Patagonia - The Dientes de Navarino

We didn't go all the way to Puerto Williams and Isla de Navarino just so we could brag about visiting the southernmost town in the world. We also went to do the Dientes (Teeth) de Navarino hike just south of Puerto Williams. Although Scott and Amundsen would probably disagree, the Dientes is (of course) billed as the southernmost trek in the world. So we've got that to brag about as well.

The raw numbers don't really capture the essence of the hike. If you include the walks from Puerto Williams to the trailhead and from the end of the trail back to Puerto Williams, it's around 45 kilometres in length. The highest point is Paso Virginia at only 3,280', although the hike does start pretty much at sea level. We were only on the trail for 4 days, and only actually hiked 3 of those days. Despite the easy numbers,  sometime late in our second day of hiking, Cyd decided that the Dientes was the hardest hike we'd ever done. And that was before the last and hardest day.

The hike was easy enough at the start. After walking about 4 kms along the gravel road from town to the trailhead, we followed the popular day hike trail to the top of Cerro Bandero. To this point, the trail is well marked and maintained. As you continue past the huge Chilean flag waving at the top of Cerro Bandero, not so much.

Looking west down the Beagle Channel from the top
of Cerro Bandero. Argentina in the distance.

The rest of the Dientes trail is rough and difficult. There are 38 trail markers along the 32 kms of the actual trail, but they aren't always easy to find. As long as you can read a map, getting lost is unlikely, but staying right on the trail is a challenge. The trail is very steep in places, and very muddy as well - often in the same sections. Where it isn't muddy, it's usually rocky. The sections that were reasonably dry, relatively level, and smooth walking were few and far between.

On the other hand, the location at the southern tip of South America is memorable, the scenery is dramatic, and the fact that we only saw 11 hikers in 4 days was wonderful after the crowds in Torres del Paine and El Chalten.

The trail notes we were using divided the route into 5 days and we had scheduled 5 days for the hike. However a poor weather forecast persuaded us to push past the suggested campsite at Laguna del Salto and over Paso Australia to Laguna de los Dientes on our first day while the weather was decent. Except for a short muddy section climbing above Laguna del Salto, some snow patches over the pass, and some very thick brush descending to Laguna de los Dientes, the first day wasn't too bad. We got our tent set up, made dinner and just got settled into the tent to relax when it started raining. It stopped about 24 hours later.

The "Dientes" of Navarino. Laguna del Salto below.

Climbing up Paso Australia.

Heading down the pass. Trail runs on the right side
of the lake and over the small saddle.

After spending almost a full day in the tent we continued to push the pace a bit on day 3 and made it all the way past the beautiful Laguna Martillo and Cerro Clem to an unnamed lake just before the big climb over Paso Virginia. This was a tough day. There was mud and water everywhere. We climbed up and down sections that seemed almost vertical, where hand and footholds dug into the mud slopes and clinging to tree branches were the only things that kept us upright. There were long sections of large jagged boulders that we had to navigate, and several times we had to resort to our map and compass to figure out where the trail went.

Nice trail!

Cerro Clem.

Happily though, the weather improved throughout the day and we pitched our tent in warm sunshine and celebrated New Year's Eve with cheese bread, risotto with tuna and a great $7 bottle of Chilean red wine.

Day 4 started out beautifully as well. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when we got up, and we decided to try and finish the hike that day. As we climbed the steep and muddy hill up to Paso Virginia, the clouds started to move in. By the time we got to the crest of the very steep descent to Laguna los Guanacos the wind was whipping wet snow at us. Thankfully most of the slope down to the lake was loose scree and we were able to slalom down 1000' in very short time.

Coming down from Paso Virginia.

We'd noticed two hikers gaining on us throughout the morning. As we reached the lookout at the end of Laguna los Guanacos, Pau, a young Catalan (Pau was very clear he was Catalan, not Spanish) passed by. He cheerfully announced that he and his friend Cristophe from Germany were stopping at the lookout to celebrate New Year's Day with chocolate cake and we were welcome to join them. We only had one thing to offer, so at noon on New Year's Day we stood looking back at Paso Virginia in the driving rain and ate chocolate cake and drank red wine with our new friends.

That should have been the end of the hard work. The rest of the trail was all downhill, but at some point a massive wind storm(s) had left hundreds of trees across the trail which was a deeply rutted mud bog for the most part. There's no way to sugarcoat it. It was terrible. As we climbed over and ducked under trees with 40 pound packs on our backs while trying to avoid the worst of the mud holes, I wondered why I like hiking.

The trail was a bit of an obstacle course at times.

And more than a little muddy.

We made it to the bottom in one piece, if a little bruised, muddy and exhausted. All that was left was 8 km of gravel road back to town in a light drizzle. We arrived in time to find a room at a hostel, have hot showers, and meet Pau and Cristophe and others for dinner at Patty's and a nightcap at the yacht club.

It was the kind of hike that you survive rather than really enjoy. The scenery and solitude was wonderful and there was a sense of accomplishment at completing the "southernmost trek in the world," but if you'd asked me if I'd do it again as we straggled into Puerto Williams, the answer would have been a very quick no. Writing this a over a month later though, it doesn't seem quite that bad. So make it a maybe.