8.7km

On Christmas day we were up at 4am, hoping to make it from the Dickson camp to the Los Perros camp in the morning, then tackle the hardest part of the hike, El Paso, in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the rain had set in, and we woke up to a soaking campsite in Dickson and had to pack up and set off in the rain.

The one really difficult part of the Torres del Paine is known as “The Pass”, or El Paso. While most of the hike is at sea-level, to get over the mountains at the back it’s necessary to ascend up a rocky cliff about 800m, and then drop straight down on the other side about 1200m.

It would have been a 19km Christmas day, but we were so utterly soaked and frozen by the time we made it to Los Perros campsite that nobody wanted to attempt El Paso. We all huddled inside a green tented dome that was used as a hang-out place for the campers. Almost everyone in the camp was talking about El Paso and the weather conditions. Would the rain stop? What about the snow and hail?

There were some beds set up in the dome, and we piled about 4 or 5 people on each one, until they all started to break. One mattress collapsed inwards. We caught the other one just as the planks began to slip off the frame.

We set up the wet tents in the mud and skulked off to sleep in what would be the coldest, wettest night of the hike. Nothing but torrential rain pounding down on the fly sheet all night. It wasn’t looking promising for El Paso, but we had a schedule to keep.