"Nothing prepares you for the spectacular beauty of the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine" said my guidebook. Since I have already been to a lot of national parks and mountains all around the world which have the attribute "most beautiful" assigned to them, I thought nothing could easily overwhelm me... but honestly, the Torres del Paine Park was way more impressive than I expected and than anything I have ever seen.
After a 16 hour bus ride from Ushaia I arrived at Puerto Natales late at night, only to take off again at 7am to a five day trekking tour through the National Park Torres del Paine. My trek, the circuito, involved 170km of hiking through mountains and swamps, crossing windy passes and cold mountain creeks, lots of elevation, and dramatic sceneries around every corner... in short, it was a lot of fun!
Day 1:
After taking several buses I arrived at the entry to the park, which was bustling with people taking family pictures, riding horses, and strolling around. The French guys called it "se randonner", which says everything, doesn't it? Since that was totally not what I was looking for, so I took off into the mountains following a valley
which led me directly to the famous Torres del Paine.
I thought I have climbed some and have certainly seen a lot of impressive towers, such as the Tre Cime in Italy, for example, but the Torres were just huuuuge and the closer you get the higher they are. Mighty winds were howling around these vertical towers. How harsh the climbing conditions may be up there - freezingly cold and stormy as hell. Luckily, I sat down at the shiny green glacier laguna underneath the towers, enjoyed the view and the warm sun, and exchanged mountain wisdoms with some other Austrian guys.
After that I pitched my tent underneath a boulder filed near the torres and took off to explore a beautiful side valley, the Valle del Silencio. With me was Tim, an Australian pharmacist from Alice Springs, the middle of nowhere.
Together we spent the afternoon jumping through the rivers, climbing little boulders and trees, and enjoying stunningly beautiful mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls.
For those of you who are not aware of it, I want to point out that you currently have 17 hours of daylight down in Southern Chile. So the evening was long and went by with slacklining and singing in the camp, and some climbing in the boulder field below the Torres, which were brightly illuminated even long after the darkness has already arrived in the valley.
Day 2:
Good morning Patagonia! The pampa was greeting me up in the mountains with a pink sunrise, but this was not the most spectacular view...
Incredibly high above me somebody lit some orange torches, what an amazing view! Since the Torres are the highest mountains on the East side of the Paine massive, they provided me the most beautiful sunrise I have ever (!) seen! Seriously, I considered staying another night there, only to witness this spectacular sunrise again from laguna underneath the Torres.
I hiked back down the valley passing some magnificient glaciers
and the corresponding milky blue glacier lagunas from where I could see the neighboruing mountain ranges... just a stunning view around every corner.
High above me the majestic condors were circling... Actually they were not flying but more gliding with the Patagonian winds.
Based on a tip from from Wolfgang, who has just been here a coupled of weeks ago, I set off to climb up to the base of the impressive Cuernos del Paine, huge granite mountains with peaks made off sedimentary rock formed by the wind.
The Cuernos not just looked incredibly impressive, but they were also enormous faces. I tried to get to the base of one climb and the wall just got taller... I never arrived there. One day, I have to come back and check the climbing routes on these cathedrals of granite! Since there was no real official path leading up to where I was, I was completely alone and enjoyed the view on teh Cuernos, the backside of the Torres, the milky blue and emerald green glacier lagunas, the yellow and brownish pampa and the mighty glaciers and icefields dominating the horizon... but see yourself:
What an awesome scenery, isn't it? I could have spent endless time up there, but I had to move on and descended down to the lakes from where the Cuernos looked even more impressive.
I hiked for another 10km along the shore of the laguna and Punta Bariloche and Paine Grande appeared around the corner together with their mirror images in the lake.
Finally, after a long day I reached my camp directly underneath the impressive glacier of the Paine Grande. This day I hiked with a 50 year old Russian guy who was strong as hell and always told me about his last North pole expedition. Well, hed had to be strong since he carried a good old quality Russian steel tent and also all his other Russian gear could not be called high performance and light weight equipment :)
After we arrived at the campsite, I stayed awake a little longer to see the sunset. I wasn't disappointed, the glacier peaks high above the lake,
the Cuernos, and
the Paine Grande fought for the most beautiful sunset.
And so another day filled with highlights and dramatic sceneries came to an end. I was looking forward to the next one!
Day 3:
I got some more sleep than usual and missed the sunrise the next day. Nevertheless, I planned a big program that day. I had a quick breakfast (apple and chocolate), left my tent in the basecamp, and hiked up the Valley Frances, where "climber's paradise" waited for me.
Voilá, don't you like it? The Dolomite's Rosengarten is nothing compared to that, which makes me go upside down... WOWOW!!!
Luckily, the clouds were higher than all the surrounding towers, so had an awesome view on all these towers... let me show you the pleasure and joy my climber's heart felt in a short clip.
On the hike up, I also met Dave a Yosemite local who spent three weeks up here climbing twelve of the surrounding towers. I had a fun bouldering and slacklining session with him... "See you in Yosemite next year!"
What a great place this was, but I had to move on. So I walked out of the mountains and along the milky Lago Pehohe. From there I could see the Cuernos from some distance now. Wow, how impressive and how stunningly beautiful! In fact, I even hiked halfway around Lago Peohe (in the wrong direction) to appreciate this scenery even better (see picture at the end of this post). This was one of the looks everybody knows from various calenders and travelling and climbing books, but in reality it is even more breathtaking!
Around 7pm (after having appreciated the scenery long enough), I decided to hike another 3-4 hours crossing a small pass to the Gray glacier. On the way, I saw light blue icebergs drifting by in Lago Grey. From time to time I heard some thunderous sounds which I related to giant seracs (=chunks of glacier) breaking off into the lake and which later form the icebergs passing by. So far I couldn't see the glacier since I was still below the pass.
But then I had one of this "eternal and divine" moments you randomly have. Right when I was on top of the pass, the clouds faded away and opened the scenery for the last sunrays. And here it was, the gigantic GlaciarGray breaking into the lake. At the horizon you could see more glaciers coming from the Campo Hielo Sur, the largest continental ice mass on Earth. I stayed sitting there on sunny meadows observing this scenery in the last sunlight. What a truly great moment that I will never forget!
Actually I wanted to see the sunset, but the cold and strong icewinds from the Campo Hielo Sur sooner or later fought me away. So I hiked another 1-2 hours in the darkness and pitched my tent right next to the glacier, only separated from it by a little rocky hill, which gave me shelter from the icewinds. And so another awesome day with countless memories and impressions passed by. And there's more to come!
Day 4:
After all these fantastic days, can it be any better? - Yes it can. I got up early again for sunrise, packed my stuff and hiked over some rocks to my breakfast place:
Nice to wake up like this and see the glacier right in front of you isn't it? Additionally, I was all alone up to some seracs breaking off thunderously which later landed as stranded goods - icebergs. Good morning!
I hiked along the glacier for about four hours or so. Don't even think I came close to its end... Here's a close-up shot from me over its seracs. Yes, I know I need to shave and I also need a shower... just two more days ;)
And here's one shot showing me a little higher above the glacier, just to show you what the word "endless" means - it's beautiful, isn't it? But wait, it get's way better!
I climbed higher and higher above the glacier through a dense and moisty forest. Slowly the clouds faded away and gave me stunning views of the Glaciar Grey, the Campo Hielo Sur, and some mountains in the icefield. WOW!!! And it will get even better!
By the time I reached the pass approximately 1000m above the glacier, the view opened up completely and in another "eternal and divine" moment I was allowed to see this dramatic scenery.
And that was literally breathtaking! I climbed a little higher and made a short movie for you guys to appreciate this beautiful moment:
Muchissimo, isn't it?
I sat up there on the pass for an hour or so just looking at the beautiful scenery with the dense green forest below me, the light blue sky above me, and the icefield in between! But I still had another 7 hours of hiking or so waiting for me this day and so I slowly started the descent passing by some other glaciers, where I got fresh water.
Oh yes, to all children reading this: Do not stand under seracs!
After walking down some gravel slopes and crossing an endless swamp I found myself again in the dense forest and looked back to some glaciers. Where else in the world can you witness such extreme differences within some hours of hiking?
The sun was setting and it was all so peacefully in the forest. I couldn't imagine that right behind this beautiful mountains is nothing but endless ice and storms all year round.
It was getting dark and I switched my headlamp on for another 30 minutes of hiking down to some green meadows below the mountains, where I wanted to pitch my tent. But what did I see 10 minutes before I reached my destination - another two mighty glaciers dropping into Lago Dickson and the Campo Hielo Sur behind.
Truly another great scenery, but I started to ask myself whether a new ice age has begun... meanwhile I was sweating and mosquitos were teasing me. So I pitched my tent next to the lake after a long day filled with unforgetable memories.
Day 5:
I had four wonderful and intense days of hiking through and around the Torres del Paine massive, and today I was completing my circle around the massive. During these last four days I passed through more or less all climate zones. Today I walked out into the yellow and brownish pampa always following the milky blue rivers fed by the mighty glaciers behind me.
The hike itself was beautiful and passing through dense woods, swamps with mosquitos, and along some nice lakes. I found a lonely and forgotten estancia, where I had a fun slackline session with some guys from Portland, Oregon. The strong wind was always blowing from behing and literally pushed me out into the pampa.
That day I met lots of guanacos (related to lamas) and always followed the rivers which brought me back to a gravel road from where I hitchhiked to Laguna Amarga and waited for a bus.
On the way out the sky cleared up completely and I had some nice views on the glaciers and towers that I circumcircled, including the Torres del Paine themselves. What a great time I had in these 5 days! I will never forget the Torres in the sunrise, the Cuernos above Lago Peohe, the towers of Valley Frances, the Glaciar Grey in the last sunlight, the view on the Campo Hielo Sur from high above, ...
Sooner or later the bus came and we drove back into civilisation. Behind me I could see the dusty road leaving the Torres del Paine back in the sunset.
The next day I was back in Puerto Natales and desperately needed a shower and a tenedor libre (all you can eat) restaurant :)
The Circuito de Torres del Paine has been a spectacularly beautiful trekking tour. As I already said in the beginning of this post, the five days in the Torres del Paine Parque easily overtrumped any other tour at any other place I have been to. My pictures are mightier than my words, so let the following five pictures speak for the wonderful time I had during these five days.
1 comment:
Now it's done :)
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