Patagonia - Torres del Paine

When we first started making plans for an extended visit to South America, Torres del Paine was the first place on our itinerary. It's also on most "best hikes in the world" lists. There are numerous trails to hike at Torres del Paine, but most people do one of several options that include a trip up to the Mirador (lookout) de Las Torres. Many people do it as a long day hike, while many do it as part of the popular "W" trail (named for its shape) over 4 - 6 days. We weren't travelling all this way to take any shortcuts, so we planned 10 days to do the full Paine Circuit, about 130 kms of mountains, lakes and glaciers.

Torres del Paine is just north of Puerto Natales, so we had to cross back into Chile. At our request, Cory had brought down some dehydrated backpacking meals for the trek as this type of food is almost impossible to find in South America. Chilean customs are notoriously picky about allowing food into the country, so we let Cory be the mule and carry the meals in her backpack. We all sighed with relief when she managed to convince the authorities that dehydrated camping food was no threat to the integrity of the Chilean agricultural system.

Puerto Natales has all the same amenities as El Calafate - lots of accommodations, restaurants, outdoor stores and tour companies. It is more affordable and somehow manages to escape the touristy feel of El Calafate. It felt like a real town that just happened to be the gateway to some of the best hiking in the world. We quickly completed our food shopping when we arrived in town, enjoyed some great beer and burgers at Baguales brewpub, then headed to the park the next day.

Looking back at Refugio Las Torres on Day One.

As most people do, we hiked the circuit counterclockwise starting at Refugio Las Torres. By the time we had travelled on the early bus from Puerto Natales and made it through registration and a short orientation to catch the park shuttle to our starting point, it was about 11:00 am. Camping Seron, our first day's destination, was only about four hours hiking away, so it was easy to make it there in good time. Camping is only allowed in designated areas in the park and on the less travelled northern section of the circuit, they are about 4 - 5 hiking hours apart. Perhaps we're just spoiled after all the great hiking we've been able to do recently, but we found the scenery and trail into Seron to be a little ordinary. That didn't last.

On our way to Refugio Dickson early on day two, we encountered the strongest wind we've ever experienced. On this section of trail you climb a low pass into the Rio Paine valley. Winds are usually high on passes, and at this location the broad valley narrowed considerably at the pass creating a funnel that really intensified the already strong Patagonian winds. We'd heard that several hikers had turned around the previous day, unable to make it over the pass due to the high winds.

Lago Paine

Just at the top of the pass the trail curves around a large rock outcropping and you move from a relatively protected position to being completely exposed. The wind was incredible. At this point the trail is on a sideslope overlooking Lago Paine, and we walked with one foot on the trail and the other up the sideslope to brace ourselves while using our trekking poles to do the same. We survived the wind unscathed although several people arrived at the next camp later in the day with scrapes on their faces and bodies from being knocked over.

On the north side of the circuit, almost all hikers do the same section each day. While we found the camps to be quite busy with 25 to 30 tents each night, we enjoyed sharing them with the same group of hikers. People hiked at different times of the day and at different paces, and with almost everyone travelling in the same direction, you didn't actually see that many hikers on the trail. Each night though, you'd see more familiar faces and share hiking stories about the wind, the rain, the mud...and sometimes just the incredible scenery.

Lago Dickson.

The scenery improved from ordinary on our first day to beautiful on the way to Dickson on day two. On days three and four it moved to incredible and stayed there for the rest of our ten day hike. Day four was the hardest day of our trek. We were climbing  over Paso John Gardner, the highest point on the circuit, and had chosen to skip past Campamento Paso and continue on to Refugio Lago Grey. This meant eight hours hiking, a steep ascent, and a much longer descent. Mercifully the usual high winds on the pass were light and the views of Glacier Grey were stunning, making the long day worthwhile. We got to enjoy a hot meal and showers at the refugio, and as Cyd noted in the daily journal entry, a "medicinal amount of red wine."

Cyd and Cory climbing up Paso John Gardner.

They made it! Glacier Grey in the background.

A closer look.

A group enjoying lunch with a view.

Refugio Grey marked a changing point in the hike. It is the westernmost point of the W which overlaps the rest of the full circuit that we were doing. This meant a number of things. Starting with a lot more people. As well, some people hike the W east to west while others go in the opposite direction, so while the backside of the trail was reasonably quiet while hiking, you continually meet hikers travelling in the opposite direction on the W, making the high numbers more noticeable. Finally, there are more camping options on the W resulting in the group of new friends that met in camp each night on the north side gradually separating.

But the spectacular scenery continued. The amazing Glacier Grey gradually melted and calved into Lago Grey just as the immense Paine Grande mountain came into view. At Refugio Paine Grande we enjoyed a stunning blue sky and temperatures  of 21 C in the shade while we gazed over beautiful Lago Pehoe. The highlight of the hike for me was Mirador Britanico at the middle point in the W. Deep in the Valle del Frances, the Mirador provides amazing views in every direction and is a special place.

Cyd enjoying a beautiful day at Lago Pehoe.

Another view of Lago Pehoe.

One of many great views in Valle del Frances.

As we hiked along Lago Nordenskjold to Refugio Los Cuernos (The Horns) we got a taste of that famous Patagonian wind again. It was a cloudy damp day, but as we got closer to the shore, we realized that despite appearances it wasn't actually raining. Instead the massive gusts of wind were picking up water from the lake and thrashing the shore with walls of "precipitation." The trail runs quite close to the lake at this point and is open and exposed. We took to hiking in the already strong winds while keeping an eye out behind us for the walls of water being carried by the gusts. As they approached we ran to the nearest clump of lenga trees for shelter. I got caught in the open in one particularly strong gust, and all I could do was face away from the wind, firmly plant my trekking poles in front of me and hunch forward as a wave of water washed over me.

Lago Nordenskjold in a calmer moment.

This wasn't the last time we had to deal with difficult weather. The final section of the Paine Circuit is usually the hike up to the mirador and the small lake at the foot of the iconic towers. Many people stay closeby at Campamento Torres the night before then get up at 4:00 am to do the final forty-five minute hike up to the lake. If you've lived a virtuous and god-fearing life, you may receive the ultimate reward of seeing the rising sun bathing the Torres del Paine in a spectacular glow. I awoke just before 4:00 am to three inches of snow on the ground and flakes in the air.

We got up anyway and trudged up the steep rocky trail to the mirador and shivered in the snow and ice hoping the sun would break through the clouds. It did...a little. We took a few pictures and stayed until we'd lost all feeling in our toes and fingers and headed back to camp for coffee and breakfast. Then we brushed the snow off the tent and packed up for the final descent back to where we'd starting 10 days previously at Refugio Las Torres and just managed to catch the early bus back to Puerto Natales.

The best close view we got of Las Torres.

With the exception of the long hike over the pass, our ten days of hiking were relatively short days and weren't overly difficult. You could certainly do the same hike we did in fewer days, but we built extra time into our schedule to allow for bad weather which is a good idea in Patagonia. We ended up hiking a short day to Refugio Paine Grande in part to rest a bit after our long hike the previous day. None of our last three days were particularly long either as we did our best to hike around some rain and the snow at higher elevations.

Notwithstanding the disappointment at Mirador de Las Torres, and despite the hordes of hikers on the trail, it was a great experience. The scenery is incredible and the weather challenges just made the 130 km hike feel like more of an accomplishment. Cyd and I both wanted to hike Torres del Paine long before we ever even met, and Cory has been trying to make it down to do it for years as well.  It was great to finally cross a big one off the list.