A first-person YouTube hiking vlog by Kara and Nate Buchanan documenting an 18 km round-trip trek to the base of the Torres del Paine towers in Chilean Patagonia. The transcript describes the route, weather (wind and rain), guide (Carrie from Chilly Tour), rest stops (Refugio El Chileno/Toleno), and outcome: ~13 miles hiked with ~2,500 ft elevation gain, ending back in Puerto Natales.
Today is our first full day on the Chilean inside of Patagonia. We just drove two hours from Puerto Natales where we're staying to Torres del Paine.
So it is now 9am we are about to begin an 18 kilometer hike to the bottom of the Torres del pione towers. It's 18km round trip, not one way.
Towers are back here, but you can't.
See them raining a little bit. But we are in Patagonia which means the weather could change any second.
It.
We just realized we never introduced our awesome tour guide. We're about a kilometer into the trek and this is our guide. It's just the three of us today.
I'm Carrie from Chilly Tour working here from North Carolina.
We have another American as our tour guide and her brother is from our hometown. Alright, let's go. I've never hiked with poles before, but Chilly Tour gives us poles and backpack and lunch and water. So I thought it'd be a good time to try it out. Carrie was going super fast with her, so I'm hoping this will speed me up. So is there a secret to it? Is it like this leg with this pole and this leg with this pole?
Oh yeah.
Such a natural.
So we just finished the first major uphill of the hike. We've been hiking here in Patagonia for like six, seven days. And I will say without a doubt that is the hardest section of trail that we've done yet. But now it's flattened out and we're currently walking up a valley. Apparently before we get to the base of the towers, we have one more big uphill hike. Even though it's a little cloudy, still absolutely beautiful.
It stopped raining, which is a good thing. And it's a lot chillier when we're not climbing straight up the mountain anymore. But Carrie told us that this little corner right here is called the Wind's Corner Corner.
Winds pass.
Winds Pass. And sometimes the winds are 100 kilometers an hour. And right now it is so still and quiet except for the river. So I feel like we got lucky.
We just stopped at a Refugio and it's called Toleno. Did I say it right?
It's kind of like a tea house on the Everest trek. They just have like snacks and stuff. So we're taking a little break now. This is really reminding me of the Everest trek refueling with the Snickers. I've needed a few of these this past week. Glad I'm finally getting one.
So today we started at Hotel Las Torres. We are now about halfway up to the towers at El Chileno. And we're headed up to the base. Two and a half hours left.
So we started here at this little red dot and hiked straight up to here. A thousand feet in elevation, which explains why I was sweating so much. And then we're going up to here and then straight up again.
That's just showing us right now.
No, no, no, no yet. So this is the top.
Top.
Wait, that is the base of the towers. Look at actually.
Whoa.
Hold up.
I think it got colder.
We are back on the trail. The next hour and a half we'll be through this forest with all these beautiful green trees. And we're going along the river.
Going in the park.
We have 45 more minutes. Straight up the rocks into the clouds.
It's about 20 minutes later. This giant rock that you see right behind me is the one I was zoomed in on with the tiny people.
So we're not there yet, but we're making progress.
We made it to the top. The towers are right there. If there weren't any clouds, you'd be able to see them. But at least it's not raining now. We're gonna go find a spot to get lunch. We just had a delicious lunch. And even though we can't see the towers, we have cookies and there's this awesome lake to look at.
Would be positive. Just finished lunch. All the sweat has frozen on my body. And now we are heading back down the mountain.
We made it down the super steep rocks and now we're going back into the linga forest.
It.
We're done going uphill for the whole day. It's all downhill from here.
Oh, it was a tough one.
We just got back. We hiked 13 miles today and over 2,500ft in elevation. Which means we're having a well deserved ice cream cone. Even though we've already had Snickers and cookies.
This is an ice cream cone. That's.
Cheers.
Good job everybody. Woo. Woohoo.
This tree trope is crazy.
Oh, they legit have a Patagonia store in Patagonia.
Where? Right here.
This.
Here we go. They're all the way.
