For as long as I can remember, Patagonia has been a place I've wanted to visit. Specifically, Torres del Paine and (even more specifically) the Cuernos del Paine have captured my imagination. Anyone who has been in our house in Boulder has seen the large panoramic photo of the Cuernos prominently displayed in the living room. In short, I was pretty excited about this part of the trip. The excitement was somewhat tempered by expectations based on things I'd heard that the park was becoming overcrowded. Make no mistake, the park is crowded, but it is well managed and doesn't feel as much like an amusement park as I'd imagined. The trails, for the most part, are not the super-highways of the most traveled parts of Yellowstone, Yosemite and Rocky Mountain National Park. Most of the refugios have a similar feel to the 10th Mountain Division Huts back home in Colorado. Basically, this is not what I'd call backcountry, but it is still a great backpacking experience for such a famous place.
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NOTE: For detailed route information on the "W," click here.
The jumping off point for Torres del Paine is the town of Puerto Natales in Chile. We arrived by bus from El Calafate at about 2:45 PM, just in time to catch the daily talk on the "W" and the full "Circuit" at Erratic Rock Hostel (highly recommended!). After getting the necessary beta on the park, we chose a route and began dealing with the details of gear, food, transport and reservations. The bus picked us up a little before 7:30 AM the next day and, after swinging by a few more hostels to pick up other hikers, we were off to the park. We arrived, got our park entrance tickets and got on the catamaran ferry across Lago Pehoe. It's a quick half hour boat ride, but the views of the Cuernos (we had great weather!) were pretty spectacular. I'll just say it lived up to my expectations and then some!
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We got off the boat at the Paine Grande Refugio at 12:30 PM and immediately started hiking towards Refugio Grey. This first day provided the best weather of the trip with mostly clear skies. The wind was, of course, ever-present. The hike was pretty easy, especially since we rented our sleeping bags and tent each night at the refugios and didn't have to carry them. And the water is crystal clear and clean, making this area one of the few places left in the world (sadly) where you can safely scoop the water right out of the streams and drink it limiting the amount of water we had to carry. We arrived at Grey in less than three hours. The refugios insist on setting up the rented tent for you (probably so it doesn't get abused), but this made us feel like gapers, though they eventually relented and let us at least help. After making camp, we went up to the Grey Glacier overlook (or mirador) where the wind was blowing something fierce. The views of the glacier were great though and we even saw some calving. Back at camp, we enjoyed a nice dinner and hit the sack with plenty of light still in the sky.
The next day we hit the trail early and headed up to the glacier. The hike did not take nearly as long as we had anticipated based on the estimates given on the map. Despite some rain, it was a nice hike right up to the glacier. The glacier itself is immense. We had been seeing it for nearly a full day already, but its size is deceptive until you are right on top of it. Even then it is hard to truly appreciate just how big it is. This was the first time Leslie had seen a glacier like this and she has been obsessing over glaciers ever since she first laid eyes on it.
After the glacier we started back. The rest of the day would be backtracking to the Paine Grande Refugio where the catamaran had dropped us 24 hours earlier. The Paine Grande Refugio stands apart from the other refugios in that it is more like a hotel and a ski lodge. There is still a large camping area, but also a full store, a cafeteria, a bar and hotel-like reception area for those staying inside the refugio. One of the funny things about the "W" is that you end up seeing the same people each night at the refugios. It is almost like a traveling hostel. We had dinner that night with one couple we had first met in Puerto Natales: Sophia and Wilhelm. It was Sophia and Wilhelm that did the "Tail" part of the trail (see route description for more on this) and made us wish we had done the same.
The next day was the longest so we got an early 6:45 AM start. The first part of the trail was quite easy, but then the weather came in as we began up the Valle de Frances. This trail was more difficult than anything we had seen yet on the "W" but was still not too difficult. The wind, rain and even snow (or gropple to be exact) came and went often and rapidly. The views were not perfect due to the weather, but occasionally the clouds would lift affording us beautiful views of the whole valley, if not perfectly clear blue skies. One of the highlights of the valley is the hanging Glaciar de Frances and every once in a while we'd hear a rumbling and look up just in time to see huge chunks of ice break off and tumble off the cliffs above the valley. We went all the way up to the mirador, but the wind, snow, rain and cold (all at once now) limited our time up there. Besides, we still had another 13 kilometers to go to get to camp for the night.
Down below, the weather was more stable and sun and blue skies dominated. Well actually the wind still dominated, especially along a rocky beach at Lago Nordenskjold. We settled in again at Refugio Los Cuernos and made camp. We enjoyed a couple of beers we didn't have to carry (another nice thing about the refugios) and called it a night.
We slept in a bit the next day as we had a short, easy day ahead of us. As we left the refugio, an amazing rainbow formed to accompany the great views of the Cuernos, looking very different than they did from the catamaran due to how close we now were. It was an easy hike, but about halfway through the skies opened up. Heavy wind and rain soaked us by the time we reached Refugio Chileno. We huddled inside the refugio and tried (unsuccessfully) to dry our clothes. Chileno is the closest refugio to the towers themselves and therefore it was packed with day-hikers as well as those doing the "W," all trying to stay out of the rain and dry out. We climbed in bed early hoping the skies would clear by our 3:00 AM wake-up.
One of the fortuitous things about the towers is that they are perfectly facing the sunrise. On the off chance that you can catch them on a day where there are no clouds between you and the towers or the towers and the sun, it is pretty spectacular. We took a chance we would be so lucky and headed up the trail by headlamp. A relatively quick one and half hour hike got us there with over and hour and half to spare. We were lucky, however, as the there were stars in the sky for our hike and the towers were clear of clouds in the pre-dawn sky. We wished the earth would spin faster so the sun would come up with the towers still clear, but a few clouds did settle on the tops of the towers before the sun broke the horizon. Still, we did get a great view and a little of the red glow of sunrise on the towers that it is famous for.
We were back at Chileno by 8:00 AM and had some coffee and a bit of breakfast before hiking down to Hosteria Las Torres. Just before we started down the rains came again. This was the hardest rain yet and by the time we reached the Hosteria, we were again soaked. No big deal though as we could change into dry clothes, have a nice -- if WAY too expensive -- lunch at the Hosteria and wait for our bus back to Puerto Natales.
Torres del Paine is an amazing place. We hope to return and do the full "Circuit" in the future. I'm hopeful that the ever-increasing popularity doesn't change the place too much. It's pretty special just the way it is.
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