Torres del Paine

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Just got back to Puerto Natales after seven days in Torres del Paine Parque Nacional. Both of us really enjoyed this part of the trip, we had beautiful scenery, got to hike an average of 20 km a day, and met lots of fun people.

We started from Lago Amargo, hiked into Camp Las Torres and completed El Circuito going counter-clockwise. We planned for ten days (mostly just in case we had bad weather at John Gardner Pass), but only needed six. The scenery was incredibly varied, although I wish we had seen more wildlife (we did see guanacos and condors on the bus drive into the park). The trails were mostly easy and well-marked. We only really had bad weather going up to the pass (I think it was a 3000 foot elevation gain) and on the way down. Pelting, cold rain made it difficult to navigate, let alone open your eyes. I can't imagine what the wind in the pass actually was, but tt was predicted to be 90km/hr at the base of the mountain the day we crossed over.

One thing we did notice and hadn´t heard about before, others may be interested. The refugio owners seem to really want your patronage, especially the more poorly placed ones that don´t receive a steady income of hikers. They don´t appreciate you hanging around (even if only to cook lunch) if you aren´t going to pay to camp. Or, for instance, we actually had one refugio owner tell us we couldn´t continue on the trail because the rivers were flooded, up to shoulder height. He got on his radio with other refugio owners, talking back and forth about trail passing possibilities. They all agreed, it was not safe to continue and no one was on the trail in either direction. We couldn´t believe this was the case (what about all of the campers who wouldn´t have stopped by the refugio like we did but kept on hiking? there were no signs declaring danger along the trails), and we continued on and found all rivers in passable conditions. A bold move to get gullable hikers to pay to camp for the night.

Hiking the 'W' at the end of the Circuit was entertaining at times, to see the fashionable people avoiding mud puddles and trying not to sweat too much, but the scenery in these parts was definitely the best. The Cuernos and the Torres were great to see at the end of the hike, a grande finale. Now, a few days in Puerto Natales to decide what is next. What is next? We´ll see...

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Photos

Puerto Natales streets
Exploring the streets of Puerto Natales...lots of friendly street dogs to be found.

Fields of Daisies!
Awh! Couldn´t you just kick your heels up with joy? Mark and I both could, as we walked through this field on the way to Refugio Seròn, our first day hiking.

Hiking towards Los Perros
Day 2, we hiked a total of 30 km, skipping over a Refugio at Lago Dickson (where the owner seemed pretty unfriendly because we weren´t camping there). This is somewhere...midday. Maybe just after Mark decided to pass some hikers on an uphill climb...

Forboding skies of Los Perros
I wish I had a picture of the moment we reached the lake at the base of Glacier Los Perros, but I don´t. This picture only shows the direction we were heading, towards it. Perhaps it is better that I don´t have one though, so that my imagination can forever remember the startlingly frightening landscape at that moment. After climbing up and up boulder fields in fierce wind and cold rain, Mark exclaims, 'Don´t look up until you get to the edge!' When I get to the edge overlooking the lake at the glacier base (barley able to stand in the howling winds), I look up to see what one would think was Mars, with water. Although more brown, less red. Bleakly brown peaks plunging steeply into a bleakly brown silty lake, surrounding by bleak and brown boulder fields. With the roaring in my ears and quickly approaching darkness (it was close to 9pm after we hiked our 30 km day)...it felt more than eerie. It left a strong impression, no photo needed I suppose.

Crossing Los Perros
A long day of hiking, almost over!

Sunny moment
After we made it over John Gardner Pass, the weather seemed to improve slowly by the moment. This is the view at the bottom of the pass (close to where we camped at Camp Paso) overlooking the Glacier Grey.

Camp Grey
At the base of the Glacier is this camp. This is the beginning of the 'W' hike, which is where we were thrown back into large masses of tourists. Just after this photo, a zodiac docked on the beach and dropped off about 30 elderly tourists tastfully outfitted in the finest outdoor clothing and best photography equipment. They wandered amongst the tents asking where their dinner was and buying up all of the beer the store could offer.

Camp Paine Grande (Pehoe)
We have seen no other refugio like this one. Polished wood furniture that could only have been designed by famous architects, bottles of wine on tables, linen curtains for the refugio rooms...luxurious. We stopped only for a moment to have peanut butter and jelly burritos and were off again.

Ghostbusters skies
These clouds remind me of the scenes from Ghostbusters where some crazy ancient spirit transports itself to the top of a skyscraper...

Mark and Cumbre Principal
Mark found mucho ice climbing inspiration in this mountain. It had much more snow and ice compared to its neighbors, the Cuernos .

Laura and the Cuernos
Thankfully, the weather continued to get better from this part of the hike, onwards.

The Torres...del Paine!
We had a beautiful day for this. The hike up was refreshingly easy, as we left our gear at the Camp Las Torres. Lots of people on this trail, but as you can see, well worth it.

Comments

[Ale]

Qué hermoso lugar!!!!
Nos alegramos mucho de que estén realizando un viaje tan lindo. Siempre los recordamos y los niños preguntan por ustedes. Cariños de todos!!!!!

[Babbcali]

Bummer about the bicycles... happy to see you push ahead gracefully on foot. Cuidase