Torres del Paine, day 5: Francés – Cuernos – Hosteria Las Torres

Rainbow over Lago Nordenskjöld
Rainbow over Lago Nordenskjöld

FEB 15, 2016 – This day was marked by very random weather. We woke up with a dry tent and the weather didn’t look bad at all. However in places it was very windy, to the extent one had to be careful not to be blown off the trail. The rain was never far away either, as witnessed by several rainbows we saw. Repeatedly we were hit by some raindrops and tempted to put on our jackets, but it always subsided within a minute or two.
It was early afternoon when we arrived at the fork between Chileno camp and Hosteria Las Torres. We had the option of going directly up to Chileno, sleeping there and potentially ascending towards Las Torres viewpoint to see the sunset the next morning, as many hikers do. Alternatively we could take the more flat route to Hosteria Las Torres and do the ascent the next day, still having enough time to go up the valley and be back in the afternoon. Since we had failed to get a spot for Campamento Torres (the one above Chileno) and we had heard that Chileno was pretty crowded, we chose the second option.
Once we had set up camp, we had most of the afternoon left to relax. I used some of the time to build a wind shelter for the tent since the wind speeds were extreme on that campground – some of the cheaper tents had even been destroyed. After comparing the food options, we decided to have a fancy dinner at the Hosteria bar since the prices there seemed quite reasonable. It was a nice luxury to have after days of basic camping food.

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Wind gusts on the lake
Wind gusts on the lake

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