More trekking this time Torres del Paine

  Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile
Friday, January 30, 2009

Puerto Natales in Chile is a Big tin town thats friendly and not overly touristy like El Calafate. this is the base for heading to the Torres Del Paine trek. We decided to do the "w" which is five days and takes in all the best bits.

The Santiago venture scouts BBQ

After the first night in town enjoying some drinks with some drunk Chilean venture scouts who were very impressed that we liked torte a milhoja the Chileans favorite cake and Completos, their hotdogs, we got the bus to the national park the next day. We trekked the "w" from west to east saving the best till last and walking with the prevailing wind. The trek started with a catamaran ride over lake Pehoe to be dropped at the western end then we start walking up the side of lake Grey to our first campsite. It was a similar landscape to the Fitz Roy trek though a lot busier. There were lots of in experienced walkers with dour faces who would clog up the path and generally look miserable. We enjoyed smiling at them and saying "hola" to which they would usually blank you and attempt to walk through you. They were obviously not used to trekking or the cold.
Our first campsite was situated at the end of glacier Grey and the start of lake Grey. This meant there were a constant stream of icebergs floating past the campsite, pretty cool (excuse the pun).

Campimento Grey with icebergs floating past

The views were great of the lake and glacier and in the campsite we got chatting to some fellow Brits who had started at the same time as us.
Next day it was back down the valley and on to Campo Italiano. Although a lot of the stretches we were walking were relatively short they were up and down and up and down, this fairly dragged it out. Once at the camp we were in a great position to explore the French valley the next day. We got up before sunrise again in the vain attempt at catching some stunning views. It was a little better this time but still not the postcard material we were looking for. However we did see a serac break off and send a big avalanche down the face of one mountain, very impressive. Once up and walking in the valley you can see the entire valley is surrounded by 1000m granite walls. This is a climbers paradise as hardly any of it has been touched.

Los Cuernos del Paine

We headed up to the British camp and on to the head of the valley way beyond where most of the trekkers go. We ran into a young American climber who had been lugging up gear for his friend. He told us what was what and what he had climbed recently it was really cool to get this information and has me now thinking of trips in the future. Who´s up for climbing in Patagonia? Our hike took us right behind the south tower of the Torres.

Pete in Valle de Frances

It was amazing to see the scraped and shattered rock from all the recent glaciers. It was great to be that close to the mountains and cliffs. We headed back down for a second night a Italiano knowing it was going to be a long next day.
We headed off at a reasonable time the next day to Campamento Chileno which is underneath the Torres. The walk took us back down the valley then along a lake side past one of the hostels and over the rolling lake side.

Typical Patagonian scene

After several hours it leveled out and the walking became easier. We didn´t get much help from the misleading signs which have the most random times for each distance. As we got round to the right valley it was back up hill again as we slogged up the final push to the camp site. Once there you could tell this was the popular bit as the campsite although small was packed. We squeezed in, it felt like we were at a music festival as the tents were so tightly packed. We got ourselves a well earned shower as the weather by now was not windy and there was a blazing sun in the sky. Once clean we were in for the night.
Next morning we weren´t too quick off the block as we had not had any luck in the past with the sunrise. This time I got it wrong as we were told the sunrise was beautiful. Oh well you cant have it all. We trekked up for around 9am. The one benefit we got from this was that it was quiet and there was no one else up there. The cloud then lifted completely and the Torres looked spectacular. They would be amazing to climb. We spent around three hours talking to a Brit called Robb who was now going to live in New Zealand, so he was giving us lots of tips for our future travels.

Las Torres del Paine

We headed back down to take the tent down and head for the late bus back to Natales. Back at the camp site the next bunch of trekkers were arriving for the Torres so they were gratefully to see more space appear in the still busy camp site. We wandered back down at a leisurely pace as we now had light rucksacks. We had eaten all the food and given all we had left to Robb as he was only starting and had little left. We also had plenty of time till the bus came. We got back to the road head and had a short walk back around to the park office where we would be picked up. Once there more trekkers arrived in dribs and drabs as it got closer to the buses arrival at eight. We were then bused back to civilization were beer was cheaper and so was the food. We rounded of this trek with a massive fillet of salmon with chips and a big beer from the restaurant in our hostel. Good times.