Torres del Paine National Park in Chile has some of the world’s most beautiful and iconic mountain landscapes . For an in depth exploration, if you have the time and the energy, nothing beats doing the ‘O’ and ‘W’ hiking routes. However things don’t always go to plan in Patagonia..

 

Some call it sods law –  I call it hiking in Patagonia. It’s when the glacier that you have just slogged 3 hours uphill to see is invisible in a blizzard, your expensive North Face tent has developed a leak in the incessant rain just when you needed it most and to top it all, you left your really warm gloves at home as it is supposed to be summer in South America.

The hugely beautiful mountainous scenery of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile is justifiably famous, its cluster of distinctive peaks rising starkly above their rugged surroundings. Fortunately there are perfectly good ways of seeing it by car, but we also chose the harder option of a multi day hike into its wilderness.

If ever there were a ramblers bus, it is the early morning departure from Puerto Natales which gets you to the main gate of the park at about 9am. The complete circuit of the park is known as the ‘O’ and its lesser cousin as the ‘W’ which follows the bottom section with three excursions to the north.

We were doing a bastardised version of the two, as I had only booked the month previously and the camps on the bottom section were all full. This meant doing the famous Torres towers lookout as a day walk which, with stops, was a long 10 hours from the Torres car park. Admittedly, some of this was due to waiting for the cloud to lift so we could actually see them, but finally they obliged and we got a tantalizing glimpse of their sheer sides rising above a small glacial tarn before they vanished in the clouds again. Sometimes it is like the Dance of the Seven Veils trying to see these mountains, the ever changing cloud opening a different perspective but never quite revealing the whole.

The highest tower is actually Torre d’Agonsti at 2,850 m, then Torre Central at 2,800 m and finally Torre Norte at 2,600m. If you get to see all three at once, buy a lottery ticket!

Underway at Last

So our first real day of our walk led us from the Laguna Amarga entrance some 14km to Seron. Initially crossing a rickety old wooden bridge next to its more robust successor, we struck up the hill and after 1.2km left the road behind and set off across the plains of the Paine river.

It actually took us about two hours to get to the river, all the time walking into a very strong headwind, but from there the scenery much improved. Following a horse track, we wound alongside the icy rushing waters amidst millions of spectacular giant daisies, rough hills and escarpments rising to our left. We lunched beside a  waterfall and even enjoyed ten minutes of real sunshine.

About an hour before Seron, the main track from Las Torres came in on our left and suddenly there were people. I much prefer my camping wild and alone, but here one is obliged to stay in camps each night and join the happy throng. We reckoned on about 75 people, plus however many were staying with tours in set up tents or refuges. This meant the cooking areas became rather crowded as well as, horrors, queuing for the one loo and surprisingly hot shower – ok, there are some advantages to more organized camping!

Seron is a nice grassy campsite surrounded by hills and even has a log cabin style bar and cafe serving pricy beer and pizza. We put up our tent amidst the daisies.

Above Lago Paine

None of the walking in Torres del Paine is technical in any way but the distances are long and our second day covered 18km, though thankfully what little climbing we did was early on.

Shortly after leaving Seron, the path swings up a steep headland and suddenly the length of Lago Paine appears below. Higher, wilder mountains with precarious glaciers loomed ahead as we followed a scenic balcony track above the lake. Finally we dropped down to start wending our way round the top of the lake, largely flat walking through a mix of thick lowland beech and more open grassy areas.

A brief climb to a crest revealed our second and most scenic campsite: Dickson, beautifully located on a park like bend at the bottom of Lago Dickson, with Dickson glacier forming a fabulous backdrop. We walked through the trees surrounding the camp to the river bank and chilled out with the magnificent glacier and high mountains view; there was even a large iceberg sitting in the river below us to complete this totally wild scene. Later, as we watched, it literally turned turtle and half sank, dying before our eyes.

Rain on the Glaciers

Our third day sounded as if it might be hard work but in reality was just a delightful woodland ramble with a rather fine glacier at the end. We started with rain as we wound up to a lookout point from where we could see both the Dickson glacier and the Perros one to which we were walking.

Leaves hung with sparkling raindrops and there was a fresh earthy scent in the forest. We paused briefly to watch a pair of Magellanic woodpeckers attacking the tree trunks madly – both are black, but the male has a brilliant red head so is easily recognizable.

Crossing and following the Rio de los Perros via a variety of shaky wooden bridges we eventually reached our final climb which led to a birds eye view of the Perros glacier, flowing down a steep mountain side into the small Laguna Los Perros below us. The ground up rock sediments from the glacier produces the distinctive milky turquoise colour that is found in these lakes; strangely, however grey the weather, they always seem to maintain their lustre.

The great moraine bank on which we were sitting showed the one time extent and size of this glacier; sadly all bar two of South America’s glaciers are retreating, leaving high tide marks in their wake as an indication of their past glory and scored rocks where trees struggle to survive.

Los Perros campsite had little going for it other than its location near the glacier and the icy waters of the eponymous river. Dark, bare earth sites in the forest made for a cosy cooking shed and the pitter patter of raindrops in the night, amplified by the dripping trees, seemed a logical progression.

Onwards and Upwards

The onset of dawn on the fourth day revealed a grey drizzle. We started our climb to the John Gardner pass early at 6am as this was to be our biggest day yet, with 23 km to cover and an initial ascent of a little over 600 m to the pass.

Steep and slippery slopes greeted us the instant we left camp and we found ourselves splashing over deep morasses of tangled roots and mud. Thankfully this soon eased and the rest of the climb was fairly straightforward and progressive – except that within about an hour of leaving the snow set in and once we left the protection of the trees this turned into a veritable blizzard.

Hence my swearing as we reached the top of the pass at 1,200 m where we were greeted by a sea of white which we had rather expected as the Southern Ice Field lay ahead of us, except that in the conditions it was impossible to separate ice from snow and the result was zilch!

There was no question of sitting on top waiting for clear skies in such freezing temperatures and we started to ascend rapidly.  The path was easy and inviting – then it entered the trees to become a greasy quagmire on precipitous slopes. We tobogganed down and two hours later washed up in the rain at the free CONAF Paso campsite, along with lots of other people whose muddy trousers spoke of thrills and spills en route.

Unfortunately this was another campsite I had been unable to book. The cookshed was full so we made lunch outside in the rain then reluctantly set off on the 4 hour hike to Lago Grey.  At last the rain ceased and we were able to start enjoying some views of Grey Glacier.

This glacier is huge: up to 6 km wide and 30 m high, a river of ice flowing down to Lago Grey between the surrounding mountains, separating only to go round an island and ending just before our Lago Grey refuge. Two more join it from valleys to its side.  

At its face there was a huge iceberg, 350 x 380m, which made headlines in November 2017 when it detached from the glacier. It obviously hasn’t moved far since then, but as only 10% of an iceberg is seen above the water, it may well be stuck. In the nearby bay icebergs jostled for space. It was a spectacular sight.

Our route led over three new bridges, high wired and shaky over massive gorges, a destination in themselves for the day hikers we now began to encounter. With brighter skies arriving, we stopped for a precious chocolate bar at an elevated lookout near the end of the glacier and contemplated the sheer weight of frozen water.

Oh, did I say ‘refuge’?  The campsites had been fully booked for our Lago Grey stop, so we had splashed out US$36 each for a bed in the refuge. We had expected a basic dorm bed, but this was a sparkly tin mountain hotel, complete with restaurant, bar and great hot showers.

Our smart bedroom had two bunk beds and the other remained empty so we did not even have to share with any other smelly hikers. The mattress was cloud like, the biggest luxury listening to the wind rattle round outside whilst we were warm and cosy inside.

Our boots drying by the wood stove in the corridor, sleep came quickly that night.

A Windy Day

But all good things come to an end, though we prolonged our stay in bed long enough that our boots were the last to be retrieved from the hallway. Yet another porridge breakfast was enlivened by the discovery of a jar of dolce de leche on the leftover shelf. This cooked condensed milk toffee product is dangerously moreish and has attained cult status in Argentina, whilst being only slightly less popular in Chile.

Thus fortified we set off on our way once again, only 11km to our final campsite of Paine Grande. However, nothing is ever as expected in Patagonia. This would have been a lovely walk on a sunny day, albeit one that climbed up and down constantly, but it turned into a day of gale force winds, with gusts apparently up to 67 km per hour.

We found ourselves flying around exposed corners in a haphazard fashion, reeling like drunks at closing time as we were buffeted from side to side. The little Korean girls were living dangerously on the prominent lookouts and I half expected them to take flight at any moment, like so many Mary Poppins’ with backpacks. Although it was actually dry, it was torturous going.

At Laguna de los Patos the water was skimmed from its surface and carried skyward, creating the unusual phenomenon of rain rising rather than falling. Although the trees provided some shelter, it did not feel safe to linger under them. Our hearts really fell as we dropped down the final valley to Paine Grande only to discover an open unsheltered campsite , beautifully situated on the bay with a superb view of the Cerro Paine massive.

Seeking a little shelter from the wind, we put up the tent next to a water tower, which unfortunately created a trend as we were soon surrounded. Tents congregated for protection reminding one of a windy day at Glastonbury. Here at least they had a good sized cooking and dining area where we could take refuge from the wind, whilst the large picture windows allowed us to laugh at the attempts of other hikers trying to get their tents up.

The French Valley

With no campsites available ahead of us, our only option was to visit the Frances valley on another long 25km day walk from Paine Grande. The initial 7.6km cut over the hill to follow Lago Skottsberg to Italiano campsite, another free CONAF one and the ideal stepping off point for the valley.

We then had another 5.5km uphill climb , reaching the Frances Lookout after an hour of steep scrambling beside the Rio del Frances. This gave us a superb view of the very active Frances Glacier, with huge chunks of ice breaking off at regular intervals, the noise echoing round the valley like distant gunfire. Still windy, the waterfall coming off its face was snatched upwards by the gale and dispersed over a wide area.

The worst of the climbing over, the trail undulated on along the tree filled valley with a final short ascent to admire the amphitheatre of the Cuernos Mountains, probably the most scenic range in the park, with their sheer, almost opalescent sides and rough rusty caps.

It was a fabulous end to our explorations in the park, and despite the bottom ‘W’ campsites being unavailable to us, we had still managed to do nearly all of the two routes, bar the 23 km between Italiano campsite and Las Torres. At a total cost to us both of US$136 (not including the 21,000 CPL per person park entrance fee), we had enjoyed a weeks meandering in beautiful country.

Our exit route was equally scenic: a little catamaran from Paine Grande to Pudeto wharf which gave us a final superb view of the Cuernos and the Frances valley over the turquoise waters of Lake Pehoe.

Notes

Buses: There are frequent buses from Puerto Natales to the entrance of the park at Laguna Amarga, starting at 7am. They go on to stop at Pudeto and link in with some of the ferry sailings there. Price is 8,000 CPL one way or 15, 000 CPL return. Bus Sur is one of the companies doing the trip and tickets can be booked online.

Entrance Fee: Park entrance fee is 21,000 CPL per person and it lasts for 3 consecutive days. Get it stamped when purchasing if you intend coming in and out. It does not have to last the duration of the walk.

Pudeto Boat: Catamarans go frequently in season to Paine Grande from Pudeto and vice-versa. Cost 18, 000 CPL one way or 28, 000 CPL return. Buy your ticket on the boat.

Campsite & Refugio Reservation : All accommodation and campsites must now be reserved in advance and you have to check in at each one. Hiking is done in a counter clockwise direction on the ‘O’ though either for the ‘W’. There is a ranger station after Seron which checks reservations and you will not be allowed to proceed without them.

For the ‘W’ and the free campsites, it appears that you need to reserve at least 4 months in advance. There is more availability for Seron, Dickson and Los Perros as fewer people do the circuit so you may get reservations nearer the time.

The park has an infuriating booking system as there are effectively three lots of organizations running the sites, so you will have to coordinate your bookings on three different websites. If you are in Puerto Natales, you can visit three different offices and discuss options. They are as follows:

Fantastico Sur.  Refugios and camping at Seron, Frances, Los Cuernos, Las Torres and Chileno. www.fantasticosur.com

Vertice Patagonia.  Refugios and camping at Paine Grande, Grey, Dickson and Los Perros. www.verticepatagonia.com

CONAF.  Free basic campsites at Paso, Italiano and Torres

My ideal circuit (not the one we did as didn’t reserve long enough in advance!) :

Day 1 –  Laguna Amarga (262 m) to Seron (174 m) . This has the advantage of starting where the bus stops and is almost totally flat after a short initial climb. It is very scenic beside the river and you will most likely have the trail to yourself until the one from Las Torres joins it.

Distance: 16. 6 km/5 hours. (Camping 10, 000 CPL)

Day 2 – Seron (174 m) to Dickson (144 m) . After a sharp short climb early on, the trail undulates above Lago Paine then flattens out for the second half. A long day with great views.

Distance: 19 km/6 hours.  (Camping 5,000 CPL)

Day 3: Dickson (144 m) to Los Perros (560 m) . Some gentle climbing early on then largely flat through woodland. Another climb at the end brings you out opposite Perros glacier and fabulous views.

Distance: 10.8 km/4 hours.  (Camping 5,000 CPL)

Day 4: Los Perros (560 m) to Paso (430 m) . Climbing steeply from camp, the trail eases into a steady 3 hour climb to the Paso John Gardner at 1,192 m. There is then a very steep 2 hour descent to Paso, a basic CONAF free campsite. Superb views of the Southern Ice Field and Grey Glacier.

Distance: 12 km/5.5 hours (Camping free)

Day 5: Paso (430 m) to Lago Grey (90 m) . 4 hours of steeply undulating walking with superb views beside Grey Glacier.

Distance: 10 km/4 hours (Camping 10,000 CPL)

Day 6: Lago Grey (90 m) to Paine Grande (40 m) . An easy 11km day though the track goes up and down a bit. Excellent views again and a chance to have an easy day.

Distance: 11km/3.5 hours (Camping 5,000 CPL)

Day 7: Paine Grande (40 m) to Italiano (200 m) . 600 m side trip up French Valley. . Only 7.6 easy undulating km beside Lago Skottsberg Lake to the CONAF free basic campsite of Italiano. Here you can leave your gear and hike unencumbered the 5.5km up the Valle del Frances for more stunning views.

Distance : 18.6km round trip/2.5 hours to Italiano & 2.5 to Britanico lookout. 1.5 hours return.  (Camping free)

Note: If you wished to make the following day shorter, rather than stopping at Italiano, you could continue to Campamento Frances  (Camping 10,000 CPL) or the expensive Los Cuernos (Camping 70,000 CPL)

Day 8: Italiano (200 m) to Chileno (410 m) . A long day but fairly easy going until you start to ascend the Ascencio valley, whereupon Chileno is a further steady 2 hours uphill with a bit of down just before it.. This hike will put you on the spot for an early ascent to the Torres lookout, 2.15 hours away at 880 m. If the free CONAF Torres campsite (580 m) is open 1.5 hours further on up the valley that it is even handier (Closed 2017/2018 season)

Distance: 22km/9 hours (Camping 70,000 CPL)

Day 9: Chileno (410 m) to Hotel las Torres (190 m) . An early start will get you to the Torres lookout for sunrise – allow 2.5-3 hours – after which you can walk out to the Hotel Las Torres. Some treat themselves here; otherwise catch the shuttle (2,800 CLP) or walk 7km to Laguna Amarga to get the bus back to Puerto Natales.

Distance: 13.5km/7 hours

Exchange Rate: January 2018: US$1 = 19 CPL

Maps: The track is well trodden and you will not get lost. The free one you get with your entrance ticket is quite adequate.