Picture Story

Torres del Paine is a picturesque park and a popular hiking destination. This park is very well marked and maintained. For shelter and basic services, one stays at a community dome that serves trekkers food and water. I opted to partake in the W-trek, which is the most popular and aptly named for the shape of the route. The W-trek is done at the three shoots of the day trip. The five points of the trek that constitute the “W” from east to west include the Los Cuernos, the French Valley, the Gray Glacier, the Torres del Paine motif’s themselves and hotel Las Torres make up the five points of the W of the trek.

Nothing is more ephemeral in nature than witnessing something knowing that the next time you may visit the place, its grandeur and beauty may have literally dissolved into water. That is how my feelings were interlaced as I witnessed the magnitude of the Gray Glacier; longing next to the feeling of longing and grief. The boat that I was standing on moved past the moraine as it unveiled the breadth of the monument. There it was this ball of energy, frozen temporarily in time. I picked up my camera to take the shot. The wind was blowing at its wonton Patagonian speed that seem to slow the movement of boat on water. I found cover underneath a roof of a deck where I could take this picture. The clouds had moved in and fog drifted in and out acting like tidewater, appearing more restless than the gray seawater I was standing above. Gray Glacier, pulled at the tug of impermanence under the ominous cloud.

Just like that I was witnessing one of the most amazing glaciers located right in Torres del Paine National Park. Grey Glacier is over 30 kilometers high and 6 kilometers wide and begins in the Patagonian Andes mountains to the west and terminates in three distinct lobes in Grey lake. It was amazing to learn that just some 20 years ago,