The O-Circuit (day 16-25)

Day 16 - 25 (30th Jan - 8th Feb)
Argentina: Ushuaia
Chile: Puerto Natales, Torres Del Paine

Writing about people is difficult, because I want to convey the reality of the situations and dynamics, but not betray the personal bits and cheapen anything, so not everything is written. 

Simone and I set off by taxi for the bus, loaded our bags then bundled into our reclining seats for the 11 hour trip to Puerto Aranas over the border and into Chile. As I'm writing this I can't think of another long distance bus I've been on, which I find hard to believe but my current memory has this as my longest. It passed by fairly easily, with some dozing, chatting, writing of blog, listening to music, generally whiling the day away. Eventually we got to the border with Chile, all climbed out of the bus and queued up to get our passports stamped and declare any food or plant product as Chile is strict on the importation of anything which could transport foreign parasites, bacteria etc. Not hugely keen on throwing my apple, lunch or nuts, they were "accidentally" stowed in pockets that the checkpoint marshall didn't root through whilst manually searching bags.

We arrived in Puerto Aranas after a short ferry crossing, ahead of schedule, and were able to hop on the earlier connecting bus to Puerto Natales which was a bonus, improving our ETA from midnight to 21:00. We arrived in Puerto Natales, hoiked our bags on and walked 20 minutes through the quiet town to our hostel.

Once checked in, we nipped out for some pizza and found a really good stone baked pizza restaurant (Mesita Grande), and were treated to a performance of the Argentine Tango by a couple who had dressed up for the occasion, making their living travelling around performing in restaurants around Chile and Argentina. A little racy for the calm restaurant environment, it was still really interesting to watch but the whole place was dominated by the performance with the background music for their routine playing out instead of the restaurant soundtrack, with waitresses/waiters having to negotiate space around them working the floor.

The only reason I'd come to Puerto Natales was to understand, book and prep for walking the O-Circuit. After breakfast the next morning, I spent a few hours looking at the route on a map, found a blog which described the campsites and started getting my head round it all. The O-circuit, unlike the W-trek, is one directional (anti-clockwise) from Central camping, which you access from the border of the Torres Del Paine national park by shuttle or walking the 7km. Once at Central, there is no phone signal, wifi is avaliable to purchase for $10US/hour, there's a cafe and gift shop, a wellness retreat, expensive hotel/apartments, and a campsite.

There is strictly no wild camping permitted anywhere in the park, and the campsites around the O-Circuit are operated by two companies, Vertice Travel and Las Torres. Anti-clockwise from Central, the sites are Seron, Dickson, Los Perros, Grey Sector, Paine Grande, Frances, Cuernos, Chileno, and two park sites, Italiano (which is at the base of the Mirador Britanico) and Paso Camp which is after the John Gardner Pass, before Grey Sector. Las Torres operate Frances, Cuernos, Chileno, Central and Seron with the others being operated by Vertice. I looked at the mileages between sites and intended to stay at Seron, skip Dickson and stay at Los Perros, Grey, Frances, Central and hope to do the whole thing in 6 days. It's traditionally an 8 or 9 day hike, but I was optimistic that I could do it in less. Simone had intended to do day-hikes around the park as she didn't have the equipment for camping, nor the confidence in tackling the multi-day trek but through some discussion about altering the schedule and finding somewhere to rent kit, agreed to join the trek for the W-section, from Grey. With a 7 day plan in place for the walk, we started looking at booking the camping to make it a reality.

The W, and the O, are amongst the most popular hiking routes in Patagonia, and for many are the reason they come here. With the limited availability of campsites, they book up quickly, really quickly. It turns out most people who attempt the trails book it 6 months or more in advance, and after an hour of hunting through websites, I could see why - zero availability for this coming week, or any week in February, or March. Bollocks. I messaged Colum to ask about the liklihood of just turning up at the sites and chancing my luck, he had met a few who did it with no reservations, and some that chanced a few reservations, but the risk was that we wouldn't be permitted to stay, locked into paying for a premium site ($90US upwards) or being made to continue on. Simone's apetite for risk wasn't that high, so we needed something more reliabe to make our plan work. After 4 hours of research, we needed a change of scenery from the potential failure we were staring at so went in search of somewhere we might be able to rent some camping equipment, and hope that the rental people might be able to give us some more information on ways forward.

I asked the chap at Rental Natales what our chances were of turning up at various campsites, and he started by asking what we have got booked - it was a good question. I came clean with our intention to skirt the formality of reservations in hope it pays off and he listed the few campsites that may be lenient to it, and those which wouldn't. The best chance we had was to go visit the tourist offices of the companies which were in town and see if a face-to-face had more sway. We went to Vertice Travel and found someone in the mood to help, we could see the daily availability of their sites, and were able to massage our dates around the availability of the sites they owned. We visited the Las Torres office which was as oblique as it could be to deter anyone popping by - there were no signs indicating it was an office, it had all the appearance of a residential, and when we did find someone to talk to, we were told the only option for us now was to pay $185 pppn camping in premium tents. No thanks. We went back to Vertice and worked out a way of skipping one site, staying at another twice and doing a day trek with some repeated miles, chancing an arrival at Central for the final night - this was a result.

We had a plan and the brick wall of computer says no had been manipulated into an awkward but doable 7 day O-Circuit walk for me with Simone joining part way through and doing the W-Trek starting at Grey Sector, by getting a boat there via the glacier - perfecto. The next day we went back to the rental place, thanked him for his advice, rented a tent, sleeping bag and camping mat, and bought a load of freeze dried meals for each night. Stopping by the supermarket we picked up some milk powder, oats, zip lock bags and enough cereal bars to cover each day's "lunch", and we had the bits we needed. It took most of the afternoon to re-configure my backpack into multi-day hiking, sorting out the food into pre-split portions and stow all the stuff I wasn't going to use in bags that could be left FOC at the hostel for 9 days which was very useful. With everything set for the morning, we met up with Elena and one of her friends for some food then got an early night as I needed to catch the 06:30 bus to start my longest day, with the intention to meet Simone 3 days later outside a campsite in the mountains, as our only fixed arrangement.

I was up early, got a taxi to the bus then sat beside a dutch girl for the two hours chatting about travel and swapping ideas of things to see and do. We arrived at the national park, had our entry tickets checked by one of the rangers and made my way to the shuttle service. I got to Central, and realise I had forgotten to load the O-Circuit route into my watch which would give me distance and route guidance for the whole week. Annoyed by the fail, but reluctant to just buy the wifi access for $10US to download a single file and load it, I spoke to a member of staff who suggested that $10 for a 2 minute download job was excessive. I handed him my phone and he returned a couple of minutes later with it logged into a temporary hotspot - what a hero. Gratefully I downloaded the map I needed, loaded it into the watch and set off at 09:30, for Dickson.

I hadn't weighed my bag but I'd guess with food for 7 days, all sleeping gear, tent, stove, camera kit, drone, powerpack, some extra clothes, first aid kit, wash stuff and a few bits 'just in case' - it got pretty close to 19kg. The short sharp climb from Central to the trail was heavy on the legs and I had several "ah.. erm, oops" moments wondering whether I was going to be okay with the effort I'd committed to. When I set off on runs I've learned to essentially ignore everything that hurts and aches for the first mile or so, just take it steady and keep moving, after that things loosen, the body realises its not a hoax and everything starts to come together - lungs put more in, my heart rate increases, muscles warm up, joints hurt less, and it generally ends well, so I applied the same logic and kept moving, cautiously. The route was quiet, I passed two guys within the first 30 minutes but after that saw no one, and was making good time over the relatively even ground. Stopping a few times to take photographs of the open expanse around me with no sign of humanity, the sun kept me going and the wind was kind - it was ideal walking weather. At around midday I got to Seron campsite and had maintained a good pace, felt strong and was glad I'd intended to keep moving onward as it felt a little early to stop as the usual schedule would have suggested. I'd heard that there was a ranger checkpoint 14 miles from Central that I needed to get to by 14:00 so kept pushing and had a few short sharp climbs I just took slow and steady, feeling it on the legs.

Rounding a saddle facing westward for the first time, it felt like someone switched on the galeforce winds as I had to lean forward to stay upright until I found shelter. I got to the ranger station at 14:15 and finally started meeting other hikers, who had presumably set off from Seron that morning and was then amongst 20+ others who were taking a break for lunch or massaging their feet and having a breather. I didn't face any issue getting past after 14:00 so wasn't sure why I'd been told otherwise, but for the first time had to sign in and confirm I knew the rules of the park with no fires, wild camping, feeding of wildlife etc. I hadn't been lucky enough to see anything more than a hare and some exotic looking birds, the pumas had evaded me although I'm sure they were there watching me march on. I'd picked up a black t-shirt off the trail before Seron which had fallen from someone's pack, and been asking everyone I passed if they had lost it, thinking I would leave it at a campsite if I couldn't find the owner. Little did I know one of the groups I asked would adopt me into their fold a couple of days later.

The weather became a little dark and moody as I got close to Dickson, I could see it building in the valley to my left (up toward Los Perros) soaking the forest and obscuring the mountain ridgeline, but the weather in the valley which led to Dickson was clear - very localised and quite different. I stopped at a viewpoint over the camp with a glacier in the distance before dropping down to sign in at the ranger station after just under 7 hours of hiking, 20.5 miles and 3,200ft of ascent. I found the campsite reception and had a lap of the options before finding somewhere to pitch the rental tent for the first time.

Just as I was finishing setting up home for the night and discovering that the rental kit I had was a little mismatched with footprint and tent shape, the group of US girls landed close by to set up shop for the evening too, which is when I properly met Haley, Kristyn, Callie, Meg and Ella. I went to get get a shower and had to improvise the curtain and unblock the drains after a hundred others had used and abused it, but was able to wash and get warm and clean again, a welcome feeling after a day of sweaty marching. I hadn't brought any camp shoes (sandals/flipflops) so just continued the rest of the evening barefoot and went about my business heating up some water in the 'kitchen' area for the first freeze-dried dinner, then sat in the sun watching the weather in neighboring valleys, listening to discussions around me.

I realise now everyone had started to gel on the first night in Seron, something I had missed after skipping the first and landing on everyone else's 2nd night. I had a few conversations with people about when I'd started and when I'd booked it, which amused me hearing it be repeated by others an hour later that "someone in there had only booked their trip 2 days ago", in surprise to their counterpart, and "a lad in there set off from Central this morning with a full pack". I felt like Kvothe from Name of the Wind, hearing stories of his life repeated by people in earshot, unbeknownst to them. I was tempted to fabricate a few more exciting stories too, but thought better of it in the end.

Having realised I had forgotten to pack the charging cable for my phone/satellite messenger I asked around a little and had a offers from other hikers which was very kind, then got chatting to Sacha a little - I think because he noticed I was barefoot. Without any phone signal it was really nice to have everyone fully involved and present in what we were all doing, going about our camping activities, chatting and spending time together.

After a very successful first night on new camp mat bought for this trip, I packed up the tent and head over to the kitchen area to sort breakfast and get ready for the next leg of the walk. Setting off around 09:00 ish Sacha was leaving at the same time so we spent the first 1hr30 walking together at a bit of a march, it was overcast but calm, and still shorts/t-shirt weather for me (whilst everyone else was fully clad in proper clothes). After a while Sacha wanted to spend a bit longer at the waterfall we passed so I continued on, but was now walking on a few blisters after not really tieing my shoes properly and treating them as slip-ons which had allowed enough movement on the climbs to rub a blister into action. I slowed a little toward the end of the walk approaching the next camp and met Filip, who was hiking with a hearty pace and had a decent Sony camera (and spare lenses) with him too. We matched pace for the rest of the hike and arrived at Los Perros just ahead of the girl with loud speaker and tunes ("the walking jukebox"), an hour before check-in opened, after 3hr15, 8 miles and 1700ft of gain. 

With so much time at the next camp after a short day of walking, I started to meet people properly. I spent a few hours chatting to Filip and got to spend more time with the US girls learning about their lives and just general chat. I met Kamal who had spent time walking with Filip previously, as well as Stacy and Steff - sisters from the US, and helped out Leah, Libby and Kylie heating water for their dinner, and multiple others who all knew eachother. The effect of walking in the same direction for days and being in the same environment each evening was connecting everyone organically.

The facilites at Los Perros were pretty basic, there was no hot water, everything arrived there by horseback, and had to be packed out, power was limited to a curfew each day and the only heat was made by humans and stoves in the kitchen area behind a door that didn't latch (until I couldn't watch it fail any longer and fixed it). It was a fair bit colder at this camp than previous, as we were at 1800ft altitude, and had an ambient temp of around 8°C. The check-out time for the morning was 07:00, which seemed ambitiously early but it ensured everyone had enough daylight hours to get up to John Gardner Pass and down to Grey Sector camping, reputed as being 10 hours of hiking from Los Perros. Filip had been talking about attempting a sunrise hike at the summit, figured the 5 hour estimated time to the top was overkill and worked out it was doable in half the time as it was more like 4.5km from the camp, so intended to get up and set off for 04:30 in the dark, with Kamal, and asked if I wanted to join. I like an unnecessarily ambitious challenge, so agreed to get up early and have breakfast at Camp Paso, the otherside of the pass half-way through the morning once we'd reached the other side. Haley was tempted by the plan too and would decide in the morning - if the lights in her tent were on in the morning she was in.  

A few chilly hours passed chatting with folk then I retired to my tent as I had a quick bit of admin to do with my feet. After an inspection I discovered 3 healthy looking blisters, a couple on my toes and one juicy morsal on my right heel from loose shoes during the climbs. I steralised a needle from my firstaid kit, using a lighter to get it glowing, then punctured it to let the plasma out and remove the pressure, taping it up with a plaster. This method worked well for me on the coast to coast run so I was confident it was the best way I've found of removing hotspots and problems. With that tackled I turned my torch off ready for the early start.

A sunrise hike always sounds fun, but the reality is you do everything in the dark. You wake in pitch black, pack up the tent in the cold and stand around when everyone else is asleep, then start walking in the night before the sun has bothered to get up either. That said, it has an added air of adventure to it, so Kamal, Filip and I conveened at 04:30 and begun our mission to the saddle of John Gardner Pass through the woods and shale ascent by torch light - Haley's  tent was dark, she'd sensibly opted for more sleep. As we approached the pass it was clear we weren't going to quite make the top for sunrise, but it was an overcast morning with the sun hiding behind cloud so the spectacle of oranges and reds of a sunrise weren't on show anyway. Kamal was self-conscious of his pace affecting our chance to make the arbitary timeline so we agreed to continue on ahead, providing he kept his torch on so we could check his progress, and that we would wait at the top for him.

I quite like hills, I'm not the fastest at anything, but I like pushing myself on hills and ignoring the burn in legs to keep going to the next corner, the next rock, the next change of direction in the path, then rather than stop, rest in motion on the less inclined bits. I pushed to get to the top with Filip, arriving there a couple of minutes after the sun rose at 06:50 but having managed the final 1,000ft of ascent in 20 minutes. As we crested the top, Grey Glacier opened out ahead of us, and filled the valley below as the winds howled. We found some rocks and shelter to hide behind and wait for Kamal, taking photos of the ridgeline of mountains accompanying our ascent, and the vista of blue ice and folded crevases of the glacier ahead. At 4km wide and longer than you can see from its face to the ice field it descends from, Grey Glacier is huge. More impressively, it is part of the same continental ice field that produces the Perito Moreno Glacier and 46 others, extending over 200 miles in length from top to bottom.

Kamal got to the top in good time and we continued down off the pass and out of the wind, dropping quickly with a steep descent, thoroughly testing the knees. At 08:00 we were overtaken by a french lady - Emily. She had stayed at Los Perros that night arriving late, but had started in Central the previous morning, and was looking to get back to Central that night, taking in the whole of the O-Circuit in under 36 hours, which was staggering. More impressively, she was doing it whilst fasting, because "humans can", and she wanted to test herself, physically, and spiritually.  She was hard as nails, in every respect, and we never found out if she managed it but I'd like to think she did, 92 miles and 22,000ft in 2 days without food.

The sunshine started to break the overcast morning and provided a stunning canvass to showcase the glacier. I reasoned we were a few hours ahead of others, so launched the drone to get some arial footage of the glacier. It took 8 minutes of flying flat out toward what I thought was a close fold of deep blues in the glacier before I was close enough to get decent footage and photos of the ice sheet. With absolutely zero prospect of recovery if it went wrong, and no reference for how big everything was through the screen of the controller, I stayed reasonably high above the ice to make sure I had no issues, then decided it was time to return as the battery would burn up and it was facing quite a bit of wind 1.5km away from me above the glacier. It was at this time Leah came through the trail and stopped for a few minutes to chat, but I didn't really know what her view would be of my flagrant breach of national park rules, so hid the controller, and hit the 'return to home' function conscious I didn't have battery to waste with it so far away. I started to get a little concerned about it dying out over the glacier (which is exactly why they are forbidden in the national park) and pretended to dip into the woods for the loo, taking the controller with me and noticed it was too windy for the return to home function to work. I sat there flying it straight back to me trying to use as few functions as possible to maximise speed/battery life, and got the low battery warning, it was still 800m away. I flew it close to the woods and brought it lower to the ground hoping there would be less wind - critical battery. The drone started trying to land, but I needed it to climb a few meters and still make the 100m to me. Leah had gone by this point, so I had freedom to bring it in, but it was getting squeaky. It slowed significantly to conserve battery and was descending as it does regardless of where it is, when it knows it has moments before it dies. I got it to within 2m of me before it auto landed. Very very close call, but it was home.

Relieved, I packed it away, noticed I was covered in annoying spiky bush things but set off to Camp Paso which was a short distance ahead, where Filip and Kamal were. We cooked up some porridge for breakfast as people started filtering past. The rest of the walk to Grey Sector camping seemed to take forever, even though the day wasn't an excessively long one, largely due to the psychology of my thinking the campsite was closer than it was. We passed over 3 fairly precarious rope bridges which felt exposed but gave a good backing for photos behind, and eventually arrived at Grey Sector camping just after midday, 8 hours, 12.5 miles and 4000ft gain later.

Leah spotted Filip and my arrival from the bar and heckled us over to share the pizza she'd ordered, which was very welcome! We stayed in the restaurant as Kamal arrived, picked up a couple more pizzas and more beers, and we adjusted to the new environment we were in. Having gone from a one-directional trail walking and spending the evenings with people we knew, at sites with very few facilities, we were now at a proper restaurant, ordering beers and pizzas, with hundreds of people who had come from walking the W-trek and were finishing here, or people who were arriving by boat from Lago Grey about to start their trip. It was 16:00 before I figured I should check in, pitch my tent and sort some logistics before the beers I'd had made things a bit tricker, with the other O-Circuit fam trickling in and the camping spots slowly filling. I sat outside the showers after getting cleaned up and started the lengthy task of picking the threads of spiky sticky annoying plant off my shoes, socks, top, boxers and hat.

Gradually quite a mass of the O-Circuit crew assembled, post or pre-shower, until the steps of the shower block became a chillout area for an hour or two before half of them made their way off to the restaurant for dinner and the remainder found their stoves and prepped food in the camping kitchen. Haley sat with me for an hour and helped mindlessly picking the threads of plant out of my clothes whilst we chatted, a very welcome moment of calm in evening.

Simone arrived off the boat and was at the meeting point we'd planned on time, which was pretty impressive for the old-school method of sticking to a prior arrangement without technology still working in the modern day. After dropping her kit off at the tent we met a few others and went to a viewing point for the glacier then chatted a bit, made some dinner then head to bed after the sun had done the same.

The two person tent we'd rented did technically have space for two people, but zero kit inside. I've always worked on the basis if you get a tent, buy one which is rated for one more person than you intend to use it with, and this is why. With our bags in the vestibule, getting in and out was awkward, but manageable. The rented camping mat Simone had was a 15mm foam pad, which looked comical beside my 75mm inflatable mattress and didn't give the best night's sleep for her, but it was better than laying on the ground (probably!).

We were up, packed and ready to set off after breakfast the next morning at the same time the US girls were, and left camp in convoy. The day's mileage wasn't ambitious, we had a relatively steady 7 miles to Paine Grande camping, so punctuated the walk with several stops to look back at the glacier, not race up the hills, and had a decent hour or so break for lunch with the others beside a lake which made a welcome change of pace to the previous days where I'd been eating cereal bars on the go and only stopping briefly. I was introduced to so many wholesome snacks from Haley and a few others that I decided I need to get a dehydrator when I get home to make my own chilli mango, fruit leather (blended dehydrated smoothie), choco covered espresso beans, and loads of others - all much more interesting than cereal bars. It was a very social day of hiking and the weather held out to make it a comfortable & relaxed day, a good introduction for Simone on her first day with a full pack on. We got to Paine Grande camping, checked in and pitched up between some of the pre-pitched tents to shelter from the forecasted winds and rain due in the morning, after 7 miles, 5 hours, 1200ft of gain.

Our plan for the next couple of days was to stay at Paine Grande two nights in a row because it was the only thing we could book with Vertice Travel. We were unable to get any accommodation at Frances or Cuernos (which would have been the next natural place to stop), so we intended to do the 18 miles (30km) to the viewing point and back with day bags, then have to repeat some of the mileage again to get to Central camping on another long day, hope to get a spot there without reservation then do a day-hike to the top and back of the final leg, before leaving the park. Between the 5 others (Haley, Kristyn, Meg, Ella, Callie) who had adopted us into their fold, they had 3 camping spots, and Haley offered to bunk in with Kristyn and Ella to free up her spot and gift it to us at Frances once she had checked in. It meant we could keep walking with them for the rest of the trek, and saved us doubling back on over 10 miles of trail - it was a huge kindness and made a massive difference to the trip. It helped logistically, but the biggest benefit was that it meant we could keep the same dynamic and social days hiking as we'd been having with them, which I was really enjoying and was quickly overtaking the scenery as the best part of the week.

The following morning the 7 of us conveened and set off for Italiano where we would be able to drop our main packs before making the climb to Mirador Britanico, when Haley stopped and begun hunting through her pack and  belongings looking for her passport. I had known she left it at Grey a couple of days beforehand, and that the others had retrieved it and not told her just to be playful. I didn't realise that was a separate occasion and that she'd since been given it back already, so when she continued searching, emptying absolutely everything, then made the plan to run back to Paine Grande and see if she could find it, I was impressed at how strong they took their practical joke game.

Once she had disapppeared off, I asked where it was, assuming someone was going to produce it and call her back, but it had genuinely been lost twice in 2 days - at least they weren't as evil as I thought! Kristyn and I hung back as Meg, Simone, Callie and Ella carried on ahead. After an impressively short time, Haley emerged with passport in hand - relieved it had been handed in to reception at the site, so we loaded up and set off again behind the others. After an hour or so of walking we got to a section which was fairly exposed, and got levelled by the wind. I've been on the summit and saddles of mountains when its been windy but you just lean in a little and carry on, this was a bit different. With a backpack providing extra purchase for the wind, we were all shoved hard sideways, nearly off our feet, and had to crouch down to stay stable. After a few minutes it was clearly not going to relent, so we made a plan to continue and hope the route became more sheltered. It was a relatively short lived moment but a reminder that my infinite mass wasn't always going to keep me steady against the elements!

We got to Italiano a little after the others had arrived, had some snacks and lunch bits then left our packs unattended along with 100 others, stacked around the main 'shack' (definitely not a camp building anymore) and bounded up the track toward the viewing point 5 miles ahead. Walking without a full pack felt like walking on air, after 4 days of carrying nearly 20kg, it was like being gifted a new superpower of energy and strength which I loved! The trail followed a river as it climbed, then a ridgeline out of the trees and afforded some incredible views of the mountains all around, as well as Frances Glacier. We continued on to Britanico Mirador (viewpoint), stopped a while then head back down, with the sunshine and variety of cloud giving atmospheric 360° views for the whole walk. Passing many others from the O-Circuit travelling up or down, we stopped a few times to chat and catch up before returning to Italiano, getting the packs and finishing the day with 2km to Frances campsite, 16.7 miles, 10 hours and 5600ft of gain - ready for some food! The plan for Haley to check-in then stay with the others, letting Simone and me use her reservation worked well so we unpacked in the spacious pre-pitched roof-tent type home for the night on a platform amongst the trees - what a huge act of kindness.

We stayed up a few hours cooking and chatting with folk in one of the little "kitchenette" areas which were just a few tables in clear sheds scattered amongst the woods, before peeling off for a shower and tucking in for the night. Assembling the next morning after breakfast, Meg had set off a little ahead of the rest, on the assumption we'd catch up throughout the day somewhere, but she maintained such a strong pace she stayed ahead the entire day! The rest of us begun the hike in the cool weather, and dropped down to the side of Lago Nordenskjold where Haley, Callie and Ella went for a dip before we carried on along the undulating path on the mountainside toward Central. Heat had built up through the day and it felt long, with a couple of rest stops and a decent hour or so for lunch with a view. Our paths diverged from the others as they continued up toward Chileno campsite half way up the mountain, and I took the fork toward Central with Simone. We arrived at the campsite, 200m from the welcome centre I had set off from 6 days earlier, dropped our packs and reccy'd the site a little. Discovering they wanted to charge AR$60,000 (US$60) per person to sleep in our own tents, we chanced finding a secluded spot away from anything and under the advice of many, including the chap who had rented us the tent, pitched up and figured we'd address the formality of reservation if/when it came to us.

It was 6 months since Simone had begun her travels, so we went to the welcome centre for a basic but produced-by-someone-else dinner and wine as a treat, then discussed the prospect of waking up at 02:00 to get to the viewing point for Las Torres, and see the sunrise hit the three towers. After a bit of convincing, I managed to get Simone to agree to do it, and we went to sleep with alarms set for 02:00, intending to be on the trail for 02:30 so we could meet the others before sunrise at 06:49.

With my watch letting me know I had a short but effective 3 hrs 55 of sleep, I was up and getting ready to leave by torchlight with Simone by 02:45. We set off up the path amongst a trail of headtorches from the camp, as I recognised Kamal's voice part way up and greeted him and a couple of his friends. I stopped to take some photos of the Milky Way then caught Simone up just before we got to Chileno camp at 04:00. Continuing through the dark, there was a line of torches lighting the way up ahead which looked pretty impressive and would have made a fantastic arial shot (but obviously not feasible to launch the drone with so many people around). The end of the route became pretty steep, and it was apparent a few of us had taken a wrong turn as we were scrambling up loose sand and shale at more than 1:1. Eventually we re-joined the path but it wasn't my finest moment of navigation, despite not being the only people to have taken the wrong turn it wasn't a great display of mountaineering. We got to the viewing point of the towers at 06:10 and were met with 100 others who had set off in the dark to be up here for day break. We found the rest of our adopted crew huddled up with sleeping bags, tea/coffee making kit and the spirits were fun & high as everyone babbled and kept warm. The towers were in cloud for the majority of the time so it looked as though we would miss the spectacle then out of nowhere the sun struck the cliff behind us to the right of the towers in a deep orange glow which was stunning.

We stayed until the glow turned to daylight and everyone started to make their way down. We chatted to a few at Chileno as they had breakfast and begun the process of packing up their things, then Simone and I carried on down to Central, as the stream of day-hikers begun to pass us on their climb. The very top of the trail was single file with passing places and when we had navigated it in the dark, it had been technically tricky walking but manageable. As we got closer to the bottom and were faced with a perpetual stream of people making their way up having been dropped off by coach after coach, I thought of the tricky section at the top and was very grateful to not have the added hassle of traffic to contend with.

We got back to camp after 14.5 miles, 4,000ft of gain and 7hr 40 of hiking, packed up the tent and made our way to the Welcome Centre. Simone nipped ahead to see if she could negotiate a change of bus times from our pre-booked 20:00 departure which would have left a tedious 9 hours of hanging around. She managed to book me on a 15:00 escape and was going to chance a vacant spot for herself as the bookings were full. The whole of the O-Circuit were at the Welcome Centre too, so I contrived a group photo I had been wondering about with the letter 'O' formed by the arms of the adopted fam I'd been with for 7 days, as well as a full group shot of everyone that had done the hike.

The shuttle led to the entrance of the park and Simone was able to get on an earlier bus, so despite the higgidy piggidy method of logistics, everyone made it back to Puerto Natales, got some food then met up at a bar to conclude the debrief and say our farewells to the friends we'd all made after such a good week of walking the O-Circuit, in Torres Del Paine. 

The scenery had been stunning but the very best part of the week's hiking for me had been the people I'd spent the time with and got to know as new (hopefully) lifelong friends. The lifestyle of walking, spending time with genuine people, camping, cooking, sleeping, walking. Its a strong draw, and there's many multi-day hikes out there to add to the list for another day.