Hiking in Torres del Paine
Trip Start
Jul 13, 2005
1
21
32
Trip End
Mar 02, 2006
Puerto Natales,
Chile
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Once in P. Natales we locate a real cheap hostel where Omar has a cool onda goin' on. We stay there the night, go to an internet cafe, buy some gas and some last minute stuff we need. Enjoy our last night in a bed for a while. In the morning the bus comes to get us, we leave a few things we don't need for the week with Omar and then we board with our hiking packs and boots!
The drive to the park is beautiful through mountains and past lots of sheep estancias. We arrive at the entrance to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine about 10 and pay our fee and get maps. (We only had to pay 4.000 because we are 'Chileans'!!) Then we get on the transfer to the Hosteria las Torres where the hike begins.
Right away Jessa has to redo her pack, hers is kind of small and we have lots of moments that characterize each of us on the trip. She tends to be a bit disorganized so we have to stop many times because she can't find something or thinks she lost something. Funny moments that of course can be irritating at the time, but overall funny. We finally get hiking at around 11 or something on the trail which took forever to find. It starts out right away with a steep climb, and I really took off at my pace which turned out to be too fast for the group and I ended up way to far in front. So, I settled myself in behind the chicas for the rest of the trip, and that way we maintained a much better pace.
It took about 4 hours to reach our campsite at the base of las torres, and then we just grabbed some basic stuff after making camp and climbed up for an hour to the torres where they were half clouded over but still impressive to view. It was pretty cold and windy at the top.
After a while we came back down and cooked some couscous and soy meat for dinner. We flavored it with some curry but it tasted baad. We pretty much had to garborate it, which was nasty but at least it was good fuel.
The next day I woke up at 4 am to go up to the top for sunrise, however the girls are a bit slower to get ready so we kinda missed the sunrise show at the top but it was still a cool adventure to get up there and see the towers, and this time they weren't clouded over.
We then slept for a while longer in the camp. Later in the afternoon after some oatmeal we hiked with day packs up into el Valle del Silencio. We didn't really see other people, enjoyed the calm hike through the woods, passed an area where there had been an avalanche and along a roaring glaciar-fed river.
I filled my water bottle from a waterfall that was coming direct from melting snow and it gave us all brain freezes. Crazy crazy.
The next night it rained but only a little bit, our campsite was sheltered by trees from the elements. We got up at 6 am to leave by 8:30 for a looong day of hiking to the next camp. We made pretty good time and passed some great scenery, condors soaring above (and alongside) us and lakes various colors and shades of green. It drizzled the whole day and the mountain peaks where shrouded for the whole day. At the end of the hike we were met with a stiff front and wind and rain had to be fought until we got into camp alongside a roaring river in the forest at Campamento Italiano. The girls crawled into their tent and didn't emerge for 17 hours. I cooked dinner and breakfast and served it to them inside their tent, hahaha.
Overnight the rain turned into snow and we woke up freezing in the morning. No one wanted to go anywhere, and the weather wasn't getting better, so we finally decided to abandon the Valle Frances (we were going to do a relaxing day hike in the middle of the ´W´ . Instead we packed up camp at 2:30 left for the next refugio. After a hike through sleet and wind we arrived at this nice place and were thinking about staying there but decided to continue on to Glacier Grey since we were staying a lot warmer while we were moving anyways.
The hike was long, and there wasn't water for a bad stretch of it, but finally we crested a hill and there was Glaciar Grey in all its glory. Lago Grey had icebergs floating in it and the Glaciar was so spectacular. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before.
We arrived at the mirador close to the glacier and enjoyed the vistas, then we went over to the campsite, where unfortunately we had to pay to camp for the first and last time in the park. The girls went in the refugio (really ritzy places you can stay if you don't want to camp and carry lots of stuff) and got hot chocolate, which it turns out they had to make themselves. Some of the tents at this place were absolutely insane, especially compared to the $16 tent I bought at a supermarket and was using. Many of them belonged to ice hiking expeditions and stuff, we commented that the people all seemed really happy here, and then we realized it was because they hadn't done any hiking all day like us!! We were tired and sore, but fixed up dinner and then went to sleep. It continued snowing and stuff all the while, we woke up to snow on the hills that was fresh, although the morning began with sun and the skies cleared up brilliant blue.
We said goodbye to a few people we had met at the campsite, and retraced our steps heading back towards the end of the park as this was to be our 5th and last full day in PNTP. We hiked for a while until we ran into a group of our friends from la Católica including my friend Elizabeth Garlow from Kzoo. It was sooooooo fun to run into them on the trail coming the other way, they were just starting so we passed off some food and stuff and talked and ate some gorp together. When we finally continued along the way we felt refreshed and re-energized to continue the trek.
The day passed with our feet getting continually more sore and tired and we also met up with some other kids from la Católica just starting out on their trek as well. The last part of the hike was a 10 km stretch over pampas and meadows with the parks peaks hanging in the background. It fulfilled my classic image of Patagonia with a fierce wind pushing us along. We finally reached camp tired and weary, as this was not a well marked trail, and there weren't other people in this section. We camped ate some food, made friends with a guy from Alaska, and some Israelis.
The next morning we got up real early to complete the final 8 km back to the administration where the bus was to pick us up later on. We were satisfied at having completed the trek and we talked about the food we were going to eat when we arrived back at P. Natales.
The bus ended up being a rather smelly affair as you would imagine. All those scents that had been spread out by the wind where concentrated in a bus and people would get on and be like ´ohhhh god it smells bad´ (in various languages) kind of amusing and gross.
We finally arrived in P. Natales after a long bus ride, and went back to Omars to hang out, shower, change into clean clothes etc. We then went out to pizza. It was cheap and I got a Hawaiian with an Austral (the most southern beer on the planet!)
It never had tasted better and we had earned it with about 80 km of trekking in the park over 6 days or so.
We hung out at the hostel at night after a quick stop at the internet cafe and the bus station. (the girls return to P. Arenas Wednesday, it's a sad goodbye as I am now on my own.)
I stay in P. Natales until Thursday night when I board my ship, Navimag Magallanes, with destination Puerto Montt, a 4 day trip. It should be fun.
How is everything back in the other hemisphere? I hear the weather has been a bit seasonal there as well. I really appreciate the notes from you, and I'm sorry if I haven't had a chance to respond, I just don't have much internet time to do more than read them (which I really love doing!) Please write me if you have a chance...I love it and it makes my days!
Please take care, stay warm, and I hope you haven't lost interest in my happenings. If you don't want to hear about this stuff anymore, let me know and I'll take you off the list. I'm going to try to stay faithful to this (I know I'll be glad I did in 20 years) and so it may get a little long and boring sometimes.
Patagonia has been crazy and quite the adventure. I'm really glad I came down here to the tip of the world, wish I had more time, but I think I'll also be glad to head back to warmer climates!!!
ABRAZOS!!!!
