The Towers of Paine
Trip Start
Mar 16, 2009
1
5
25
Trip End
May 29, 2009
Where I stayed
Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile
Saturday, March 28, 2009
El Calafate was intended to be a staging point for accessing and attempting the trek to the Torres del Paine National Park, and whilst it looks very close to the park on a map; the devil is in the detail - the roads donīt lead there directly; you have to go south and make a u-turn back north across into Chile in order to get there; which takes a while. So for aspiring travellers, itīs a bit easier to start from Puerto Natales in Chile.
The Torres del Paine National Park is one of the best National Parks Iīve ever trekked. I did the W circuit back in 2001, seeing floating glaciers, the horns (cuernos) of Paine and a mountainside forming glacier as well as the Torres themselves.
The Torres are amazing simply because they are two of the most vertically shaped mountains you can see. They and their surrounding mountains are quite vertical, and they are flanked by mountainside forestation overlooking pistachio-coloured lakes.
And so we set-off early to head towards this park once more, south from El Calafate, changing the border to our west into Chile and back up north to the park itself. We met with a beautiful day that allowed us some fantastic photographs of the Torres and the surrounding landscape, close-ups of grazing guanacos and overhead condors and spectacular views of the turquoise laguna Amarga.
Our tour guide was a Chilean hippy-like character, clearly bored of this job, and probably only doing it because heīd put up the trekking posts in the park and knew it like the back of his hand. Whilst most people didnīt find him helpful, I thought he had a funny sense of humour, as he seemed to delight in other peopleīs minor troubles. I think he knew he wouldnīt get tipped; probably got bored of trying!
We passed Laguna Amarga, and had lunch via a short trek just south of the mountain ranges to a nearby lakeside, stunning scenery where the photos do the talking - coming back via waterfalls and lookouts. Then we drove south towards the Chilean park administration centre (CONAF) to learn more about the parkīs geology.
Iīd been a silly boy this day - first, Iīd left my water flask on-board the connecting bus, never to be retrieved; and now at CONAF, Iīd left my 80 pound sunglasses on the table whilst I reached over to get my passport stamped with the Torres del Paine stamp in my childish anticipation. Of course I didnīt realise my folly until we were halfway back to Laguna Amarga (where we were supposed to disembark to make our ascent the next day).
Now this was a problem; and our usually nonchalant guide knew it - we were out of season and hitching was necessary. Fortunately he hailed an oncoming tourist bus and negotiated with the driver to take us back to CONAF; where the warden had found and kept aside my sunglasses thankfully. Now we had to hitch all the way back to Laguna Amarga. It was 3 pm and the next scheduled bus back wouldnīt leave until 6. We managed to get a lift from a touring German couple halfway back to Refugio Pudeto (where they were getting a boat); but this left us waiting at a high-pass in widy conditions for half an hour. Poor Angela was freezing at this point as we munched on crisps - and I had to score some brownie points to get back into her good books for all this trouble Iīd caused! Finally we hitched back to the Laguna and made it to Refugio Torres to spend the night.
We met up notably with another traveller Mikke at the Refugio (which was very modern-looking, not this good last time from what I remember), who was planning to ascend the Torres the next day. She had wisely packed a torch and was happy for us to accompany her on the trail, which we began in pitch-black at 5.30 am from the Refugio. Some other people beginning also latched onto the fact that she had a torch, which was invaluable in helping us out of the compound and onto the beginning of the climb itself.
Unfortunately, bad weather was coming in, and we realised that the patter of raindrops was escalating, and that there was no break in the clouds. Onwards and upwards though; this was our only chance to scale to the base of the Torres, where you can get the famous photo close ups of the towers themselves. The initial ascent broke into level mountainside and forest crawling, and hours later; Angela and I were at the final checkpoint telling us that it was another 45 minutes to the top.
We were both quite soaked from the rain, other people had turned back due to the weather and Mikke and a few others had moved ahead faster than us. Angela particularly was knackered; this was the most challenging climb she had done; and considering sheīd only started mountain trekking a few months before, she was doing brilliantly to get this far. The next 45 minutes upward is an accurate assessment of the time taken if you are a seasoned trekker and if you donīt try to run up (most time estimates are lax for seasoned trekkers), mainly because its full of boulders and scrambling. Or at least it was mostly when I did this back in 2001. Pathīs had been better carved through the rocks and signposted, although there were several of them weaving upwards. This confusion and the increasing altitude (2800m) took its toll on Angela, coupled with colder conditions and the non-stopping rain turning into snow. We got to a make or break point pass, and were so close to turning back; Angela had clearly had enough, and I couldnīt blame her. With fortuitous timing, we saw Mikke heading back towards us - she had reached the top and it was only another ten minutes away!
With what seemed like the last ounces of energy, we scrambled the remaining boulders to make the summit. We were rewarded with a frankly crap view of the absolute bottom of the Torres, shrouded in cloud. Not much of a postcard picture, so some photoshopping and superimposing will have to do! Summitting is an energy boost, as it vindicates what you are doing. It also lifted Angelaīs spirits (much needed), and gave us the added strength to make our descent. We had consumed much time going up, so we had to be fast going down in order to make it back to the Refugio and catch the connecting buses to take us back to El Calafate.
It was at this point that the clouds started to break - although we were gutted to miss what might have been clearing clouds on the Torres behind us now; we were rewarded with magnificent panoramas of the multitude of lakes beneath us, opening waterfalls with photogenic clarity and the diversity of landscape whose colour was beginning to radiate.
We made it back in time, spent 30 minutes emptying and drying our soaked rucksacks, contents, coats and gloves around a shared campfire; and boarded the return bus to El Calafate. Our hippy guide was there to welcome us. Weīd almost forgotten all about the sunglasses by the time he asked us about it!
Back to El Calafate tonight and more radiator drying before we head to Bariloche!
