Flew into Puerto Natales. On the flight the guy with the window seat went to the toilet and I noticed the view on the side. A view I have never seen before. Kilometres and kilometres of ice, snow and mountains. Waves of ice that blended into the clouds above them, a gruelling battle of ancient monsters of rock and ice.

The view gripped me so hard that I had tears in my eyes and when the guy came back he offered me his window seat. When the deadly landscapes of rock and ice subsided, the view changed completely. Lush lakes and green landscapes till the eye could see. The glacial ice is the battery of this landscape. Providing fresh water to fuel life all around it, from condors in the mountains to penguins in the south. All enjoying the nourishment of the ice mountains.

I got of the plane and got smacked by 100km/h winds with 5 degree temperature, quite a contrast from 30 degree Santiago heat.

I checked into my climbing hostel, where now everyone only spoke Spanish. Time to up my Spanish game. Stinky rooms and with a bring your own pepper rule in the kitchen, I realised why the hostel was so cheap. It had a climbing wall and people all around me filled with purpose like you only see in raw mountains. The first climbers I met were going to climb the central tower of the Torres del Paine. 1000m climb, 30 pitches averaging 7b+, living 10 days on the wall.

I realised the ice giants I was surrounded by was home to people considered insane by society. But who is insane? Just someone whose purpose you don’t understand. And the ones who are the most insane are the ones who have a fierce purpose in their eyes.

I met a few more of these people of purpose. Climbing mountains, cycling continents and scaling rocks that were once thought impossible.

Happy to be in the company of these giants amongst us, I spent a lot of my time in the kitchen trying to understand Spanish and talking with them in English/Spanish when I could.

Humbly I spent the next few days prepping myself for the upcoming 8 day hike into Torres del Paine (O trek) which is very popular amongst tourists. As I booked everything last minute, I had to buy very expensive pre-setup tents and didn’t have to carry my tent + sleeping bag. Only carrying my food for 8 days was a good test as I was having back pain from a potential injury in March.

On the morning of 8 December, I got up at 5 AM made myself a nice breakfast and took the bus into the Torres del Paine.