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Published: March 14th 2008
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Fire red
Torres Del Paine at sunrise I left El Calafate the day after my mammoth trek in Fitz Roy, and took a short seven hour bus ride across the Chilean boarder to Puerto Natales.
The city of Puerto Natales, 247 km. northwest of Punta Arenas, together with black necked swans and seagulls, greets the visitor from its misty dock, characteristic of this rural tourist area. It is capital of the Province of Última Esperanza, situated by the Señoret Channel facing the Andes Mountain Range. Puerto Natales is the gateway to the famous Torres del Paine National Park, which attracts hikers and visitors from all over the world. I arrived in this lovely quite town with the aim of heading off the next day to hike the ´W´.
I booked into the coolest hostel called Erratic Rock, which provides a free briefing for potential hikers every day at 3pm. It also hires out all you could possibly need to hike in the park; from sleeping bags to cooking stoves. I rocked up at the briefing hoping to find someone to hike with, as I wasn’t keen on reliving my Bariloche experiences or carrying a tent, cooking gear and food etc by myself. After the briefing I
Ice
Icebergs near Glacier Grey attached myself to two Aussie guys, Simon and Jamie, and we decided to join forces and hike together. We hired a (very heavy) three man tent, went shopping for food and packed out bags ready to hit the park the next morning.
It was an early start to the day with a three hour bus ride to the entrance of the park. The National Park Torres del Paine is, without doubt, one of the most spectacular national parks in the country. Declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1978, the Torres del Paine national park (situated in the Magallanes 12th region in Chile) is internationally recognized as one of the most beautiful, unique and uncontaminated places on the planet. It has a huge variety of plant and animal species which, with its incredibly beautiful setting has made it an almost unequalled destination for hikers and backpackers, ecology-lovers and adventure sportsmen alike. Snow-capped mountain peaks, cascading rivers and waterfalls, glaciers and mirrored lakes: in all respects Torres del Paine national park deserves its reputation.
Some 2500 kilometres separate the park from Santiago, the capital of Chile. This, together with the geography and climate of the south of the country,
On the ferry
Looking to where we are going to spend the next five days has meant that Torres del Paine has been converted into a meeting point for those who love excitement and adventure.
Undoubtedly one of the main attractions of the park is the Macizo (Massif) of Paine, formed predominately from granite and whose origin dates back millions of years. The most famous peaks of the park are called the ‘Cuernos’ (horns) and ‘Torres’ (towers) of Paine. Both each have three peaks: the North, principal and East horns, and the south, central and north towers.
The vegetation of the park is different in each zone you visit. The most common species are the mata barrosa, the calafate, the estepa and the coiron, capachitos and orquideas. There are also small woods of lenga and coigue in the zones near the Pehoe Lake and the Lago de Grey trail.
The most common animals that habitat the park are guanacos, nandues, condors, pumas, zorros grises and culpeos, and a huge variety of birds whose principal habitats are found around the lakes and lagoons.
We had decided to do the hike from west to east, so after arriving at the park entrance we had another quick bus ride to Pudeto then we took a
catamaran to Refugio Lago Pehoe, over the other side of the lake. From Refugio Pehoe we walked to our first night camp near Glacier Grey. It took us about three and a half hours to walk there which was a nice and easy for the first day.
We had to pay for the camp site on this night, but it enabled us to use the facilities of Refugio Grey. We pitched our tent on the nice sandy beach, and after having Mate, decided to go for a further walk to take a closer look at Glacier Grey. On the way to the glacier we came across a beach that had a heap of icebergs washed up at the edge. We all managed to amuse ourselves for quite a while trying to find an iceberg to stand on, picking them up and eating them and throwing them at each other. It was all a great laugh. Once we got back to the camp it was time for dinner. I had made the deal with the boys that I would cook as long as I didn’t have to wash up. They were happy for that, but I still think I got
the better end of the deal (washing up burnt porridge in the morning is not a really a fun job).
After a pretty unrestful night on my part (this became the norm) I finally managed to get the boys packed up (this also became the norm) and we headed off at around 10am. There is so much sunlight down in Patagonia that you can have a late start and still get into your next camp with hours of sunlight left. We hiked back to Refugio Pehoe and then continued onto Campo Italiano, which is a free camp site. By the second night we had our routine down pat and after setting up the tent and having dinner we settled down to play cards with a couple of girls (Miriam and Sophie) that we had meet in the hostel during the briefing. Over the next couple of days we managed to play way to many hands of a…. hole and president.
The next morning we left our tent set up and went to explore Frances Valley. The valley is very beautiful and you get amazing views of glaciers and you can even see the Torres from behind. After heading back
to the tent and having lunch we packed up and had a short couple of hours walk to Refugio Los Cuernos. This is once again a paid campsite, but by this time I was pretty happy to pay to use the amenities, and I even shouted myself to a much needed shower. The Refugio sold much need wine and chocolate and over a long night we consumed a bit too much of both (luckily with no hangover the next morning).
On the fourth day we had out longest days walk from Los Cuernos to Campo Torres del Paine. It was a stinking hot day, and in some places it was pretty hard going up some big hills. After about seven hours of walking we reached out final campsite. Luckily there was no wine on sale, because I couldn’t have handled another night like the one before.
Our alarms awoke us at the ungodly hour of 4:30am the next morning and we had about an hour to climb to reach a vantage point to see the Torres Del Paine at sunrise. I re-lived my Bariloche experience (but not quite as bad) as we had to climb up hill though
loose boulders (in the dark) to reach the top. Once we got to the top we started heading across a ridge line to get closer to the Torres (we thought this was the path, but in fact we were well off it!) To say that it was a little bit scary on the ridge line is an understatement. It was pretty much a sheer drop on both sides, and at times the wind gusts were so strong that it was enough to knock you over. Ahhh! Eventually we just decided to stop and see the sunrise from where we were. Well we were certainly not disappointed, as it was truly spectacular. As the sun rose, the Torres changed from black to purple to pink and then an unbelievable shade of blinding red. Wow - it was mind blowing. After watching the sunrise we made ourselves a hot brew and then headed back to camp. This time we could actually see the path, and it turned out to bit a tad different than the one we took up.
After having a massive feed of porridge we packed up camp and headed back down the hill to Hosteria Las Torres where
we finished our walk. We were we were picked up by the bus an hour or so later, and headed back to Puerto Natales for a hot shower, a good feed and a nice warm bed. Bliss.
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