Torres Del Paine (Chile) - Week 20

26th - 1st February

We left Ushuaia at 5am for a 14 hour bus - ferry - bus trip to Puerto Natales, the town closest to Torres del Paine. We stayed at Casa Teresa, a pleasant little house, where we also hired all the camping gear for the park. A couple of good restaurants here. We had a large salmon steaks with a crab and scallop creamy sauce - mmmm. Also another called Maritimo on the lake front, more good seafood for less than 5 quid!

We had one day in Puerto Natales to arrange the big trip to Torres del Paine. We thought that we would just splash a lot of cash to stay in the Refugios (simple hostel-type affairs but very pricey) as we hiked round meaning that we would have a bit of comfort and not have to carry a tent round with us. However, having spoken to people and being swept along with the 'hiking experience' we were persuaded that the refugios were just for old people and we really ought to hire all the gear and camp - joy! We were going for 4 nights of camping and 5 days trekking/hiking on the 'W' circuit.

So off we set with our big back-pack each with tent, sleeping bags, roll mats, stove and lots of porridge, pasta and packet soups! We arrived in the park around 10am after a 2 hour bus ride from Puerto Natales. The strange thing about the park was that the surrounding countryside is completely desolate, flat with rolling hills and hardly any trees. All of a sudden the park comes into view with snow capped mountains, turquoise lakes and glaciars, all in a relatively compact mountain range. It is a very beautiful place.

The park from a few km away, the three Torres to the middle right

The first day's hike was to go from Hosteria Las Torres up the first valley to campiemento Torres, so we could get to the Torres for sunrise. It was a 3 hr trek uphill to the campsite which was surprisingly okay for our first day with the backpacks! The sun shone the whole way and the surroundings were absolutely glorious! After putting up the the tent (in a free campsite - ie nothing but very hard ground and a stream for water...) we were feeling confident - this camping/trekking thing was easy!, so we went for a four hour walk further up the valley, past campienmento Japones onto the Valle del Silencio. It wasn´t very silent though as the wind was whipping through making it feel very cold!! This extra bit of walking with hindsite was a bit of a mistake as James got old man's knee and ended up hobbling around on Ibuprofen for the rest of the trip.

At the beginning, the backpacks still feeling okay here...

Valle del Silencio - sooooo cold!!

The second morning we got up at 4:15am for sunrise over the Torres. Sleep was hard to come by (ie impossible) anyway on the rockhard ground and it was really cold. We stumbled up to the Torres in the dark over large glacial boulders, about a 600m climb from the campsite. A really tricky hike in the dark but at least we could leave our backpacks at the bottom in the tent! It was still far from light when we got there and the windchill factor had us hiding like cavemen in between rocks. Ever the professionals, we had carried the camping stove, water and tea bags in a red stripy carrier bag (all good pro-trekkers use carrier bags!!) in the hope of making a hot cup of tea. The wind was way to strong so that was a bit of a waste of time. We then had to wait about an hour for the sun to come over the far mountainside. Climatic conditons allowing, the Torres are lit up with red light and look very smart - not this day though. Still they were very spectacular, rising to 2800m in shear faces of granite.

A very cold Katie & James at the Torres

After returning back down to the campsite, we warmed up with some lovely hot porridge, packed up the tent and set off back down to the next campsite (all downhill, great for Katie, bad for James's knee!).

The route back down the first valley

The second night we camped at Hosteria Las Torres, with comfy grass to put the tent on and hot showers - luxury! We had tent issue though. As soon as we had put the tent up in glorious sunshine the wind picked up and almost took the tent with it. We couldn´t be bothered taking the tent down again so James dragged it un-pegged with all the bags in 50m across the site under some trees - much better.

The third day we walked along the lakeside to the south of the park in what started out as a light breeze. After about three hours looking and remarking on how interesting it was the way the wind was picking up the lake water and making little tornados with it, we went around a corner and ran into the wind. The next 3 hours were crazy. The winds get up to 90mph and we got battered. The first section to the Refugio Cuernos was more a of a grit-blasting session. After lunch of soup, crsips and salami and 1/2 shelter in the Refugio we went back out in it again to get to the Italiano campsite for the night. The trail went right down to the lakeside. Here the wind blew us completely off our feet in to trees and bushes many times. The lake water was blown with such force it was like being in a giant carwash!! It was pretty scary for an hour or so but sort of fun at the same time. The way the sun shone on the spray and made rainbows was cool though...

Another "comfy" campsite...

In stark contrast to the day before we awoke on the fourth day to rain and heavy cloud. We had planned to go all the way up the second valley to the mirador above campmiento Britanico, but from the photos below there was little point as the cloud was so thick (see below) and Katie´s expression says it all! The rain was horrible and it was very cold again. We decided to cut our losses at the viewpoint an hour up the valley...

Glaciar with rainbow

We then walked on to Lago Pehoe to camp for the forth night, hot water showers and springy grass again. The fifth and last morning we walked up the last part of the "w" route alonside Lago Grey to the Glaciar Grey mirador. Again the weather changed and was crazy windy again.

Glaciar Grey

We got the boat back across Lago Pehoe that afternoon in the best weather of the last 5 days (!) to perhaps the crappest coach of the whole trip. Approaching the hills he was racing lining all the corners to keep as much speed as possible for the hills where the coach ran out of steam, was overtaking by all the modern coaches, and took three attempt and alsmost a clutch to get up the hills.

Boat trip across Lago Pehoe, a beautiful, turquoise lake

Back in Puerto Natales we headed off for hearty meal after days of packet soups and noodles. Next day we were on our way back into Argentina and El Calafate.