Trekking is a lot of fun when every day brings glorious weather, awesome scenery and more terrific memories. We started early, because I was concerned that as we hiked north to Refugio Grey, we might be facing some strong winds. We certainly encountered strong winds the night before when we arrived at Refugio Paine Grande. But there was no wind at all, it was a still, sunny day with no clouds at all.

Our first viewpoint was an overlook above Laguna Los Patos - it was just 3.5 km from the start of the hike, and it seemed like we were there in no time at all. As you can see from the photos, it was a pretty lake, with some dramatic snowcapped peaks in the distance.

We continued north, hiking up and down; walking along the eastern shore of Lago Grey. We could see some icebergs floating out in the water - they had broken off from the glacier and floated all the way to this end of the lake.

At Mirador Lago Grey we reached the high point of the hike, about half way to the Refugio. From this vantage point, we got our first view of the distant Grey Glacier. This is a nice place to stop for a relaxing, scenic view. You can see mountains to the west and north, and the Lago Grey stretches from the foot of the glacier all the way off to the south.

It was 12:15 when we arrive at Refugio Grey (we started the day's hike at 8:30 A.M., and walked a leisurely pace all morning. I stopped for many pictures.) We got our room assignment, ate lunch, and dropped off Melanie's pack. Since we had the entire afternoon free, our plan was to continue hiking north - there was another mirador to the north that gives rewarding views across Grey Glacier and I wanted to see it.

Going north from Refugio Grey, the trail climbs ever upward. Once we got to the viewpoint, we would have view out over the ice below. We had to cross a long suspension bridge at one point - which was easily done, but in windy conditions it might be a more interesting adventure.

We reached the mirador at about 3 P.M., and hung out there for about an hour, admiring the view. A succession of different hikers came by, mostly people who were finishing their hike of the complete circuit of Torres del Paine. A French couple told us that they were paragliding enthusiasts, and that they had jumped off of Mont Blanc. A German hiker told us he had come over the Paso John Gardner, and that there was no wind at all up there (the pass is notorious for high winds, sometimes reaching 150 mph gusts.)

We hiked back toward Refugio Grey and went out on the peninsula that gives such excellent head-on views of Grey Glacier. We tried so spot kayakers out there, but did not see them (we talked to two guys later in the Refugio that told us they had paddled out toward Grey Glacier. These were two guys who worked on the Olympic planning, and currently they were living in Brazil trying to prepare for the 2016 Olympics. We had seen them the previous two nights in the Refugios as we had walked along.)

That night at the Refugio Grey dinner table, the guy who sat down across from us said he was from Woodinville, which is another suburb of Seattle - he lived just a few miles from us! He told us he had hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail twice, and the Appalachian Trail once. I guess doing the circuit of Torres del Paine was no problem for him.

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Panorama Photos

Maps

Today we hiked the left branch of the famous "W" route.

The more up-to-date Torres del Paine map shows the wind symbol at the start of our Grey Glacier hike

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Grey Glacier Photos