Torres Del Paine National Park - Puerto Natales

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February 10th 2008

Published: February 23rd 2008

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Marsey

Torres Themselves

These are what the park is named after.

Early Feb 08:

Against the fine advise of one Nessa McCarthy we decide to head to Chile. Nessa, it wasn´t that we didn´t appreciate your advise and we accept that you had spent a full 2 nights in the public houses of the country´s capital city prior to dispencing said advise, but we figured that there had to be something worth seeing in a country that´s over 4000km long. So we head for Puerto Natales, Chile, the most southern place we´ll get to on this trip as we´ve decided to give Tierra Del Fuego a miss based on advise of people who´ve actually been there.

We´re met off the bus in Puerto Natales by about 10 people trying to get us to stay in there hostel. We give up the tent for one night and go with the guy who can speak most English so as we have somewhere to leave half our gear while we spend 4 days trekking through Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile. Most of the Irish reading this will know the name from the newspapaer reports of the Irish guy that died while doing the trek we´re heading on and who´s body was

Ferry Shot

A shot taken from the ferry on the way out of the park.

missing for 2 months.

First up we go and stock up with food for the next few days and get ourselves a new stove and pot so as we can cook when we´re in the park. The guy in the hostel is holding a bbq that night so no need to cook and tells us it will kick off at 8. I manage to get my first bite of meat at 11.30 and when the second bit I get is like something I would throw to a dog, I give up and head to bed as it´s an early start in the morning.

Next morning we pack the final essentials and get the 3 hour bus into the park. Things get a little hairy when I check my wallet and realise we have pretty much used up all the funds we withdrew yesterday on food, equipment, buses and park entrance fees and while we have enough to pay for the camping we don´t have enough for camping, extra supplies and the ferry out of here that if you don´t get gives you an extra 4 hour walk. Seen as I´m the trip accountant, Niamh was none too happy

Start Day 4

View at the start of day 4 setting out from Campo Italiano with a fresh dusting of snow on the mountain.

and it was nearly the shortest visit to Torres Del Paine in recorded history. I manage to convince Niamh that the ferry and hopefully the camp ground will except Mastercard, Visa or Argentinian money.

So no time to waste as we set up the tent, have a bit of lunch and head off on the 1st of the 72km´s of the W Circuit that we´re meant to cover by foot over the next 4 days. The start is a bit of a problem as they haven´t bothered to put any signs up telling you which way to go from the campground but eventually we find the start of the track and head off towards 'The Torres´themselves. First hour is steep and we´re just thankful we aren´t carrying as much gear as some of the people who look like they are carrying everything they own, and some girlfriends / wives who look like they´ve been duped by there boyfriends / husbands into going for what they thought would be a nice stroll in the local park only to find that they´re climbing the equivalent of there own personal Everest. After the uphill bit is the more dreaded downhill bits, as

Valle Del Frances View

This shot only shows about a 1/4 of the view.

you know that you´ll have to go back up them on the way back in 5 hours or so. We continue on through an amazing valley with some scary narrow trail sections with one slip 100m falls to keep you concentrated. Then the last bit to the Torres lookout is a steep 40 minute scramble over rocks and boulders. All worth the effort and rewarded with a killer view and some of the nicest ham and cheese sandwiches I´ve had in hours if not days.

After another 4 hours or so we´re back at the tent and after a quick shower it´s out with the pasta, tomato sauce and the high class backpacker touch, a can of tuna.

Next morning we pack up the tent, and being the chivalrous gent that I am it goes into my backpack with most of the food. In the meantime Niamh has managed to book our ferry exit using the Mastercard so relief all round. We then head off on what´ll be the longest and hardest day of the walk because we have to carry all our gear for the full day. Over the next 10 hours we hike along the edge

Day 2 Mountain View

of lakes overlooked by snow covered peaks and more spectacular scenery than we´ve ever seen. While none of it is what you would call easy the difficult part comes when after about 5 hours we get to a couple of rivers that we need to cross but someone seems to have forgotten to provide a bridge over. While they may not be the widest rivers you´ll ever see, the word torrent comes to mind to describe the flow rate. But no choice, so it´s off with the socks and shoes and into the rather cold water, as melted snow tends to be, and we make our way across while trying to maintain our balance with the 15 kg´s on our backs not helping the situation. I should point out that it was around this time that Niamh tried to claim that her pack was just as heavy as mine, which if she packed 6kg worth of knickers is possible.

After that it´s more lakes and mountains, (I know, how boring) for another few hours punctuated by numerous ham and cheese sandwich stops each of which amazingly ends about 1 minute after the two not so butch Brazilian lesbians pass

Day 2 Panoramic

us again. After the final half hour uphill section (you would think they would situate the campsites at the bottom of the hill) we make it to Campamento Italiano, home for night 2. No showers here, so it´s down to the river for a very cold wet towel wipe and then out with the pasta, tomato and tuna for another gourmet experience.

Next morning, I get up for sunrise. Niamh´s happy to witness sunrises by photo when the choice is available, and while it´s nice a rather large cloud appears at the most inopportune time. Back to the tent and out with the porridge for breakfast. If my mother tried to serve me this I´d refuse it outright but over these few days its a pleasure that I lap up. After that we set off for a 5 hour hike up Valle Del Frances. It´s a couple of hours into this hike when we have our first emergency of the trip. You see after about 2 hours Niamh hints that a toilet break might be needed. I offer the nearest wooded area but it´s declined in the hope of there being a toilet at the campsite further up the

Niamh doing the river crossing

Feet are numb after about 10 secs so you don´t feel the jagged stones under foot.

valley. Unfortunately when we get there, toilet facilities aren´t provided and when I again offer the local wooded area I´m advised that there´s no hurry. Just after that point we get to the lookout surrounded on 3 sides by jagged peaks and a glacier down below. We then spend the next half hour scrambling over rocks to a higher viewpoint. It´s when we get to this viewpoint that the real emergency begins as Niamh announces we have a 'DEFCON 1´situation in relation to her call of nature. For those unfamiliar with DEFCON´s, listed below is the US Army explanations for said levels.

DEFCON 5 Normal peacetime readiness
DEFCON 4 Normal, increased intelligence and strengthened security measures
DEFCON 3 Increase in force readiness above normal readiness
DEFCON 2 Further Increase in force readiness, but less than maximum readiness
DEFCON 1 Maximum force readiness.

As can be seen from this and assuming Niamh is not exaggerating the situation we are in real trouble. The problem is further exasperated when you consider that we have spent the last half hour scrambling up what is pretty much a bare rock face having left the wooded areas at the last view point and

Niamh on the W

another 10 or so trekkers are following us. While I saw the funny side of this situation Niamh didn´t much appreciate my laughing at the predicament and requested I carry her bag to relieve some of the pressure on her bowel. The answer as to why she had waited until we were at the most exposed point of Torres Del Paine National Park to decide that she couldn´t wait any longer shall remain untyped.

With no time to waste we start a controlled free fall back down the rock face to the first wooded area where Niamh does as any good bear would do. I don´t know what happened in that wood but the person that came out was not the same one that went in and for the next hour I tried to keep up with Niamh as she skipped and whistled her way back towards the camp. Unfortunatly that´s also when the rains started and we got to witness the weather that Torres is more renowed for. By the time we get back to the camp we´re wet through and decide to wait a few hours to see if it´ll clear before we pack up the tent

Niamh on day 2

Check out the nice paved path.

for the 2 hours trek to that nights campsite. When it´s still lashing down at 8pm we decide this camp will do nicely for another night. Unfortunately we´ve pretty much exhausted our food supplies and make do with some dry bread. Niamh for some reason seemed to think this was a good time to start listing all her favourite dishes from around the world. Eventually around 10pm the rain stops so I get out of the tent and cook (maybe boil is more apt) up some soup (not one of the listed dishes). A treat when only minutes earlier we had resigned ourselves to going to bed hungry having not rationed ourselves very well on the basis that we would now be at the other campsite that had a shop where we could replenish our supplies.

After a dry but windy night (it´s no wonder half the trees are uprooted), which thanks to our tents ability to be blown flat and then right itself we survive, we eventually exit our tent to find the blue skies have returned, so after the porridge is consumed we pack up and hit the road for day 4. After 3 hours of more

Niamh again

Walking along the side of one of the lakes.

stunning scenery we get to the next camp. The original plan would have had us here last night and today we would of headed on a walk up the last leg of the W to a glacier but seen as we´re behind schedule, saw a glacier last week, and have a ferry ticket out of here for today we settle on the all new U Circuit and head to the cafe for a toasted ham and cheese sandwich and hot chocolate for me and coffee for Niamh. An amazing few days over and if anything else in South America comes close to this place we´ll be over the moon.

Half an hour later and we´re on the ferry out and then the bus back to Puerto Natales. When we get back to the hostel we meet the owner at the front door who informs us that the hostel is closed for a week as the tax man has shown up and he hadn´t given out receipts. So we head up the road in search of new digs and end up staying in a family house complete with granny. That night we head out for a bite to eat and

Wet Cloth Wipe

Niamh doing her abulutions at Camp Italiano.

then to a bar with a French couple we met on the trek, and David.

Next morning it´s the bus back to El´Calafate as the initial plan of busing it up through Chile and then back into Argentina further north is cancelled as the next bus isn´t for 3 days.

PS: Due to the influx of e-mails after the last entry hotmail must have crashed as non made it into my inbox. So I thought it best to list my address here again for ease of reference. colminoz@hotmail.com. If you don´t want to e-mail you can put a comment or message on this. Don´t worry I won´t post it for all to see unless you want me to.

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