Friday, February 12, 2010

Torres del Paine

Arrived in Puerto Natales, Chile on February 3rd, after a 6 hour bus ride from El Calafate, Argentina. Stayed overnight in the town, then headed off the next day for our 5 day/4 night hike in Torres del Paine. We were met by our guide Eduardo, a young 28 year old born in Puerto Natales. We were also joined on our hike by Christoph,  a Frenchman living in Australia. Puerto Natales is a small port in a fjord channel. This town used to have a thriving meat processing industry which has since died off. They used to send meat and leather good to Europe and the U.S. Now the town is really a jump off point for those hiking, biking, horse back riding and kayaking in the  area. Visitors coming to trek can rent anything here and looked like about one half the people on the "W" were using rented equipment. We brought our rain and warm weather gear from Canada. Bedding was supplied at the refugios, where we stayed.

Also a start off  port for two boats that  cruise the inland fjords. The first one, Namimag, is a working boat, which also accommodates tourists. It goes from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. The other is a small dedicated cruise boat going from Puerto Natales to Ushuia. This is something we considered doing, but very expensive and only so much time. Guess we will have to return some day.

We drove a couple of hours to get to Torres del Paine National Park. Driving through the open pampas and the various estancias, we saw a few nandu's (a rare South American ostrich) and many guanacos (llama family). The Torres del Paine National Park was created in 1959 and declared part of the International Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1978. It covers 242,000 hectares. The Paine Massif is a small mountain system completely independent from the Patagonian Andes Range. It was formed some 12 million years ago. Granite can be seen in the famous Towers and in some of the other peaks.

At the park gates, our driver dropped us off and we hiked 2 hours in to our first refugio - Refugio Las Torres. This hike was through gentle rolling hills and climbed up to a huge rock (somewhat like an Ayers rock in Australis but on a smaller scale) to view some hieroglyphics. Thought we could hear someone below saying...."The guanacos took my baby!!!".

Along this hike we saw hundreds of guanacos. The female gets impregnated every fall, and delivers one baby after 11 months gestation (yikes). Once the young males reach a year old and when the new babies arrive, the young males are literally chased away from the herd. Only one male dominates a herd of females and her young. The young males usually hang around in groups of 3 or 4 ....sounds like teenagers! Once they get old enough, they might challenge the dominant male of the herd, or if the herd gets too big, the dominant male will allow some of the females and her young to form a new herd with one of the males.  On our hike along the border of the park, we also saw lots of skeletons of guanacos. There are pumas here who feed on the guanacos...the circle of life.

This first day hike was great to get our hiking legs in shape. It also allowed us to get to know our guide and our hiking partner, Christoph, who had a wonderful sense of humour. He is by trade a yacht broker and hires himself out as a "sailor" for yacht races. He was quite a character and great to have him along. Our guide was very knowledgeable and also had a good sense of humour. This made our five days very enjoyable.

Two of the refugios we stayed at were on land just outside the park boundary and run by a private company. All rooms had 2  to 3 bunkbeds. Having no say on who your roomates are, we "lucked" in and had lots of snorers and people who set alarms for all hours of the night to the tunes of rap music, Christmas music and ringing sounds.  Oh well....part of the experience as they say. At one refugio we were able to upgrade to a private cabin and we took this opportunity. Had a great night sleep. The last refugio, Refugio Paine Grande was in the National Park and had about 100 beds. At each refugio, people also camped. The meals in the refugios were all very good and plentiful. We were provided with lunches everyday which in all honesty were too much for us; but kept our energy levels up. Arriving at our destinations every afternoon, the hot showers were welcomed.


On Day 2, we started our trek to the base of the famous Torres (towers) , following the Ascensio River and valley. Reaching our destination we were surrounded by the three giant granite towers (2850 meters), Torre Norte, Central and Sur.  We hiked for about 9 hours (18 km) and mostly uphill with a slog near the top over large boulders/skree. When we got to the top it was so windy it was hard to stand up. Enjoyed the view, had lunch and hiked back down to enjoy a cold drink and hot shower. Had about 3 seasons of weather on this day of hiking.

On Day 3 an early start hiking mainly in rolling hills. The Provincial flag for Patagonia has a blue background then part way down has a squiggly/ undulating line....this means that NOTHING is flat in Patagonia. What they call flats is really up then down. On this day we viewed a few red fox, a Peregrine Falcon and several woodpeckers. Hiked for about 6 to 7 hours seeing our first glimpses of the Los Cuernos (horns) peaks and crossed the Bader River. Only about 11 km. on this day and the easiest day of the hike. Rained quite heavily overnight, but we were in our cosy cabin on that night.

Day 4 started with the usual up and down along the French River, then our first view of the hanging glacier, also called French. This day was a grueling hike. The first 2 hours in undulating path, then a constant steep uphill for one hour, crossing beech forests to reach the viewing point. This part was very difficult as large boulders to go up and down. Hard on poor Robin's knees. While viewing the glacier saw and heard lots of avalanches which were very loud as it is ice that is falling down and not snow like we are used to back home.  Also viewed the west side of the Cuernos peak. Then back down to the beginning of the French Valley where we continued on a different path around the south-west side of Paine Grande the highest peak in the Park. We finally reached our destination, Refugio Paine Grande, around 7 p.m. along the shores of Pehoe Lake. A very tough day and very tired. Early night...but another alarm going off very early, which of course the person ignored!!

Day 5 our final day on the "W" (called that as the trail is literally in the shape of a W) we hiked our last 4 hours, passing the lovely Laguna Negra where we saw our first glimpses of the Grey Glacier. This hike was relatively easy and welcomed on our last day. Reached the base of Grey Glacier and hopped onto a zodiac which took us to a small tourist boat to tour the base of the glacier. On board we were given Pisco Sour's with chunks of ice (said to be 2,000 years old) from the glacier. This glacier was bluer than the Perito Moreno Glacier as the ice is more compacted and older.  About 2 hours across the lake, then our transfer by van back to Puerto Natales.

While driving back on the mountain roads, thought we had a flat tire, but when the driver started to pull over, the tire passed the van. Spent about 1/2 hour replacing the tire in howling winds, fortunately the axle didn't break. Further down the road smoke started coming out of the engine. Not too serious, just the air conditioning belt....the poor driver just looked at us and said "Que Mas!!"...."What Else". Back to Puerto Natales around 7 p.m. and raining quite heavily. We really lucked out on our weather during the hike.We did have rain and snow, neither very heavy and lots of sunshine. Must say however, that the winds that we experienced were stronger than anything we have ever experienced on a hike. Gusts up to 100 k.m. per hour.

This is probably the hardest 5 days of hiking that Robin and I have done, but one of the most rewarding. The scenery was spectacular and the company of our guide and Christoph made it fun. Robins' knees were quite swollen after the 5 days, but a little ice, some elevation and rest have him well again.

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