Travel broadens the mind...

PARQUE NACIONAL TORRES DEL PAINE

The long wait is over. I have visited northern Chile, and know much of central Chile, but the part that I have most wanted to explore and see, Patagonia and particularly Torres del Paine National Park, has been the part that has been the longest in coming. No more.

After spending an extra day in Puerto Natales relaxing and outfitting myself with the food and supplies that I would need, I set out into the park. As many know, there are essentially two main hikes that people going into the park do: the 3-5 day "W", do named because the trials do form something of a "W" when viewed on a map, and the full 6-11 day "Circuit", which includes the "W" but also the back side/north side of the park. Due to time and the fact that when I was making all my preparations I intended to hike it alone and didn't want to carry 8+ days of food and gear, I elected to trek the "W", but with the addition of a section from the principal administration building into the park itself. At the last minute, a guy that was staying in the hostel I was staying at, Paul from Amsterdam, asked if he could make the hike with me: he would carry a bit of the food and throw in a beer or two in exchange for me carrying the tent. This was fine by me, as I had already mentally prepared myself/planned to carry the stuff anyway, and if he wanted to throw in a few beers all the better.

The first leg, from Administración to Refugio Paine Grande, is 17 kilometers and according to the map takes about five hours. The trek itself was not terribly difficult, most of the time winding along a river with your occasional hill or brief uphill struggle. Perhaps because of this, or because we were just eager to get into the park we set a helluva pace and made the five hour trek in about three hours forty minutes; not bad time. Even though the hike was not difficult, it set the tone for the coming days as far as scenery was concerned. We followed the glacial blue Rio Grey, passed through patches of forest, summited small peaks that provided incredible views over the glacial lakes and valleys in the part of the park, and best of all the whole time on this first leg we were staring into the peaks of Paine Grande and the Torres themselves, which got bigger, sharper and more spectacular with each passing step. The quote of the afternoon: “It just keeps getting better the closer we get.” How true. Indeed this was a perfect way to both enter the park and start off the trip as a whole.



Having made such good time arriving at Refugio Paine Grande, we to continued on to Refugio Grey instead of camping at Paine Grande and making the trip to Grey the following day. After a brief rest and a coke, we strapped on the bags and set off. This section of the hike was more difficult, especially for me (Paul, as I would later learn, had been hiking for three weeks previous and was in much better shape than I) not only because I was a little tired from the first leg but also because the terrain was a little trickier. We wound through forests, along cliff-sides that at times had difficult footing, and crossed rivers on a trail that climbed and fell and then climbed again. As on the fist leg of the day, we were setting a good pace, though albeit less zealous: the map indicated that the 11 kilometer hike would take about 3.5 hours and we arrived at the camp at just under three hours.



One interesting thing about Torres del Paine is that it is one of the most “developed” national parks in Chile, maybe in Latin America. Which is to say that you can do the “W”, for example, and never have to sleep on the ground or in a tent (you can sleep in a bed in the refugio), cook a meal (all meals of the day are available in the refugios), or even shit in the woods (all campsites/refugios have toilets or full-on bathrooms). At first blush, this seemed to me to take a bit away from the experience. However, after the first day of hiking hard we were able to buy a cold beer from the little store in the camp. That beer may have been one of the best of my life.

Day 2 would be easier than the first, as we had already hiked to Grey and now needed only to arrive at Campamiento Itialiano. Before leaving the camp, I made the trip to the glacier lookout itself. It is hard to describe how massive the body of ice was, and even harder to put to words just how (deep) blue the ice was. After the quick trip to the mirador, we made our way back to Refugio Paine Grande and continued on deeper into the park. I can’t impress enough how spectacular and beautiful the scenery was. The bulk of the trek from Paine Grande to Italiano follows Lago Nordenskjold, and so at any moment when you look to one side you are confronted with a deep blue lake surrounded by lush greenery and other mountains of the park in the distance; as you look up or two your left, the mountains of Paine Grande and, through Valle Frances, the Torres themselves loom above you. And all the while, you are trekking through terrain that changes from tree lined, narrow paths to open meadows.





As on day 1 we made quite good time between our destinations on day two. The 11 kilometers that took 3 hours the previous day took around 2 hours 30 minutes this time around, and the 7.6 kilometer trek that the map indicated would take two hours took us one hour thirty minutes. Arriving early and with plenty of time before dark, I wandered back down to the river we crossed just before camp, found a comfortable boulder in the middle, and took in the last rays of the sun and the imposing mountains that surrounded, all while being “swept away” by the sounds of the rushing water that were all around me. Truly incredible.

Day 3 would prove to be the most spectacular yet, made even more enjoyable by the fact that the majority would be spent trekking into and back out of Valle Francia, using our campsite as a base, and consequently would not have to carry the heavy backpacks full of gear. It turned out to be a good thing too: parts of the climb through and into Valle Frances were quite steep and at times narrow due to trees and other undergrowth. Had we had backpacks, the trip would have been quite challenging. The Valley itself acts as the middle leg of the “W” and is sandwiched between the Paine Grande peaks and the peaks of the range that Torres rises out of. And arriving at the mirador, a rock that you must climb at the “end” of the trial in the valley truly leaves you in wonder. On all sides you are surrounded by peaks, some sharp and grey, others sharp and black, while still others looming and simply grand, all above the tree line (due to the last bit of hiking to the high point itself). The wind doesn’t howl; rather it blows gently and the valley itself is filled with a peaceful, awe-inspiring silence. Meeting up with a few other trekkers that we had and would continue to see on the trail, we spent close to 45 minutes just sitting and taking in the view. And for the icing on the cake: the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, and as a photographic treat, the moon had not yet sunk and hung over the peaks.



The trek out was more difficult, neither because of the terrain nor because of the weather. Rather because at some point in the previous days I had eaten or drank something that was not agreeing with my system…. I was almost doubled over at times, and on more than one occasion had to wander off the trail to “relieve” myself in the woods. I said earlier that Torres del Paine on the whole is developed enough that you don’t have to shit in the woods; this doesn’t mean you won’t. Luckily Paul had some medication and after a brief rest for re-hydration (and the Imodium kicked in) I was able to continue. We made the trek from Italiano to Refugio Cuernos, a 5.5 kilometer trip that the map (impossibly) says takes 2.5 hours in about 50 minutes and spent the rest of the daylight drinking beer on the beach. That night I met and played cards with a cute Israeli girl in the refugio common room; once again, maybe infrastructure in the park isn’t too bad after all.

Day 4 was scheduled to be one of our longer days. We needed to make our way from Refugio Cuernos past Refugio Chileno and up to Campamiento Torres. Rising early to get a good start, we set out on the first leg, an 19 kilometer section that the map indicated would take 5-7 hours (the last section climbed almost 600 meters in the span of a few kilometers). Amazingly enough, this part of the trail was unique to the others we had trekked so far: we navigated around lakes (for a shortcut) and up terraced hills, along the lake shoreline and over grassy, sometimes sloppy knolls, and then up a steep rise into yet another valley. As on each other day we set a good pace and arrived at Refugio Chileno not in the 5-7 hours anticipated on the map but in 3:45. Having made such good time, we took a long break (why not) at Chileno, playing cards and meeting the other people that were making their way though the park. One guy, my new hero, was completing the “W” at 82 years of age. 82! Hiking the trails and all!



After the break we made out way up to the campsite at Torres, a trail of 5 kilometers that wound primarily through a forest, in about 40 minutes. As many people do, we intended the next day to climb up to the mirador Torres for sunrise over the Torres del Paine, hence the extended trek to the campsite. But having arrived so early in the afternoon, we decided to hike up and get a sneak peak of the views, and to see if we could pick out a spot for the morning. I have to admit, as my stomach bug had still been nagging (and “draining”) me for two days and we had hiked hard, I was quite dehydrated and dead tired after the climb up to the mirador. So much so that after finding a big rock in the sun, I simply fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. But after I woke, could fully take in and appreciate the site before me: Los Torres (the Towers) themselves. The picture speaks for itself; truly incredible.



The next morning we set off with a group from the campsite at 5:30 a.m. to again climb the mirador for sunrise over the Torres, a popular activity in the park if you don’t mind getting up really early and making the rocky assent to the mirador itself, this time in the dark. Upon reaching the top of the mirador the wind was so strong that we were forced to abandon our selected location, but were able to find a boulder big enough to get out of the wind and make hot coffee while waiting for the sunrise itself. When the sun finally came, the early wake up and moonlight climb was more than worth it.



After sunrise we made our way back to camp for more coffee with the group with whom we had made the hike, and after breaking camp started the trek back past Refugio Chileno to Hosteria Los Torres and out of the park. Not needing any energy for a long day, we set out to make “record time” out of the park, and actually ended up running/racing down about a third of the trail. The looks on the people’s faces as we raced past were priceless. Needless to say we made it out of the park incredibly fast, a “4 hour” leg in less than an hour and a half. Having nothing else to do but wait for the bus back to Puerto Natales, we pulled out the cards and just took in the sun. Before long other people that we had seen in the park during the week and that I knew from the Navimag trip made their way out of the park and to the hosteria, and with nothing else to do but wait we were soon buying rounds of beers (it was after noon, so why not?); several rounds later the bus finally came and the official stay in the park ended.

In all the 5 days were incredible, each building on, complimenting, and bettering the previous. And to top it all off, the weather held throughout – 5 days of perfect sunshine, with occasional clouds. I would learn that this kind of weather never holds for even a full day in Patagonia, much less for five days, and that we had truly had a once in a lifetime trip into the park. I’ll take it, to be sure.