Day 8: Bet you Can’t

Published by

Sophie Rogers

on

March 17, 2024

After yesterday, we were very hesitant for today. We asked the front desk for the weather report. The weather looked slightly better than the day before, but still was supposed to rain the entire day, with a possible chance of no rain from 11-12. We asked again right before we headed out in hopes of it being better, no such luck.

Ashley & I took the journey at 7:30am to the trailhead of the Towers. This journey was roughly 1 hour & 25 minutes and we had to stop in on the way to provide our entrance tickets. When we went up to the ranger to hand over our tickets, they looked at us and asked if we were prepared for the hike. We replied saying “yes absolutely.” He then replied are you sure? “Yes” Do you have hiking poles? “No” Well you should get some. “Okay” Are you sure you are prepared the top has snow and it is a challenging hike? “Yes we are prepared” Are you prepared to see nothing at the top? “Yep” Okay be super super careful – good luck. “Thank you!”

So that was the start of this experience for today. We were a little annoyed by his comments (but also understood it’s his job), but still he was very much like maybe you shouldn’t go. After we got over that we made it to the trailhead and our driver (the GOAT) had hiking poles for us to use. These at first were annoying, but honestly we found them to be super useful throughout the hike.

We started the hike right around 9:05 and most people thought it would take us at least 8 hours to complete. We were slightly nervous starting as no one had faith in us and were still very nervous about the weather, but we preserved lol. It was barely sprinkling at the beginning, but we decided to throw on our emergency ponchos anyway. We knew what it was like yesterday and were going to do everything in our power not to get as wet.

We then officially started the hike. We knew that the opening to see the Towers at the top was from 11-12, so we hauled up to the top. On our way up we had to strip a couple layers as outer ponchos were causing an internal hot box. We refused to take them off as we assumed it would be bad luck until we made it all the way to the top. Everyone was giving us crazy looks, but we did not care. We kept continuing to haul up but of course did take breaks to take pics & and enjoy the views around us throughout the hike (as it’s about the journey not the destination). Towards the top it was a bit snowy, but mainly slush and nothing to what we had anticipated based on the rangers at the station.

We ended up making it to the top in just over 2.5 hours (6.5 miles and over 3,800 ft of elevation). This was amazing for us because we got a great view (as good as we were going to get) at the top of both the towers. The clouds came in fairly quick once we got up top though, so we were very thankful for the quick hike up.

Once we arrived at the top, we starting chatting with a young couple from Holland. They were on a 5 month journey from the top of South America to the bottom. They were doing the “W” Trek as most people were and also mentioned how brutal the day was yesterday with everything soaking wet. They also informed us that the people working the “W” Trek were not as kind as they were expecting and how expensive it was to complete. We chatted with them for a while (way longer than planned ~1 hour) and they even gave us a piece of their chocolate bar which was DELICIOUS. This is exactly what we needed.

While we were at the top it even started to snow. This was a shock as Ashley and I were almost as wet as the day before simply just from sweat. The top was an experience as well because a man from NV even jumped into the glacier water. He looked frigid, but tried to convince us it was not that cold. The top was for sure an experience, but it was time to head back down.

It was on the way down that we truly realized how much up we had gone. We took our time on the way down to experience more of the views and enjoy the journey since we were in no rush. We took lots of photos of the views and of course loads of selfies. We hiked down which took us roughly 2 hours.

Once we reached the base we ran into the two Scottish girls from the day before. They were finally dry, which was nice and we were glad to see they survived the night camping. It was fun to chat with again before we continued on our way.

When we got back down from the hike we went into the base welcome center to get something to drink. We both got a blue Gatorade and the man behind the desk gave us a free hot chocolate as someone had ordered incorrectly. This was probably the best hot chocolate of my life. We were so thankful to whoever ordered wrong because it was a huge win for us.

We made our way back to the van to head back to the lodge to pick-up Katherine. Once we picked her up we went on our way back to Puerto Natales for the night. We stopped at our hotel there before grabbing an Uber to dinner. We already had a restaurant planned from our previous time in Puerto Natales which made it easy.

We ended up at Cafe Artimana. We all ordered our last Pisco Sour of the trip (which was a sad moment). Ashley & I split a pasta and a risotto and we believed it to be one of the best, if not the best meal of the trip. We also ordered a chocolate cake & a carrot cake for dessert both were bomb. After dinner we were exhausted and ready to go back to the hotel. We ordered another Uber and went on our merry way back.