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Live #85, Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile (Day 4)

17 Feb February 17

#106_tdp415/04/2015 The ice on my tent was a remnant of the bitter cold night and I had to start walking in my shorts after falling to the ground and opening up a wound on my knee. I couldn’t help but smile when I was asked if I would be heading to the beach! My final destination for the day would be Mirador of Vallé Frances though, offering a first close-up view on the famous Torres.

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After my little accident on the ice, I made quick progress towards Campo Italiano and arrived there at 2PM for lunch. The route until that point was just backtracking from the previous day, allowing me to focus on the walking rather than taking pictures 🙂 I then quickly did the check in and set up of my tent before heading out towards Vallé Frances at 3PM. The trail led me through a big boulder field and a lot of people had just returned from the 3-hour hike, making me realise that I was actually pretty late and the last person to head towards the viewpoint! The following uphill path with trees on each side was really beautiful thanks to the warm and soft sunlight peaking through the leaves as I was slowly entering the golden hour.

I was told that the end of the trail will offer a 360° Panoramic view – however, looking at the landscape and taking into account that I should not have much more than an hour to walk from the Glacier View point, I was starting to doubt that. After some time walking through yet another forest section and drinking from the streams (which actually made me even more thirsty!), I eventually had the first good view on the back side of the Torres.

The last remaining hikers told me that I was very close to the viewpoint and when I finally arrived, completely alone and enjoying the last moments of day light and the more or less 130° “Panorama” view, I could give my hurting toes a well deserved break of all the hiking today. I was making it back to the camp in complete darkness, had a quick dinner and fell asleep really fast after an exhausting day with nearly 30km distance covered.

Day 4 Statistics:
Distance hiked: 28,35km
Time spent: 6h 22m
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Posted by on 17th February 2016 in RTW, Travel

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