To W or not to W?
Actually, the question was more like to Circuit or not to Circuit. I know it sounds complicated, but it's really not, so just bear with me. The two best and most popular treks in Torres del Paine are "The Circuit", which goes in sort of a circle hitting all the important sites, and "The W", which is a part of "The Circuit" that takes you to the most important parts and from a bird's eye view looks just like the letter W. Now, this is a huge national park, and only the W takes four-five days; so when I heard we are doing the week-week and a half Circuit I pleaded, cried, stomped my feet, but nothing helped. I did think of fake fainting to underline my protest, but though that would leave me with no dignity at all, so I didn't.
At first there were nine of us. In the picture above, in the Hebrew spirit from right to left excluding us, are: Jay, Roman, Vova, Royi, Oron, Alon, and Shira. To those of you who don't know us, we are the two on the bottom, Shurik is squatting, and I am just short like that. We started the day by going up to the highest and most difficult part of the W - The Towers for which the whole park is named. I'm not going to lie, I fell behind from the very beginning. I've never hiked such distances with so much weight on my back. We did leave most of our stuff behind, in the storage in the hostel, but we still had to carry a lot including tents, food, and sleeping bags that to me seemed to have weighed a ton. Thankfully, Shurik has relieved me from carrying our tent and, further on, the guys also realized I'm half their size, and took some very heavy pasta and tuna cans off my back and divided it amongst themselves to carry. But still, I was like a new born dear whose legs cannot support its weight. For a while there, about half of the first day I felt like crashing down and crying "No more!", but I couldn't bear Shurik being disappointed in me and the rest of the guys thinking I’m a wimp.
Words can't describe how glad I was when we got to the camp site. We dropped our bags, set up the tents and, just to make sure that the day was complete with an amazing sight, climbed up four hundred vertical meters, on jagged boulders and rocks, to the viewpoint of the Towers. And what a view it was! As if from the glacier beneath it emerged three stone towers like the tips of a three headed spear of some gigantic stone god. Quietly I admitted to myself that maybe the agony endured in the past seven hours was worth it.
Down from the Towers we went struggling to catch the last of day light and arrived to the camp for dinner in the dark. It is such a shame we were not allowed to build a fire, after all it is an essential part of camping, but this time we had to do with the minuscule heat coming from the three very compact camping gas stoves we had with us. Nevertheless, I did mange to burn my pants on them trying to get warm. I and Shirá were the designated cooks and actually preferred it. As it is washing dishes is one of my least favorite things to do, but doing it in the freezing glacial water from the creek!? No thank you! The menu for next week was pasta, tuna, and soups. We made the best of it by using powdered tomato soup in the pasta to make tomato sauce and it actually turned out rather nice considering the conditions and everybody went to bed full and happy. I, Shirá and Shurik were in the same tent. The tents we used were actually meant for two people, but this way is much warmer, and the whole group has to carry less tents. Besides, we had a lot of fun in there, the three of us. We played cards for an hour before going to bed.
Know those mornings when you really hate getting out of bed? Well, now imagine that getting out also means stepping into the cold of dawn and climbing up in the dark for an hour to see the sunrise above the same mountain you already saw yesterday. Shurik, of course, was the first to get up. He put on his clothes at marathon speed, while shaking me awake and asking if I'm coming to see the sunrise, but I was so sleepy and angry at the world for being so cold, I told him that he might as well go by himself. I thought I'd fall back asleep, but as soon as Shurik got out of the tent, I could not close my eyes, and all I could think of was him telling me how I have failed to witness such an amazing sight only because I was too lazy to get out of bed. Another torturous few minutes inside the sleeping bag, and I had no other choice but to get up and get out. Cursing under my nose in all four directions, I sprinted out of the tent past Shurik and the rest of the guys next to the tent, ran to the bathroom, and in less then five minutes, armed with a head lamp and a walking stick, was ready to conquer the Towers for the second time.
Gorgeous, aren't they? Now, looking at the pictures from the trek, it almost looks like we were in some photography studio and the background is just some screen you can pick to take your picture in front off. I assure you though, it's not! And I have the muscle pain to prove it. By the time we got back down, everybody who chose not to go up for the second time was up and making breakfast. And as soon as we were finished with that, we were one group member short. Shirá, the girl who shared the tent with us last night, has decided that the Towers are more than enough for her and left early with some people who were returning to Puerto Natales as well. Great, now I'm the only girl once again. Keeping up with those guys should be a piece of cake, but just to be sure I and Shurik left as soon as our tent was packed and ready to go. The other six guys would catch up to us in no time, so it's not like we leaving them behind. We began our descent, and to my surprise, out of nowhere, I got a great boost of energy and was almost running down the trail. Even when the rest of the guys caught up with us and stopped to have a drink of water, I sneaked out and continued on my own. Not for long though. Shurik and the rest caught up with me at this little vertical climb where you had to use a rope to get up top. We continued all together and I think I was keeping up a fairly good pace when the group made a very important and fortunate decision: Most of the guys were finding the trek just as difficult as I was and preferred proceeding with the W, rather then the Circuit! Well, what can I say? Good things come to those who wait. However, the decision was not unanimous. Roma and Vova were still up to doing the Circuit and so we divided the food, took a group picture, and went our own ways.
Then there were six. Not really much to say from here. It was beautiful, challenging, and even, dare I say, fun. We didn't have the best weather throughout, but at times strong wind and rain have their own benefits like rainbows in the sky and wind gusts ripping up the surface of the lake. By the end of it, we were definitely glad it's over, but not as glad as that we had done it. On the fifth day, when the ferry arrived in the morning, I'm pretty sure each of us felt relieved and victorious.
At first there were nine of us. In the picture above, in the Hebrew spirit from right to left excluding us, are: Jay, Roman, Vova, Royi, Oron, Alon, and Shira. To those of you who don't know us, we are the two on the bottom, Shurik is squatting, and I am just short like that. We started the day by going up to the highest and most difficult part of the W - The Towers for which the whole park is named. I'm not going to lie, I fell behind from the very beginning. I've never hiked such distances with so much weight on my back. We did leave most of our stuff behind, in the storage in the hostel, but we still had to carry a lot including tents, food, and sleeping bags that to me seemed to have weighed a ton. Thankfully, Shurik has relieved me from carrying our tent and, further on, the guys also realized I'm half their size, and took some very heavy pasta and tuna cans off my back and divided it amongst themselves to carry. But still, I was like a new born dear whose legs cannot support its weight. For a while there, about half of the first day I felt like crashing down and crying "No more!", but I couldn't bear Shurik being disappointed in me and the rest of the guys thinking I’m a wimp.
Words can't describe how glad I was when we got to the camp site. We dropped our bags, set up the tents and, just to make sure that the day was complete with an amazing sight, climbed up four hundred vertical meters, on jagged boulders and rocks, to the viewpoint of the Towers. And what a view it was! As if from the glacier beneath it emerged three stone towers like the tips of a three headed spear of some gigantic stone god. Quietly I admitted to myself that maybe the agony endured in the past seven hours was worth it.
Down from the Towers we went struggling to catch the last of day light and arrived to the camp for dinner in the dark. It is such a shame we were not allowed to build a fire, after all it is an essential part of camping, but this time we had to do with the minuscule heat coming from the three very compact camping gas stoves we had with us. Nevertheless, I did mange to burn my pants on them trying to get warm. I and Shirá were the designated cooks and actually preferred it. As it is washing dishes is one of my least favorite things to do, but doing it in the freezing glacial water from the creek!? No thank you! The menu for next week was pasta, tuna, and soups. We made the best of it by using powdered tomato soup in the pasta to make tomato sauce and it actually turned out rather nice considering the conditions and everybody went to bed full and happy. I, Shirá and Shurik were in the same tent. The tents we used were actually meant for two people, but this way is much warmer, and the whole group has to carry less tents. Besides, we had a lot of fun in there, the three of us. We played cards for an hour before going to bed.
Know those mornings when you really hate getting out of bed? Well, now imagine that getting out also means stepping into the cold of dawn and climbing up in the dark for an hour to see the sunrise above the same mountain you already saw yesterday. Shurik, of course, was the first to get up. He put on his clothes at marathon speed, while shaking me awake and asking if I'm coming to see the sunrise, but I was so sleepy and angry at the world for being so cold, I told him that he might as well go by himself. I thought I'd fall back asleep, but as soon as Shurik got out of the tent, I could not close my eyes, and all I could think of was him telling me how I have failed to witness such an amazing sight only because I was too lazy to get out of bed. Another torturous few minutes inside the sleeping bag, and I had no other choice but to get up and get out. Cursing under my nose in all four directions, I sprinted out of the tent past Shurik and the rest of the guys next to the tent, ran to the bathroom, and in less then five minutes, armed with a head lamp and a walking stick, was ready to conquer the Towers for the second time.
Gorgeous, aren't they? Now, looking at the pictures from the trek, it almost looks like we were in some photography studio and the background is just some screen you can pick to take your picture in front off. I assure you though, it's not! And I have the muscle pain to prove it. By the time we got back down, everybody who chose not to go up for the second time was up and making breakfast. And as soon as we were finished with that, we were one group member short. Shirá, the girl who shared the tent with us last night, has decided that the Towers are more than enough for her and left early with some people who were returning to Puerto Natales as well. Great, now I'm the only girl once again. Keeping up with those guys should be a piece of cake, but just to be sure I and Shurik left as soon as our tent was packed and ready to go. The other six guys would catch up to us in no time, so it's not like we leaving them behind. We began our descent, and to my surprise, out of nowhere, I got a great boost of energy and was almost running down the trail. Even when the rest of the guys caught up with us and stopped to have a drink of water, I sneaked out and continued on my own. Not for long though. Shurik and the rest caught up with me at this little vertical climb where you had to use a rope to get up top. We continued all together and I think I was keeping up a fairly good pace when the group made a very important and fortunate decision: Most of the guys were finding the trek just as difficult as I was and preferred proceeding with the W, rather then the Circuit! Well, what can I say? Good things come to those who wait. However, the decision was not unanimous. Roma and Vova were still up to doing the Circuit and so we divided the food, took a group picture, and went our own ways.
Then there were six. Not really much to say from here. It was beautiful, challenging, and even, dare I say, fun. We didn't have the best weather throughout, but at times strong wind and rain have their own benefits like rainbows in the sky and wind gusts ripping up the surface of the lake. By the end of it, we were definitely glad it's over, but not as glad as that we had done it. On the fifth day, when the ferry arrived in the morning, I'm pretty sure each of us felt relieved and victorious.