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Published: April 11th 2011
Sunday 27th March – Monday 4th April
We flew into southern Patagonia, the land of mountains, lakes and glaciers. It didn’t disappoint. The bus from the airport into town cruised past Lago Argentina with the snow capped Andes in the background. It was a fair bit colder, as expected, but the sunshine on our faces and the clean fresh air felt good..... our sparkling new hiking boots had been waiting for this moment.
We didn’t waste any time, booking an ice trek across the Perito Moreno Glacier for the following day. The Perito Moreno is 35km long, 5km wide, a wopping 60 meters high, and advances up to 2 meters per day. This all makes for an amazing spectacle as house sized pieces of ice shear off and come crashing down into the water, while you watch. The trek involved a 1 hour hike from the front of the glacier along the tree lined edge and then strapping crampons to our hiking boots to take to the ice. We explored crevasses, caves, rivers and waterfalls deep in the glacier, with amazing blue colours. Awesome!
We rested up in town the following day, soaking up the atmosphere of the
sleeply, friendly town, sipping coffee with local chocolates, reading up on the area and making plans.
We decided it was time to take on the ‘W’, a 5 day/4 night trek through Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile, which some say is the finest in South America. Having no real experience with this kind of thing, apart from our Cotswold pub walks of course, we took to it pretty blindly and figured it couldn’t be that difficult.. I love camping… right? As snow starting falling as we crossed the border into Chile, things weren't looking great.
Despite a really helpful info talk from an experienced guide when we first hit town, it wasn’t until 1.30am the following morning when we still putting cereal bars into ziplock bags, unshowered and very tired that we realised our backpack wasn’t big enough to fit the tent, sleeping bags, mats, stove, pots, food, clothes, etc that we needed for the following 5 days. When it comes to survival, there’s no scrimping on the number of dried peaches and chocolate required…..the 7am start to make the bus was perhaps a little premature and after a "healthy" debate in the corridor, we decided
Torres Del Paine, Chile
Sunrise at Glacier Grey (our campsite on night 1)to lay low for a day in Puerto Natales and prepare properly – after all, kicking off a 75km trek on a few hours sleep wouldn’t make for the best of starts. That was until Chris burst through the bedroom door at 6.45am announcing he’d managed to track down another pack and it was game on! Reshuffling of gear (which weighed a tonne), a quick bite to eat (well half a sandwich, the stray dog ate most of it!) and we were on the bus, wondering what on earth we were doing!
So how was the trek? Amazing, exhausting, spectacular, wet…very wet, jaw dropping, snowy, windy...really, really windy, sunny, hot, cold, hot, cold, sweaty, challenging and unforgettable.
After a hearty lunch of salami tortillas (!), we set off on our path to Glacier Grey as rain started to fall. However, as a light shower became more and more torrential and then turned into a blizzard, we started to doubt the advice we'd received that "waterproofs are better saved for the campsite when being dry really matters"! mmmmm But true to "four seasons in one day" form, the snow subsided, the strong gusty winds picked up and we dried
off. 11km duly completed, our rented tent had just the right number of tent pegs (what a relief) and the campsite was in a pretty special place just next to the glacier (note to self for next time - sleeping next to glaciers gets cold!)
Day 2 was filled with a challenging climb to the glacier look out points and a lengthy trek with no extreme weather to battle....until we made camp. The Patagonian winds started to howl and at several points in the night I thought we were going to get blown away (no joke!).
Day 3 was full of ups and downs of terrain, weather and enjoyment.....never have we been so wet in our lives to the point where the waterproofs were no longer working and everything we were carrying was so waterlogged it seemed to double in weight. We struggled on, motivated by our decision to sack off camping and sleep in a warm, dry bed at the next refugio/campsite, and spend the evening drying off next to the fire.....if only the storm hadn't blocked all radio communications, including the credit card machine! Back out into the wet to pitch our tent....nice
Day 4
made up for it though as we awoke to an incredible sunrise on the mountains behind us and despite his best efforts, the resident fox didn't succeed in his attempts to steal our porridge. Our trek to the campsite at the base of the Towers was nothing less than enjoyable - blus skies, sun shining and not a drop of rain in sight. The sun must have energised us, as after 6.5 hours of trekking, we were game for more and took on the snowy ascent to the Towers for sunset. With noone else around, it made for a great moment and with that, the 'W' was complete.
The best part of day 5 was arriving at the hotel (wet again), where our bus back to Puerto Natales left from, ordering two cold beers and a cheeseburger....and tucking it. Man, it tasted gooooood!
Hopefully the pictures show it all…..
Good times
K&C xx
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Juliet Townsend
non-member comment
epic success!!!
Guys this sounds incredible - I'm so impressed you made it all the way. Keep that spirit of adventure for ever :) Excellent writing too!