Torres del Paine

5 October 2009

I hopped on a bus at 8am on Saturday and headed back to Chile, to Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales is the jumping –off point for excursions into Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, one of the most photographed places in all of Patagonia. The park is amazing, but it definitely requires at least a night in the park if you really want to hike and get the most out of it.

I arrived in Puerto Natales around 1pm and searched for a hostel. Typically I will book on hostelworld the night before, but that wasn’t the case for this stop. I was bombarded with flyers at the bus drop-off, and a little overwhelmed. So I just started walking. I found a nice hostel right around the corner from the Navimag port, and one that I recognized while searching hostel world a few days before (Hostel Natales). It was a bit pricey, but very nice. However, due to the low season, I was the only one staying there! Since there was no one to meet, I headed out to buy some supplies for the park, namely some waterproof hiking boots, as recommended by a girl in El Calafate. I also picked up some peanuts and bread for the park and had a fabulous dinner at Restaurant La Ultima Esperanza, down the street from the hostel. I got some funny looks, coming in very early for dinner (6:45) and alone. I had the conger eel with king crab sauce, as recommended in my guide book, with the Santa Digna Sauvignon Blanc from the Miguel Torres Vineyard. The eel was very good and the sauce very rich, and I topped the dinner off with some Mousse del Calafate, a native berry in Patagonia. It was an amazing last meal before the expected strenuous trek through Torres del Paine.

After packing my big backpack with only the essentials (or at least I thought), I had an excellent breakfast at the hostel and took a 2-hour bus ride to the park. The hostel was great to store my other belongings while I was on my trekking adventure. I planned to stay in one of the many refugios along the way and cook my own food there, as the guidebooks had mentioned was possible. We got to the ranger station, paid the fee, and were informed that only 2 refugios (aka albergues) were open: Chileno and Grey, which are on complete opposite sides of the park. With more than a day’s hike in between the two, this appeared to be a problem for me, with no proper camping gear. I didn’t know how this was all going to work out, but I knew that Day 1 would involve hiking up to the Torres, a 5.5 hour hike one-way, and staying at Albergue Chileno, about halfway down from the Torres. So 7.5 hours of hiking for the day.

The first stretch of the hike, the 2 hour trek to Albergue Chileno, was BRUTAL, particularly for this novice hiker who has never done so with a pack. It took me a little more than 2 hours, which is the estimated time given by the park service. I was honestly surprised at how many times I had to stop to rest my burning calves and my poor heels, in my brand-new hiking boots. Thank goodness for the breath-taking views; I used my camera as an excuse to stop more times than I’d like to admit. There were not many, but plenty, of groups hiking both in front of and behind me, so I wasn’t worried at all about the hiking alone. In fact, one group of older Israeli tourists, with a tour guide, was nearby me for a good majority of the hike up to the Torres and also stopped frequently. I finally saw Albergue Chileno in the distance; my light at the end of that tunnel! And it started snowing! I picked up speed along an easier stretch of trail, and made up a little jingle for motivation (since I can be a huge dork when left to my own devices). It goes like this, to the tune of The Eyes of Texas:
I am hiking in the mountains, in the Andes range.
I am hiking in the mountains. So glad I am my age!
I don’t care that it is snowing, ‘cuz I’m so warm from the hike.
I am hiking in the mountains; it’s something that I like!
I made it to Albergue Chileno just after noon. After booking an extremely overpriced bed (without bedding), I finally dropped my big pack for a day pack and headed back out onto the trail to Las Torres.

The trail to Las Torres got easier after leaving Albergue Chileno, although dropping the extra weight from the pack was part of that. It was along this 1.5-hour stretch, between Albergue Chileno and Campamento Las Torres, that I really started to appreciate my new boots. Despite the horrible blisters forming, they were amazing to keep out the water and the mud, especially in the areas where the trail was essentially hiking up a stream. I also would not have had the same traction in tennis shoes; it really would have been impossible without the boots, particularly in the uphill stretch between Campamento Los Torres and the viewpoint, Mirador Las Torres. From the campamento, you hike uphill through sandy terrain, then uphill through snow, rocks, and rocks covered with snow, where you can’t see where you’re walking. There are a few places from which the Torres can be partially seen from the trail, but they don’t come into complete view until you reach the viewpoint. I reached the top, finally, and was disappointed to see that the weather had changed, and the Torres were completely covered by the clouds and snow. They were not visible at all. But it happens…they’re only visible about 20% of the time, due to the crazy Patagonian weather. I decided to wait it out by climbing down the rocks toward the lake at the bottom of the hill. The lake was absolutely gorgeous, a deep aquamarine and halfway covered with ice and snow. I hoped that by the time I climbed back up, that the Torres would start to come into view, but I was not so lucky. Of course, it started to clear a little bit, after getting about an hour down the mountain, but it wasn’t clear enough to justify the hike again. It was getting colder and windier, and I was anxious to get back to Chileno for a shower. I will make sure to label the pictures clearly – the picture of me at the viewpoint, the picture of the Torres covered, then of the Torres coming into view from below, and the picture taken by friends, when the Torres were in full view the next day.

At Albergue Chileno, I met Eva and Alex, a Spanish couple who just recently embarked on a year-long trip around the world. They were also scheduled to take the Navimag ferry to Puerto Montt, and apparently I was mistaken about the check-in and boarding times, by a full day. I thought I needed to board on Tuesday night, when in fact, boarding was Monday night for a Tuesday morning departure. I am so glad that I met them; otherwise, I would have missed the boat! The three of us shared some good conversation, and overpriced meal, and a cold night in the dorm room of the albergue. I woke up the next morning to an absolutely gorgeous day – the Torres were in clear view from the albergue, at least the portion that can be seen from that area. I was tempted to hike back up, but with only so much time, it was imperative that I hike down to Hosteria Las Torres to check my email and confirm the boarding time. If, for instance, I had been on a different boat and didn’t leave until Tuesday, I wanted to have time to make it to Los Cuernos and up through the Valle Francés before catching a bus from the other side of the park the next day. But alas, Eva and Alex were correct, and I had to leave the park at 2pm that day. Because I’d been told that the Cuernos are visible for much of the hike, I stored by pack at the Hosteria (essentially a hotel, not a hostel) and planned to trek halfway (2 hours) to Los Cuernos before turning back to catch the bus. I made it to the halfway point, and still no Cuernos. I could see what I thought might be a Cuerno, but I could tell that any real view would be on the other side of the next hill, too long a hike to go and then turn back. However, the hike is a very rewarding one, with the trail winding its way around Lago Nordenskjold, the second biggest lake in the park and a main attraction for those tourists who skip the climbing and view the park from the road. The lake is a gorgeous aquamarine color, and I believe that the cause of the coloring is similar to that of Lago Argentina in Argentina’s Parque Nacional Las Glacieres, outside El Calafate. The color is no actually the color of the water, but is caused by the reflection of light and the minerals found in the lake, from the mountain and glacier streams that feed into it. The hike was not bad, but very muddy, and my blisters from the day before were killing me. Despite no view of the Cuernos, it was still a long, 6-hour day of hiking.

All in all, I am disappointed that the weather and my time constraints were such that I missed the breathtaking views that make this park as spectacular as it is. However, the personal gain for me in trekking up to the Torres, and just spending all that time outside, challenging myself, was worth the short trip. Torres del Paine is definitely a place I plan to visit again, when I have a good 4-5 days to trek the entire “W” circuit: up to the Torres, down to the Cuernos, through the French Valley, and to Lago and Glacier Grey. It really was an amazing experience that I will not soon forget.