Torres del Paine - three years to do the 'W'

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Wow. National Park Torres del Paine. Geologically speaking not much more than rocks, but amazing to look at and even better to walk around. We came here when touring patagonia three years ago, but only managed to walk around two thirds of the accepted route - called the "W" because it goes up into the three valleys in a W shape. So, this time we are back again to complete the unfinished.

We had a weekend free for this and managed to take the Monday off teaching/nursery as well, so three days in total. From Punta Arenas the park is nearly 400km away, and the buses are not terribly frequent, a quick investigation revealed we could get to the park, walk around for about an hour, then get back again in the time allowed! Considering it takes most people 4-5 days to walk the W and and extra 1-2 days at each end to get there and back, we clearly had a challenge ahead of us. So a bit of project management expertise and consultancy intelligence later (are these oxymorons?!) and we had a plan....

Friday night. Claire finishes school early at 7.30 and we run to catch the last bus to Puerto Natales, the nearest town to the park. (We hope we are not recognised as we were last seen in the early hours of Christmas Morning 2002 singing the Rhinestone Cowboy in the local Karaokee bar- Los Vikingos!) I have bought food for lunches to save cash and we have sleeping bags to ensure a warm night in the refuges we will be staying in. So we have a nice heavy rucksack to carry. All is well, there is no pointing and staring on our arrival and we sleep in the Residencial Oasis, a nice enough place with friendly people but not that cheap. Having scoffed empanadas (pasties to you lot in UK) and chips on the bus we are fed but thirsty, and quickly sink a bottle of our favourite wine before retiring to bed.

Early next day and we are picked up by Onas tours to go on a tour of the park for the day. We have done this for two reasons; to see bits of the park we haven’t seen before and don’t have time to walk to, and to be dropped off in the park at the end of the day trip and not have to tackle local buses.

Today the weather is generally miserable, although a truism for Torres is that you can be in four seasons within an hour, and need to take layer and waterproofs everywhere. When walking this means stopping to remove or add layers and suncream very frequently, which believe me is better than being caught without the necessary gear. There is no effective mountain rescue here, earlier in the year friends of ours had to pitch in to help carry a girl who broke her leg on the trail back down as it’s usually too windy for helicopters to operate and would take hours for the park rangers to find and come to get you if anything happened.

But we go around the park, and see the Torres in the distance, finally getting to the far side and Lago Grey - the highlight of the day for us because as we had hoped there are icebergs in the lake. Sure enough there they are, huge chunks of ice which have broken off from the glacier and been blown down the lake 4 miles to where we sit, in the howling wind and pouring rain. It’s a very dull day but the ‘bergs are as blue as blue - as if they have a light inside them. Apparently it’s super-packed ice with no air in that makes it this colour. So a successful day trip, even if the guide was rubbish, spending most of the day asleep in the front of the van and seeming to us that he was just taking up a seat in an already very crowded bus.

"Tour" over they drop us off near the entrance, taking the rest back to civilization, and we wait no more than a couple of minutes for the transfer to the ’refugio’ - our accommodation for the night. Refugio Torres turns out to be pretty comfortable with good food, beer and wine available, but at a fine price. We signed up for dinner - no choice, be there on time or loose out! - which started with a fabulous fresh cauliflower soup but followed with a seafood pancake which although looked great we had to request alternatives. Good food though. Luckily we had brought our own supplies of wine and rum, so we settled in with a chap called Dave from Canada and had a good chat until the small hours before retreating to our dorm. Now when we arrived, our dorm had six bunks, all of which were free. Now, at 1am, there are four other sleeping and snoring forms. So we stumble around in the dark trying to get into our own bunks and eventually turn in, but struggle to get to sleep despite the quantities of anaesthetic consumed. Claires borrowed sleeping bag turns out to be without any functioning zips to hold it together, so luckily it’s not too cold in the refuge. Lesson learned - check your gear before leaving!

Next day and the sun is out, hurrah, but we are less than enthused at the thought of another night in dorms, so we set off to walk the last leg of the W without our pack, thinking we could get back in time for the night bus back to civilization. The walk up to the mirador las torres is ok, bit uphill at first, then a long bit uphill along the valley before the final long hard slog up a boulder cliff on hand and knees to the top. Its one of those walks where you think it will never end but you suddenly get over the top and are faced with this spectacular view of the towers, free of clouds, and its all worth it. About 4 hours for us but there are those who can get there much quicker.

Of course there are about 100 other people there, this being the most popular time of year, but that isn’t too important. Its way worth it. On the weather, this side of the Torres seems to be generally better weather - I think its in a rain shadow so the other gets it all. This make for much more pleasant conditions to walk in, although the wind is still strong. On the way we pass lots of people who have enormous packs with camping gear and food for a week or more struggling along these rugged and difficult paths. The wind can blow you off the edge if you are overloaded.

At the mirador we have lunch in the "British camp" along with Ron and Miriam who have made it up here having left the UK two days ago, quick work eh? and hang around for a while, talking to several others from various countries. It seems many stay at the Chileno refuge or camp and then come up here for dawn, which sounded really appealing except for the scamble up the rock cliff in the dark and having to get up early! There were also horrifying tales of walkers having paid ninety dollars to the Hotel Pehoe for a transfer to Refugio Las Torres and facing the same to get back as the public transport in the park is non existant - sort it out CONAF.

We then head back down and decide to keep to the original plan, only going halfway back and staying at the other refuge rather than try to get back to the town. Refugio Chileno is a lot more remote….

(Just to break off for a moment, I am trying to arrange hotels for the next leg, and this hotel in Argentina wanted me to put a deposit in their local bank to ensure the reservation. I can’t do this so told him so and just got a response which translated into this:
“Mr. Simon, there is no single problem I request to him that please he does not break away from enemy” !!)

…but still has fairly decent facilities including to our joy a wine list for us to plunder. So again we took advantage, and once we had clocked up beds, sleeping bags, food and wine the bill was astronomical 80,000 CHP (eighty quid). The bunks went three up this time, the highest being over the room door with no bar to keep you in, so drinking too much or being too mobile in bed was clearly a bad idea. One guy told us how he had got twisted in his bag one night up there and in thrashing around to free himself, while still asleep, toppled over the edge. The fall took so long he had time to wake up just before his derriere then head hit the ground!

The refuge has a pleasant vibe, so we spend the evening talking to folk and doing Soduko puzzles before retiring fairly early and thoroughly worn out to a relatively peaceful nights sleep.

Next day is Monday and we have to get back to Punta Arenas. A leisurely breakfast and we head back down to refugio las torres, arriving in plenty of time to chat with some new friends over the remainder of our rations before the transfer out of the park, admiring the final views of the mountains on the way, and bus back to Puerto Natales.

We managed to get straight onto another bus in Puerto Natales and were back in Punta in plenty of time to go to Santino’s - our local haunt in Punta - for a barros luca con palta (steak sandwich with avocado - yum, with chips of course!) and a few pints or pisco sours. These little lemony drinks are dangerous. Small glasses but very strong, and it doesn’t take many to do damage. We often see groups of lads in after-work drinking sessions stumbling around after one too many!

I think Torres is amazing, well worth any amount of time you can spend there as long as you get walking. Want to go back again…just have to add it to the list I suppose and do it a bit quicker than the 3 years its taken so far!

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Photos

happy picture on the way back out
I didnt dare take one on the way in!

Comments

[Helen]

Brings back memories ...
Great read, takes me back to when I did the "W" in 2001 so 5 years since I've been and you are right far too long! Hope all is going well and look forward to the next read ... Hx

[Pat Pemberton]

Meester Simon
I hope Meester Simon that you didn't break away from the enemy. Sounds like Alan Davies doing his Mexican impression, Beautiful photo's once again, especially the blue icebergs.