I wouldn't go as far to say that Torres del Paine was the main reason for the trip to South America, or the genesis of it. But it was without a doubt one of the main things I wanted to schedule around. And while sparing the details, scheduling for Torres del Paine was a logistical nightmare and accomplishment all on it's own.
Torres del Paine has become an extremely popular destination in the last decade, I'm presuming thanks to the stunning landscapes showing up on social media. I really gravitate more toward the less crowded places on the map. I like the big effort/big reward ratio that comes after working hard to reach a big scenic payoff. When I encountered the scheduling challenges for this park due to its popularity, I debated whether it was still something I really wanted to do or not. I'm glad I did. The hype is justified and worth the logisitics and additional people. Plus I had never done the style of "trekking" they facilitate in Torres del Paine, which is more akin to trails you find in New Zealand and Europe, and in itself a new experience.
After our night in Puerto Natales we arranged with our hostel host to store the luggage we weren't carrying until we returned. Felt like a bit of a gamble, but pretty much everything we carried that was worth anything would be on our backs for the next three nights. We walked the hill back to a now crowded bus station. There were at least three different bus companies loading up passengers to go into the park. Tired backpackers unloading and fresh clean backpackers loading up. We grabbed some snacks out of our bags, attentatively put our bags in the belly of the bus (a broken shoulder strap or hip belt buckle would be a sad start), and found our seats.
The bus ride took arond an hour and a half through the shrub-steppe, passing playas with geese and flamingos, and into the foothills. At least they slowed down this time for the guanacos, definitely playing to their audience. Around half the travel time was down an unpaved road, but one that was quickly being improved and widened. Despite the buses and road work, the local "sweaters with legs" reinforced its pastoral foundation.
Beep Beep Sheep
The bus ride gave little glipses of the mountains to come then dropped us off at the park entrance. After checking in with the park we jumped on a second bus that would take us down to Estancia Pudeto on the shores of Lago Pehoe'.
Now we were starting to get some real looks at the mountains we would be walking around for the next 4 days. Even from the bus, the views were pretty good.
The water on Lake Pehoe' looked like a bright flavor of Mountain Dew. Almost hard to believe it was natural. All the glacial runoff from the mountains pulls with it sediment particles that refract greens and blues giving glacial lakes like this one their popping colors.
Our catamaran arrived after about an hour to take us across the lake to Refugio Paine Grande where we would camp for the night. We tried to get aboard early and grab a seat on the top deck. With decent weather, the views from the upper deck were going to be good.
Pretty good start!
Paine Grande is one of three refugios we would be camping at for our trip. This style of backpacking or trekking was a new experience for me. The park is very regulated. The number of people in daily, where they may camp, trail time cut offs, where you can cook, all regulated. The positive side of this structure is they did an excellent job of minizing the impact to the landscape and to the natural resources outside of these concentrated refugios. In addition, we would be walking more or less the same miles with the same groups of people for much of the intenerary. So you have opportunities to interact with folks from around the world during your trek. The downside is it leaves little opportunity for exploring away from trail or just opporunities to enjoy the park away from people.
Austin and I checked in for our camping reserveation at Paine Grande. They gave us a quick overview of the facilities and where we could pitch our tent. Each refugio has several options depending on the amount of money you want to spend and the amount of gear you want to carry. If you booked lodging appropriately, you could take the same trail as we did and only ever need a day pack of snacks and water. Each refugio (there are about seven total across the W trails) has options for full dormatory style bedding and board. Or you can carry all your food and camping equipment like we did, which is also significantly less expensive. Either way, the design gives the park almost a summer camp feel to it. There are dining halls, cooking areas, showers, toilets, and lights off hours to save their generators. Despite turning my nose up initially, I appreciated the showers... irnonically in defense of my nose.
Austin and I checked in for our camping reserveation at Paine Grande. They gave us a quick overview of the facilities and where we could pitch our tent. Each refugio has several options depending on the amount of money you want to spend and the amount of gear you want to carry. If you booked lodging appropriately, you could take the same trail as we did and only ever need a day pack of snacks and water. Each refugio (there are about seven total across the W trails) has options for full dormatory style bedding and board. Or you can carry all your food and camping equipment like we did, which is also significantly less expensive. Either way, the design gives the park almost a summer camp feel to it. There are dining halls, cooking areas, showers, toilets, and lights off hours to save their generators. Despite turning my nose up initially, I appreciated the showers... irnonically in defense of my nose.
We didn't spend much time setting up camp. Found an open spot near a hillside to protect us from the wind. Pitched the tent, tossed our stuff in, filled water bottles, and left heading north. We had arrived around lunch, but wanted to take the afternoon and walk the trail along Lago Grey to Refugio Grey and the Grey Glacier. Several parties were walking the trail to spend their first night there and then back track in the morning.
We followed a valley, spotting a couple condors along the way before finding the edge of Lago Grey and easily determined how it got its name. Not the blues of Lago Pehoe' but still awesome. Icebergs were being swept south from the glacier in the distance.
After about 7 miles we dropped down into Refugio Gray. Back in the beech forests we continued to keep an eye out for Huemuls and woodpeckers. This would be the last few days of the trip in Huemul habitat. At one point we walked through a nice riparian area and something bright orange and about the size of a cadberry egg buzzed by my face. It was the Giant Patagonian Bumble Bee also known as the flying mouse, the largest bumble bee in the world! Another species I really wanted to see. But I never had a chance with this one. It was motivated by something and I saw it for all of one second. Still excited they were active, moving, and hoped to see more.
Chimango Caracara
We found a Chimango Caracara nest and nestling hiding in this cavity.
Coming into Refugio Grey
If you have the time, Refugio Grey offers a lot of activies like kayaking to the glacier. We didn't have that luxury so turned back to Paine Grande and our camp. Back at camp, we found the designated backpacking cooking area, boiled some water and rehydrated our dinners. Again it was so interesting seeing the various solutions to our common challenge of carrying all your own food. Lots groups had just bags of various ingredients that they dropped into a soup. I think part of the US backpacker dependency on dehydrated meals is a product of not having many trails with these sorts of etablished refugios or huts to comfortably cook and clean. And then honestly, bears. Just not carrying a bear can or bear bag was a lovely perk on this trip. And not having to manage lots of open ingredients for multiple nights in bear country is a good thing. But I'm starting to rethink how I would approach meals for similar trekking style backpacking in the future.
The dining and cooking area at Paine Grande. And the face you make when your pad thai is finally hydrated.
The next morning we woke early to catch the good light and get moving east to our next refugio. The tent camping area really filled in over yesterday afternoon and we had lots of neighbors. We would get to know a group of kiwis that were camped near us and had a similar schedule for our next few days.
The appropriately named Fire-eyed Diucon on a firebush in the morning light.
We only needed to cover a few miles to reach Refugio Frances where we would stay for the night. So we were content taking our time and enjoying the trail as it pulled us out of the foothills and up against the peaks we saw from the catamaran.
Porcelain Orchids
We made it to Refugio Frances a little before noon and dropped our bags. We were too early to checkin. Instead we wanted to downsize to a day pack and backtrack about a couple of kilometers to ascend into the Valle Frances for the afternoon. Valle Frances is about a 12 mile round trip out and back that climbs into the heart of the mountain range ending at Mirador Britanico. It's an add on to a short day that is completely worth the extra miles.
On the way in we found this small bird with a big personality called a Thorn-tailed Rayadito. First of all, they have a super interesting tail with the quills fully exposed at the end. Hence their name. This little male had caught a feather on his tail and was bouncing and waving it all over the place. While maybe not intentional, it fit the little bird's personality. He was right up in our faces, giving us the buisness. The female was always a few feet behind and curious of us, but the male would swoop between, chirp and squeak right in our faces reminding us that was HIS girl.
The bottom of the French Valley is towered over by Cerro Paine Grande and the mostly hanging Glacier del Frances. Ice and avalanches were consistently raining off the cliffs. Some loud enough that we could hear them clearly from our camp more than 2 km away. I love alpine climbing and glacier travel, but I wouldn't want to go near this slope.
The trail continued along the remnants of a lateral moraine now covered in trees before eventually cresting out momentarily at Mirado del Frances and our first high views of the range.
We stopped briefly for lunch by the stream. Not long after Mirador Frances the trees began to stunt and the skyline opened up.
When we finally reach Mirado Britanica we were almost completely surrounded by peaks. The trail ended here and it requires special permission and permits to advance further. Those high passes were calling me.
We took in the view for a few minutes, had some snacks and then descended back to camp. Cerro Paine Grande grabbed our attention again as we passed with a handful of avalanches. We would continue to hear falling ice most of the night. Lake Pehoe' below us was glowing.
Back at Refugio Frances, we were able to check in and get our tent site. Unlike the previous night we were assigned a spot here. Because the camp is really built on a hill side the tent sites were platforms elevated off the ground. The trees here also gave us cover from the wind.
While at dinner we caught up with our Kiwi friends. They saw a Huemul! About an hour behind us early in the day. As it turns out, the secret according to them was to just talk loudly and then wait for someone to tell you about the animals you spooked. I need to try that next time.
Partaking in the perks of summer camp style trekking, I splurged on a couple beers that night. I couldn't resist extinct pleistocene megafauna inspired cans. After dinner I wandered down for a shower and to check out the rest of the camp. We had ample trees for wind breaks, but they save the best view for hikers that shell out for dorms.
The cooking area is the little corrugated plastic building in the back.
We packed up and headed out the following morning towards our final campsite, El Centro. This would be our last full day in the park and would take us out of mountains and beech forest and back into the arid shrub. These next 24 hours would also take us through some of the most dramatic landscape in the park.
The trail would maintain views of the lake for much of the day.
Little Dove Orchids
Eventually the landscape would open up as we descended. Grassland wildlife started to show up. We kept our eyes out for guancos and mountain lions. The population of lions in this part of the park is unusually high thanks to the large herds of guanacos.
We did finally get some time to enjoy a Long-tailed Meadow Lark. Red breasted robins should take note. The male meadow larks look like they just slid face first through wet red paint.
We passed the Las Torres Hotel. Run by the same company as our campsite for the night, but it was almost comical how far away from the hotel they made sure to put us stinky backpackers. I think we walked for almost another 3/4 of a mile before making it to the campsites.
Our campsite finally coming in view.
We arrived in camp by early afternoon and made a late lunch with the dwindling food reserves we had at this point. This camp was the end of the line. We were only about a half mile from the bus stop that takes you the 3 miles up the road to the park entrance. As a result we had some additional food options we took advantage of for dinner. A humble canned salmon sandwhich with mayo on a nice bun and melted cheese is infinitely better than what I would've been able to piece together from my backpack.
We were also aiming for an early night tonight. As in straight to bed by 7pm. This was a challenge since it wasn't getting dark until well after 10pm, and I got up and wandered a bit in the twilight. But we needed an early rise in the morning.
After a restless few hours of something less than sleep, but still shut-eye, I woke to my alarm around 3am. Ya..., 3am. The sun would rise just before 5:30am and we wanted to watch the morning glow from Mirador Base de las Torres. The trail is about 12 miles round trip from camp with almost 3,000 feet of elevation gain in the dark. We'd backtrack at first, but then branch off on a new trail as we ascended up into a cirque concealing a lake at the base of maybe the most famous view in all of Chile. The tres torres or three towers above this lake are iconic. They are enticing climbing routes, but they are also just stunning, dramatic, and catch the first light of the day. We wouldn't be the only sligtly disturbed people waking up at 3am to start a hike, and we wanted to get there early and secure a good seat for the show!
Either Austin and I had walked ourselves into good shape over the last couple weeks, or the excitement had us moving, because we were among the first to arrive despite being late out of camp. Arriving early meant we had good seats, but without the sun and being 3000 feet higher, it was bitter cold! We did our best to avoid shivering.
Even in the dark the towers were extraordinary. We had overcast in the east so instead of a pop of light when the sun crested, we had a gentle glow that grew through the morning. We stayed and watched the colors on the granite and from the lake slowly warm as the morning rose. It was audience supported as we all shared collective joy finally experiencing a skyline many of us traveled across the globe to take in. And for most of us this would be the final exclamation mark for our time in Torres del Paine.
We headed back while discovering the views we missed in the dark, collected our gear, and walked over to the bus stop. We were able to catch a bus back to the park entrance and then an early bus back to Puerto Natales.
Torres del Paine is growing rapidly in popularity. I spoke with colleagues who visited ten years ago with no reservation and hardly anyone on the trails. It's now tightly regulated and managed, but probably for good reason. The landscape is spectacular, the appeal and popularity is completely deserving. My only regret was not having time to explore the more.
