Drove from Puntas Arenas this morning to Torres Del Paine. WOW! So amazing and holy cow, so windy! When other people’s blogs said this place was windy they weren’t kidding. OMG. So just to make good use of the time and to get a feel for the lay of the land I went on a short 2 hour hike. This is supposed to be the easiest hike of the week with regards to lack of elevation and distance. But about 45 minutes in, the wind started to pick up. I have never experienced such strong wind before in my life. I was just glad I was not on top of some mountain waiting to get blown off! WOW!

Here’s some video footage of what that was like. That’s me trying to not to get blown down the trail.

This morning I got up around 6:30 and it was off to the hardest hike of the trip. Straight up hill for 2 hours and then back down again. Total it took about 5 hours. I had been very concerned about this hike as currently i’m so out of shape and carrying all of my camera gear (about 15 lbs worth) and my bad knees… however I did get some great trekking poles and boy what a difference. I was also shocked that after a few days of traveling and one day of hiking my body no longer feels the bag! So the reward for getting to the top of this this mountain is the view below.

This is me trying to not to get blown off the top of the mountain

And that’s me again at a different location – standing very strange so that I don’t get blown away again! I’m literally leaning against the wind here!