Day 4 was another day full of a range of emotions. That 2:30 am alarm was a rough one to wake up to as both Grant and I didn’t get the best of sleep. We quickly grabbed our things and headed out of the room as to not wake the others. The lodge had left out some food for us to grab for breakfast and then it was off with Kim (our new friend from Seoul). He had previously done this trail the day before, but was trying to catch it for sunrise. We were hoping the weather would be nice enough and not too cloudy so we could see a decent sunrise at the base of the famous Torres del Paine rock features the park is named after.

The trail was less than a 5k, but with the gains in elevation combined with utter darkness it took about 2 hours to reach the base. Thankfully it was dark so I never really had the chance to analyze the hills that were coming up ahead. The trail wasn’t too bad until we reached the rocky portion. Then it was almost game over for me. I have a pretty intense fear of edges and feeling like I’m going to fall over/slipping off the edge. The last portion became almost rock climbing, especially over some large boulders. The darkness, steep edge, and potential for slipping rocks became too much and I had a panic attack. But thankfully Grant helped get me through it and we made it to the top for the view. [We realized in the light that we had gone completely off the trail so could have missed some of the bouldering.]

We still had about 45-50 minutes of sitting in the cold and gusts of wind before the sun began to come up on the towers. Unfortunately, we only got a short view of the sun on the towers before the clouds came back in. It was a pretty view even if I wasn’t a fan of sitting up there in the freezing cold.

On our way down, we ran into a couple of friends we had made along the trek who stopped to ask how the sunrise was. It felt that the way back down took longer than the way up with all the conversations we had along the way. This is one of the cool parts of doing this trek in that by the end of the week all the faces are familiar and everyone chats! We grabbed some coffee back at the refugio to warm up and packed up for the last trek of the trip. Unfortunately, heading back down meant we were running into a bunch of day hikers on their way to the base of the towers. Grant called me “Twinkle Toes” that day as I was just bouncing down the trail saying “Hola” and “Buenos Dias” to everyone that passed by… and there were literally hundreds of day hikers that passed by. There’s just something about knowing you’re almost done with the hike and your legs just keep moving forward.

Once we got down to Central Camp, we stopped to rest and hang out before the shuttle bus would take us back to the park entrance. There we met another hiker from Seoul who was backpacking with her mother. She was from Buenos Aires and went to university in Europe before moving to South Korea. She told us she was fluent in Spanish, Korean, and English but also knew some Portuguese and Italian. We got some good tips on where to stay in Seoul along with day trips to do.

Then it was two crazy bus drives through the park to the entrance and then off to Puerto Natales. These bus drivers have no qualms with passing other buses or cars along the road and just whipping around corners like they are in a compact car. It is actually quite impressive how they can maneuver the busses, even if at discomforting speeds for some of us passengers. As we arrived in Puerto Natales, it was time to say goodbye to the friends we had made on the trail and head back to the Airbnb to prepare for two big travel days back to the States.