Today is a 26K trek with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. The winds were gusting over 35 mph in many exposed areas.
We are the slow hikers in our group. The leader Felipe and all the other hikers trek at a very fast pace which was not what we expected.
The climb today took us to the Mirador Francés to see the Torres del Paine towers.
At one point on the climb, David from southern CA had his boot sole come unglued. Felipe used some glue and gorilla tape to McGyver his boot back together. Felipe is an experienced climber and said he’s been to (and hiked) in over 68 countries.
Part of our trek today went through the area that was burnt down in 2011 by a careless hiker.
Felipe told us if the wind gusts are strong enough you need to get down or it will knock you over. It didn’t take long for that to happen but everyone in the group did get down to be safe.
Once we reached the summit we got to see the towers but the wind was brutal at that point. We were lucky that we had no rain today but this trek is a lot harder than we thought it would be.
It was a brutal 9 hour day and we are pretty beat up. We are spending the night in a tent at the Paine Grande Refugio.
