7h45, Here we are on the way to reach the watchtower of the Torres del Paine. Our muscles get little by little warmer. We slowly move forward on the icy ground. We perform tightroper walker on the icy rivers and everyone fell down one time at least. The first part of the walk alternates ways through the forest with frozen rivers crossing. Further, we leave a camping zone on the right, it's the last opportunity to set up the tent before the towers. Afterwards, the path goes up and snakes through a partly snow-covered steep land of stones. Our steps see how the land lies. The snow hides the obstacles, now stones now holes. The difficulty of the indistinct path adds to the difference in height. Our efforts are rewarded at the top of the land of stones.... Our pace slows down and our eyes open up : las Torres del Paine ! The grazing sun gives a hint of ochre to the towers. At their fundations, a snow-covered lake : the spotless white and the golden rock unite in front of our eyes. 3 towers like our franco-spanish trio. An incredible moment we share together and we try to immortalize in our opto-electronical boxes.

On the way back, we stop in the camp to dismantle the tents and to pack the backpacks up. We eat before clearing off et rush into the valley. The bus must come and picks us up close to the Amarga lagoon at 4h PM, we still have 3h of walking left. Like yesterday, we met no turists today. For 4 days, we saw about fifteen people while during the summer, the tourist buses drop off more than 300 people a day ! We arrive on time, we get on the minivan which sets us down at Puerto Natales 2 hours away. We enjoy our last evening together. We hope to meet again before flying back to France.