Las Torres At Sunrise

Date: March, 11, 2015

Daily Distance: Camp Torres to the Towers – 1 mi – (1.6 km) round trip Camp Torres to Camp Seron – 10.5 mi – (16.9 km)

Time: 12 hours – Including 2 hours at Las Torres

Start: Camp Torres – With side trip to Las Torres at sunrise

Finish: Camp Seron

Notes: This morning Marielle, Marc and I got up at 5am, which was an hour before sunrise. We left our gear inside our tents and only took water, sleeping bags, warm clothes and our cameras. It was a dark, especially in the beech forest of the camp so we used the light from our headlamps to find the trail leading to Las Torres. Like most of the people in camp we wanted to get a sunrise view of the three iconic granite pillars (Las Torres) or Torres del Paine. The Towers turn a bright reddish/pink color at sunrise.

The climb isn’t difficult but it’s definitely a climb from start to finish. All three of us were shedding our warm clothes immediately. Once you’ve walked through the old beech forest, you have to scramble through a field of giant boulders The Towers stand behind a glacial pool. Their names: Torre d’Agonsti (2850 metres), also known as Torre Sur, Torre Central (2800m) and Torre Norte (2600m), also known as Torre Monzino. They stand behind a glacial pool. As expected, the wind was gusting as soon as we came out of the beech forest. We took a seat on some large flat boulders and waited for the show. Marc brought his sleep pad and sleeping bag. He took off his boots and crawled in!