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Published: December 18th 2009
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Lago Amaraga
Stopping for photo ops with our bus full of day trippers and feeling a bit apprehensive about the undertaking ahead! We made it through the 9-day Circuito in Torres del Paine with only stomach flu and some blisters and sore knees, and the pictures show how amazing it was! We've divided them into two entries as there are soooo many good ones! We bussed from El Calafate in Argentina directly to the park and hiked for 4 hours the first day. Highlights were a condor flying so close that Chuck could see the colour of his eyes (perhaps we looked so exhausted that we might soon be food for him?) and a wonderful refugio-keeper who provided us with the best breakfast of our trek and snuck us some noodles since we were a little short of food. A tricky spot was a river crossing which was deep and torrential enough that we had to take off our shoes, but the glacial water brought tears to my eyes! The next 4 days provided stunning vistas, more condors, great company with our "group" that was doing the circuit with us (we were always the last to leave in the morning) and a generally amazing experience.
The park is fantastic and a true natural wonder. I'm the negative one (Chuck) so I will
Guanacos!
These guys range free over the estancias just outside Torres del Paine; what a life! point out some bothersome points for fellow travellers reading this. The trip from Calafate takes waaaaaaaay longer than it has to and they hose you at every opportunity like a cambio that changes money at 15-20% less than any where else in the country. You will need Chilean pesos in the park. Nowhere can give change in USD and those are the only two currencies taken. Don't count on credit cards cause outside of two very over priced restaurants they don't take them. We planned on carrying 5 days or so of food and restocking which we were told would be easy. We were also told that buying food like dinners would be pretty easy. It's true that buying food at the numerous refugios is easy but it is VERY expensive. Fair enough that they have to get the food to this super remote location but they bring some weird food. No typical camp food; it's all liquids and heavy stuff. So a word to the wise. If you are going from Calafate, get Chilean pesos in Calafate, bring some USD just in case and pack enough food. The border apparently doesn't let you take anything like bread, meat, fruit
or the like across. The reality for us was that as long as it wasn't fresh meat or fruit/produce then you're good to go. Remember this when stocking up on food. You can bring bread and salami type dried meats with no problems.
So my thoughts on the park now. Holy freakin cow it's amazing. I am stunned by the sky and colours here the most I think. It just seems bluer, bigger and brighter. In this case it's true that the grass is greener on this side. The initial hikes were not at all challenging technically but the pack is pretty heavy at the start. For the go getters out there the full circuit can be done in 7 days pretty easy. We took the slower 9 day route and I'm very happy. Hanging out with Renee at the first refugio was great and as Rach said a highlight so far. The next day was a long one (19km) but the vistas were amazing and we took a break for a swim in a little spring fed lake. We weren't sure if we would get to see condors but they seemed to be everywhere for us. We found
Setting out
We were told this gravel road would only be a 30 minute walk to the trailhead; it wasn't. A heaven-sent Chilean in a pickup gave us a ride! that the last hour into camp felt like an eternity. The eternal hope that it would be "over the next ridge" got old quick. The map is a great "guide" but I think the word map is a bit of a misnomer. They have topo lines which don't mean anything from what we could tell. The bugs were thick, like super thick. The good thing was that they must not be very smart. We didn't get too many bites but they would swarm like crazy, bite occasionally and generally be a nuisance.
My last comments for this entry will be that at the last camp before the pass (Peros), there are two alternate hikes not on the map. There is one up to another glacier where you can see a tunnel with a river coming out. We didn't do this one because we were too tired. The other one is a bit of a sketchy skree scramble over to the face of Peros glacier. I went there to try to get some shots of glacial bits falling off. Unfortunately the sun was going down so I kinda missed my chance. I also almost fell in the lake a couple
River Crossing
I was almost in tears it was so cold. What have we gotten ourselves into? times. This was an amazing experience and if any of our "group" read this I have to thank them for making it an even more memorable experience!
Rach here again. I had passed the computer over to Chuck to get him to write a bit about Glaciar Grey but I guess he had other ideas! To me, this glacier was one of the best parts. I've never hiked in such proximity to a glacier before and it's a cold, strange, alien, beautiful landscape. John Gardiner pass was the toughest day with steep slopes and deep snow and high winds (although not as high as we were told they can be). I know Chuck wished he had a cattle prod to get me up the hill faster. At the top we were greeted by our first view of the glacier and it was stunning, although a bit rainy so the pictures aren't as spectacular as real life (although pretty close!) It was a very rewarding day and I think our last really remote one before we started meeting day trippers and people doing the "W" on the other side of the park. That night we camped beside the glacier and
Skinny dipping lake
Chuck was brave enough it was COLD, kind of like being in the freezer section of the grocery store. The next day was an easy day with only about 4 hours of trekking and we hiked along the glacier the whole time, ending up at Grey Refugio where we treated ourselves to a hot cooked meal and scalding hot showers. It was heavenly! That was our favourite campsite as it was on a beach and windy enough that there were no bugs. There was a side trail to a lookout where you could see the front end of the enormous glacier and icebergs that had fallen off.
Mr. Negative again. The pass wasn't so bad. I had expected worse. Not to say it was easy but there was a well marked trail going up and the pitch wasn't too daunting. The wind was very cold and piercing from the humidity in the air. I was disappointed with the view because of the clouds. There were three views I had been looking forward to; the pass, valley Francis, and the sunrise. I got bad news for you sportsfans out there but we did not luck out. The descent down the west side of the
Stunning vista
Still can't believe we're trekking in Patagonia pass was fun! The start you could run/ski on the snow and that was followed by more of the same through some trees and if you weren't up for skiing on your boots you could sit and slide. A very nice break from what we had up to this point. The rain started at this point for us and didn't let up through the night. If anyone reads this and gets to the the trek; (A) do the full circuit, don't bitch out and do the W, (B) the view from the waterfall just before Paso would be awesome. The lookout over Guardas was great too and we had better weater for that one. The glacier was massive, really, really, massive! I didn't get a feel for how big it was until the lookout at Gray. When we were up close before you couldn't really realize that the face was up to 20 stories high. The lookout was breathtaking. The icebergs were outstanding and just enormous. The campsite was great, the meal was a very welcome luxury and the shower was at least warm. It crazy just how great a really bad shower can feel when you are walking around
Chuck's view
There are MANY pictures of Rachel's backpack with two to three days of funk following you.
Well this is a super-long entry so we'd better get some pictures added! Part 2 will start on our 6th day, when Chuck realized that his camera battery was almost dead and that the replacement one wouldn't fit in his new camera, so there are fewer pictures. Stay tuned!
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Robin
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The pictures are amazing guys! What a trip!