Torres del Paine

It's 06:30 am, I'm panting and cursing as I climb the steep rocky trail as quickly as I can to get here.

It's steep. I'm out of breath. I haven't eaten anything. Did I mention it's 06:30 in the morning?

No alarm clock.

Apparently, we overslept. At 05:45 we awoke in our tent at Campamento Torres, saw some light and decided to crawl out of our sleeping bags. Looking at the sky, I realize that sunrise happened a good 20 minutes ago. It's a good 45 to 60 minute hike from camp to this lake. We get our things together as quickly as possible and start walking.

It's cold. Getting out of the tent we put on a few layers. 10 minutes into hiking uphill I'm hot as hell. I stop, shed a couple of layers and keep going. By the time I'm half way up I have only a t-shirt on and the windbreaker for the wind, not the cold. I still have my long underwear on. It's too much of a pain to take them off. It would take too long. I'm in a hurry. I'm hot. Sweating. Ugh. I'm not happy.

As we go up the very steep trail, we start running into people coming down. "WHAT?" I think to myself as they pass. "You've already been up there, had enough and are coming down?" continues the thought. We pass more people.

Damn. I really screwed up and missed this sunrise. "I came all the way to Patagonia and I can't even get up early enough for this one sunrise" my mind screams. "You idiot! How could you miss your only chance to get that fantastic light up there!" ... "some 'photographer' you are!"... and so they continue to scream at me.

Every once in a while I look up and see more and more clouds start to build on what was initially a clear blue sky with very fine light. The frustration builds. I'm sweating.

C.a.n.'.t. c.l.i.m.b. f.a.s.t. e.n.o.u.g.h.

After what seems like eternity and a day, we arrive. Nobody here but us. We've passed what seemed like a dozen other tourists going down. At least the consolation prize is being here by ourselves. "Yeah, but I bet they got the light" screams my inner daemon.

I stand there, dripping from sweat. I start stripping my clothes off until I'm in my underwear to cool off. Marjon snaps one of those photos only a spouse can at this point and needless to say it's not going to get posted.

Finally.

I calm down enough and start to get my camera gear out. At least I didn't forget the tripod this time.

Where's the light? Clouds, fog really, begins to build around the Torres. It's actually quite dramatic in the sky, but there's no light of any color on the rocks. I wait. I snap a few shots and wait some more.

And again.

I went to Patagonia, hiked in Torres del Paine for six days and this is all I got of the cirque.

On the way down we started passing people still coming up.
After packing up camp, we started hiking down towards Hosteria Las Torres to catch the shuttle out.
During those 3 to 4 hours we began passing more, and more tourists hiking up. Some had stayed at the Refugio at Campamento Chileano. Then we started passing the really fresh and fruity ones from the Hosteria. They were all heading for this view. Suddenly that put everything into perspective.

Marjon took this shot of me while taking this one.

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine
Chilean Patagonia

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