Out of the forests and up onto the scree.

Unfortunately, the way we did it, this was repeated a few times, until eventually we re-joined the better-worn path.

From the top, we got our first view of the glacier Grey, which we walked alonside for the next two days. At 1100m, this was the highest point of the walk, and the windiest too.

This might be the biggest piece of ice I've ever seen.

But as ever, the sheer scale is hard to photograph. Forgetting that wide lenses make things look small, I made a fancy stitched panorama (above) which, being an impossibly wide lens, makes it look very small indeed. [Enlarge.]

Heading anti-clockwise, our ascent was on firm scree, and our descent through the muddy forrest.

Time for the map, perhaps... this one thanks to Google Earth, and Tom's GPS data:

Our path is the red circle, and we've walked along behind the peaks, over the pass, and down to camp at El Paso on the the left. We now join the shorter and more popular "W" route, along the front, with two side-trips to see the peaks.

(Yellow is the Argentine border, and green our flights from and to Santiago.)

Lunch above the end of the glacier, eagerly hoping to see an iceberg born.

Then on to the Refugio Grey for the night, in what felt like a crowd, brought by boat up the lake.

The stretch from Pehoé to Italiano was into blasting wind, as we came around out of the mountain's shadow, now high above the lakes.

At right is a small high lake; even the puddles had white-horses.

After a night at crowded camp Itialiano, we took a lightly loaded side-trip to camp Britanico, under Cuerno Principal. This is the highest peak, at 3600m, but not the sharpest.

Then down into the forest, and along the lake, alternately low for swimming...

... and high for views, back at peaks.

(I made another panorama, proving that the same thing happens to molten glaciers.)

 

We spent our last-but-not-least day making one more side trip, up to the best view of the famous towers themselves. An early start, up the valley past Camp Chiliano, turning left just before the climbers-only camp.

Up and up until at last, they poked into view:

Down and down, and that same evening, onto a bus back to

civilisation ...