Advertisement
Published: January 13th 2006
Edit Blog Post
From Santiago we flew to Punta Arenas, took a bus to Puerto Natales and from there to the national park of Torres del Paine. Packed with food for a week and all our hiking gear we set off for the W-trail in the park. The name "W" comes from the shape of the trail with three separate branches. The trail took us to see the 2km high granite towers of Paine, rugged snowcapped mountains, beautiful turqoise lakes and the huge Glacier Grey.
Of course we were not the only ones to enjoy this all. The peak season had just started and there are almost 100000 visitors to the park yearly, most of whom come during January and February. So there was a couple of buses full of trekkers going to the park at the same time with us. Camping is only allowed on the campsites and there are not too many of those, so there was always lots of people staying at the same campsites with us.
In the park there are free campsites with no facilities and also refugios with campsites that cost 3500 pesos per person (about 5 euros). Beds in the refugios cost 19000 pesos. The
refugios have a number of beds (19000 pesos) and a restaurant (lunch 7000, dinner 9000 pesos). Staying on the refugio campsites is relatively expensive but it gets you hot shower, decent toilets and in some cases also cooking facilities (Paine Grande campsite). It was well worth spending a nights every now and then on the refugio campsites just to get to shower.
The weather in the park is very unpredictable to say the least. They say that it´s possible to experience all four seasons in one day. Which we almost did. On the second morning there was a snow storm at the base of the towers, during the day it was raining and blowing and in the afternoon the sun was shining from a cloudless sky. We had quite a good luck with the weather altogether. The first day was all cloudy and rainy but after that the sun was shining every day atleast for some time though often it also rained for a while at some part of the day.
On the first day we walked from Las Torres refugio up to the campsite at the base of the towers. It was a steep climb in the
beginning and we got to experience the force of the Patagonian winds. Enough to knock you off if you´re not prepared. The trail follows the river Ascencio all the way to the base of the towers after which there´s a steep and rocky climb to the viewpoint of the towers. The sky started clearing in the evening and we climbed to the viewpoint just before sunset. It was still partly cloudy but the size of the towers is overwhelming whatsoever. We witnessed an interesting scene where two waterspouts were dancing around on the surface of the glacier lake. "A grand display of mother nature." Indeed.
On the second day we made our way back the same track and then continued along the lake Nordenskjold towards the Horns, Los Cuernos. It was a fairly strenuous day but the weather was rewarding, getting better all the time. Amazing lake views and in the end the beautiful two-colored Los Cuernos. And in the end at the refugio Los Cuernos all the strains of the day were washed away in the hot shower.
The following day took us up the second branch of the W into the Valle Frances, following the river
Frances up to the amphiteather-like setting in the midst of the mountains. The valley is surrounded by huge, rugged, snowcapped mountains. A steep climb up some 700 meters but well worth it. The morning was cloudless but in the afternoon when approaching the camp Britanico at the end of the valley the clouds covered the sky and the wind grew. It was the coldest night on the trek getting close to zero degrees.
We woke up into a rainy morning but after sun rose over the mountains the clouds started breaking. Going down the same rocky trail back to the lake Nordenskjold was not much easier than climbing up the day before. A couple of hours of downhill was tough on our knees and toes. The rest of the day was easy flat track to the Paine Grande refugio in a beautiful setting on the shore of Lake Pehoe. To our surprise we found a small but well stocked store in the refugio and even though the prices were heavily inflated we got a cold beer and a bottle of wine to soothen our aching feet. We also met another finnish couple at the same campsite. Krista and Jukka
were doing the same trek, but with a slightly tighter schedule. They had been in Chile for six weeks, climbing on seven volcanoes, or "piles of rock" as Jukka put it, in Atacama. Sounded exciting, we hardly can wait to get there soon after this.
Since we got to buy some more food from the store and the weather was good for us we decided to spend some more time in the park and took a day off. We spent a day at the refugio resting and enjoying the scenery.
On last couple of days we did the last, third branch of the W to the Glacier Grey. Once again the park showed us another side of it, the scenery being so different to the earlier days. That's probably the best thing in this national park, it´s so versatile and every day is different. The glacier was enormous, which unfortunately never truly shows in the pictures.
We spent one more night at the Paine Grande before taking a catamaran across Lake Pehoe and a bus back to Puerto Natales. Altogether it was an amazing week and an awesome trek with lots of beautiful scenery. No wonder it
is so popular. Having said that, that's also the only slightly annoying thing about it, there being so many people. For this reason the prices have really gone up in the last couple of years. For example the price of the bus ride to the park had gone up from 10USD to 30USD in three years. But still it was well worth it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.27s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 86; dbt: 0.1503s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
KAi
non-member comment
Wau
Hienot maisemat ja hyvä pihvi;))