With a latitude of more than 51 degrees South, this is the furtherest South either of us had ever ventured. You know you're towards the bottom of the world when people are speaking about their Antarctic cruise.
The Parque Nacional hosts the granite pillars of Torres Del Paine (Towers of Paine) and is probably the finest park in South America. The highlight in the park is the Torres along with the 'W' trek. The W is the shape of the hike walking the side of 3 mountains and this is what we'd be walking over the next 5 days.
You have the option to camp along the route or stay in a "refugio". I vetoed the camping idea when I read reviews for March saying temperatures can drop below zero together with torrential downpours and over 100km per hour winds - to top it off, a clear day can turn on you in 15 minutes! I had in my head that the refugio was like a run down fisherman shack, however it was anything but. The refugio is similar to a large catered ski chalet - no shack in sight.
Day 0 - Arrival Day
Puerto Natales to Refugio Torres Central (arriving in the park)
The Gomez bus collected us for the 2 1/2 hour transfer into the Torres del Paine National Park. Wide open grasslands dominated the trip with horses grazing in the golden fields and small llama herds by the lakes. We could see the mountain ranges starting to rise and climbing into rugged formations over 2000 meters in the distance.
Park fees must be paid on entry and we'd been worried we didn't have enough money with us for the week. Luckily they accepted US$ and we had our emergency Dollars available to cover park fees.
A smaller bus took us to the refugio where we'd be staying, Refugio Torres Central.
All dorms were a 6 sleepers, with huge double bunks and double duvets for the cold.
We checked in and headed out to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Torres (towers) behind the clouds. Almost on cue of our arrival, the sun started to make it's way through and we rushed up a nearby hill to take some photos of the Torres appearing. Also over the hill we found alien like pods that must have been the staff accommodation. Back down for dinner in the eating hall and joined Becky and Neil from London, a friendly couple who we'd met earlier. Turned out we had the same plans and we'd see a lot of them over the coming days.
Day 1.
Refugio Torres Central to Torres del Paine and back (10.5 km, 7 hours).
The iPhone alarm rang out in the dark like a phone possessed - Austin Powers theme tune blared out at full volume . We were awake. Sunrise was starting and the sky was ... completely clear, without a cloud in the sky and next to no wind - we couldn't have asked for a better day, and more than that, this weather would continue all week! Exceptionally good weather again graced us with it's presence in South America.
We set off with a day pack containing, sunscreen (no ozone above Patagonia), storm weather jackets, cameras and packed lunch.
It started with easy to moderate, mainly uphill along the side of the mountain with a river below. Dry grassland turned into well covered forests and temperatures in the sun were short trousers and t-shirt warm and shady areas, immediately cool with the cold wind.
There weren't nearly as many people on the trail as with The Inca trail and no guides and porters this time either.
The final 45 minutes was fairly steep granite bolder clambering up to the Torres. Huffing and puffing, we rounded the last boulder to open up to a turquoise glacial lake, reflecting the imposing towers up above. The sun shone down brightly with the deep blue sky radiating out from behind. What a sight.
Neil, Mands, Becky and I took our lunch together in front of the lake and made our way through the only thing larger than some of the boulders, our enormous sandwiches!
Our muscles definitely felt they had had a work out by the time we'd returned to the refugio and gulped down a Coke.
Sunset brought on an amazing sight. The sun dropped behind the torres. With the clear blue sky, it's rays beamed out around the silhouetted towers as if they themselves were projecting. Mands rushed out to take photos and was joined by even the staff taking in the moment.
Day 2.
Refugio Torres Central to Refugio Los Cuernos (12 km, 4.5 hours)
This was our shortest day initially starting off on the same route as the previous day then rounding the front of the mountain. More shrubs grew on the plains and we saw black, brown and white horses out for their morning graze along with the occasional rabbit darting under the growth. Reaching the top of the hill a dark lake appeared then dipped off sharply in contrast against the much larger turquoise lake, Nordenskjold. The first hour and a half we were the only two people on the path, for that time, we were the king and queen of our mountain - it's strange to say, but sometimes you could hear the dead silence. We'd hike the rest of the day next to the lake over the undulating side of the mountain. Although making good time, we took long breaks, just to take in the views and moments of this huge lake wrapped around us. I found a great flat rock section for an early lunch (another brick of a sandwich) and soaked up the warm sun on our backs as the cool breeze washed over our faces.
Although this was a short day, the sweat flowed as we carried our day packs together with our full backpacks. A good 20kgs each. We welcomed the sight of the Los Cuernos Refugio, however had walked well and again glugged down rewarding Cokes.
This refugio was the only one offering private stand alone chalets. Only 8 were available, but Mands had cemented our place with her early booking. Really nice room with the added bonus of an outside hot tub.
We jumped right in, although only luke warm to start and started swirling water around against the wood heated fire place to heat up the water.
That evening, we looked up at the night sky lit up with more stars than we had ever seen!
Day 3.
Refugio Los Cuernos to Refugio Paine Grande, including Valle de Francés (28km, 11 hours)
This was the big day... 5 hours with the 20 kg back packs and another 6 hours with the day packs.
Starting strongly we followed the lakes shoreline up and down hills. A group of American girls sang songs in the distance - not only did I not want to hear their songs, but also they weren't going to win any singing contests. We caught them right on the steepest section of the morning and used them as motivation to charge ahead. It worked wonders as we made good time with the heavier packs.
We could leave our packs at a camp site and follow a river away from the lake, walking up the middle of the W along Valle del Franceś. We clambered up and down rocks, through forests and across melted ice streams. The water was so clear here, you could refill water containers and I drank right from the stream.
Up, up, up we climbed for 3.5 hours until reaching the furtherest view point, mirador Británico. All around huge jagged mountain tops starred down at us. Again, the silence seemed to make a low drum sound in our ears. Every now and then, a crack could be heard with the frozen compact ice blankets breaking under the melting heat and creating small avalanches.
Returning to the camp we collected our larger bags and headed off for the final 7.5 km to Lago Pehoé. Mands was getting blisters and at this stage they became unbearable to walk. We tried bandaging them up, but one particular toe now had blister on top of blister and wasn't letting up. Against her husband's advice she changed into her havianna flip flops and set off for the final 2 hours with a couple of pain killers. That seemed to do the trick as we were back making suggested time. Good time until, I started slowing with groin issues - the day pack clipped to the backpack wasn't the best weight distribution. Eventually we made it into the refugio, with Mands wanting to tell everyone that she wasn't a novice walker hiking in new shoes that gave her blisters, but we'd been in them for 4 months already and not had and problems on the Inca Trail.
Neil had a bottle of red wine waiting and a good dinner and pisco sour cocktail did wonders to end our day.
Day 4.
Refugio Paine Grande to Refugio Grey, including Glacier Grey (12 km, 5 hours)
Flip flops were out again and leading us us Lago Grey towards Glacier Grey!
We hiked in t-shirts in the sun and thermals in the shade. The first view point was over a small mountain lake. It reflected everything in sight against it's dark waters. Shortly afterwards we could see Lago Grey with icebergs floating by. Huge chunks of ice. We continued up and reached the midway viewpoint where we saw Glacier Grey. It's enormous! The glacier starts kilometres in the distance where snow falls, then compacts forming a solid mass kilometres long and wide.
This gave us new energy to push through to the refugio finishing our morning session of 4 hours.
Half an hour further and we had climbed down to the water level to watch the large beast. You can hear it rumbling with the ice shifts. It had been an overcast few hours, but rapidly the skies cleared when our cameras came out and we got some great photos. One boat does tours on the lake and when it arrived, it was dwarfed by the face of the glacier. With the boat about 2 stories high, the glacier was almost 10!
Back at the refugio we could sit down on the couches next to the wood fire heaters and catch up on blog and reading time.
Day 5.
Refugio Grey to Refugio Paine Grande and catamaran / transfer out of the park (11km, 3.5 hours)
This was the easiest day, hiking back the same path as yesterday to complete the W. Again we stared back at the glacier.
What a privilege to have been able to spend this time in such a spectacular part of this world, one of the most beautiful landscapes we have been privileged to visit. We'll look back fondly at this quality time and hope to return one day.
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