Wonderful wilderness walking
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2008
1
39
103
Trip End
Jun 2009
Where I stayed
Refugio Los Cuernos
Refugio Paine Grande (camping)
Campmento Torres
Campmento Italiano
Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile
Thursday, November 27, 2008
After Rio Gallegos, the scenery that meets you in this whole neck of the woods is awesome to put it mildly!
We had been unsure as what to do once we got down this far south. The Torres was something of a mystical thing and everyone you see looks kitted out like they are going to the south Pole.
Our helpful Hostel (Erratic Rock 2) had advised us to go to the Torres Briefing that is held daily at Erratic Rock 1. The briefing, held by one of the owners, was extremely helpful as it clarified many aspects on trekking in the park and the dos and don'tīs. The hour long spiel was enough to get Ems and I really excited about doing a 5 day "W" route of the park.We were really ready for a bit of an adventure. The actual trekking in the park is not "hard core" unless the weather is crap, and apparently when it is bad with howling winds of up to 130kph and immense rain then trekking can be some of the hardest on the planet
Day 5 Up to Towers and back down
. We prepared for our 5 day trek by renting gear (tiny 2 man tent, mess kit and gas stove,, additional set of hiking poles) buying food and rations for 5 days and booked our 3rd night in at one of the Refugio's (That way if the weather was really bad we would have the pleasure of staying in somewhere dry and being fed a hot meal that we did not have to cook and cater ourselves)
Ems had been very keen on getting into the park via a Zodiac rather than by bus. The two boat options were to either take a 1) Cutter that left PN and went up the Last Hope Sound then met by a Zodiac and up the Rio Serrano passing several glaciers on route.. or 2) get a transfer to the Zodiacs and head down the Rio Serrano and take in 3 glaciers including one or two close ups of the glaciers. We opted for 2 after being advised that it was more exciting.
The zodiacs were powered by 2 x 100hp Yamaha's with a nutter for a skipper. We were dressed up in a full "all weather life suite" which was a bright red full body suit that went over your clothes and that would keep you warm and dry in the event that you fell in the water... the 3c degree water that is!!The day was exciting with the skipper riding the boat hard down the river, we changed boats at the waterfall and continued out to sea on another identical zodiac.All in all an exhilarating day on the zodiacs.Towards the end of the day we were making our way upriver back to the start point when we ran out of petrol; so the engines cut out and we drifted down river until we beached on the river bank, waited 5 minutes, were collected by van, taken back to the start point, got changed out of the all weather suites and jumped into our transfer with our packs and then were taken into the Torres national park and dropped off at the Catamaran crossing point
Day 5 Up to Towers and back down
.We waited in thesun for, the 6PM cat crossingof the Lago Pehoe.It was beautiful as the sun was shining and the lake was the most amazing pistaciao I have ever seen with the contrast of the Torres rising up in all the glory with the flowering plants and snow capped mountains.Wow, what a way to start our trek. The boat ride lasts 30 minutes and we were dropped off at Camp Paine Grande. Pitched tent, made dins and got to bed around 10.
Day 2: Glacier Grey
Got up, made breakfast and headed up the valley to Grey Glacier, a great little 2 hour walk up to the look out. The glacier looked amazing. chilled there for 20 mins and then turned back to Camp Pehoe. Got back, made lunch, packed up camp and it was time to test our trekking abilities with out heavy packs. So we are now 4 hours of walking and have another 2 to reach Camp Italiano.The maps say 2 hours of easy walking-Man we must have missed the turning as we ended up walking for over 2.5 hours and it was not EASY. The wind was howling and we were tired when we reached camp. Good news is that we were getting much better at getting the tent up and sorted out so, although we were quite cold, it was only 30 minutes before we had a hot drink in our hands and were snug in our dry and warm clothes.
Day 3:
Next day it was up and down the valley Frances!! Wow, wonderful walk, we were feeling Strong and got up in well under the 2 hours. Got up to the farthest look out point, took loads of great photos, nice weather and were heading back down well before lunch
Day 5 Up to Towers and back down
.Had lunch on the river banks which was spectacular... This valley is the least assesible to day trippers so is quiet but is definately the most spectacular of the "W"and was made more exciting by the huge avalanches we could see and hear cascasding down Paine Grande.
Water:
We had been advised how lovely and clean the water is here.. It is amazing, you literally can drink like a dog right out of any stream.... The water is straight off the glaciers or freshly melted snow at source..!!
We then had a couple more hours to Los Cuernos which would be our Refugio for the evening. Lovely walk along the lake and perfect stopping spot on the beach. Nice little place, we had arrived early,checked into our dorm.(At 120US per night it feels strange to be staying in a dorm, however after all the exercise we had done it was nice not to have to Set up tents and worry about food.) We even bought a 20 US$ bottle of wine and a beer or 2 at 5US each to celebrate our achievements so far!
We met some fellow "flash packers" a couple from the US who were lawyers who had also decided to take a year out, travel and see the world before having kids etc. They were good company and we had a good laugh-Ems was happy to have someoneto share the wine as she did not fancy a hangover on day 4!!
Day 4:
We had geared up for a 10 hour trekking day as this is what we had bee told and what all the maps indicated it would take, with a huge climb to boot
Day 5 Up to Towers and back down
. We were mentally and physically prepared and set off around 8:45 with nearly 14 hours of sunlight we had loads of time. Ems was off like a rabbit and I followed, we didn't mess around and by the time it was 12:30 we passed sign saying that it was only an hour to the next Refugio campsite (Chileano).This was strange as we had arrived there 2 or 3 hours ahead of schedule. We marched on as we had been advised and arrived at our camp (Campento Los Torres) before 4. A total of 5.5 hours and we were there!! Set camp and went for a stroll to see if we could be a peak view of the Torres. Good thing too as the weather started to turn. The plan wasto get up the next day at the crack of dawn , take breakfast and warm clothes and hike up the final 45 minutes over the boulders to the look out point of the Torres, in the hope of seeing the towers glow red.Day 5:
We were up at 430, hiked up and sat in the clouds, made Milo and had our hot porridge awaiting the sun to rise and the clouds to clear.Sadly this did not happen and we did not even glimpse the towers however the experience was fantastic.
We hiked back down and had two or 3 hours to kill before we got the transfer from base camp to the bus collection point.
What an adventure and great experience.... this was hiking at its best !!!
