Back from the Torres del Paine trek! (18/1/2002)

Well, we’re back from the trek that ended up taking 9 days. Through most of the trek we didn’t walk with each other (except for the first day, the day of the pass and the two easy days) so I suppose Oren will send you an email of his own.
We started on a very windy day and we had a lot of weight on us (we brought enough food for about 4 people). The first day was not too interesting, other than some endless fields of white flowers in which groups of Chileans were running about half naked, dancing and jumping.


The second day was harder and when I finally made it to the end of the day, the view was great: I had just finished a hard climb to the top of a hill from which I could see the grassy camping site where we were going to sleep, perched on the shore of a lake with a great glacier on the other side. In the center of the glade was a small hut where the rich(er) people can sleep. This was Refugio Dickson, near which we slept in our little tent.

Since the trek also entails going over a pass in the mountains the third day was shorter so we could rest for the final climb to the pass. I walked through forests which where somewhat similar to those I already told you about (Tolkien and everything) on my way to Campamento Los Perros. Just before reaching the campsite we had a great movie-like suspension bridge (Indiana Jones like). After the bridge there was a killer climb and at the end of that I was suddenly on the edge of a lake in which pieces of the Los Perros glacier were floating about. It was a great view and I went down to the shore to have a closer look.

I was a bit nervous on the fourth day since I knew we had to cross the pass and I was afraid we would have strong winds. The day started with a climb (as always) and soon the trail turned into a muddy mess which took us about two hours to overcome. At the end of those two hours we had to cross a gushing river, and after that started the climb to the pass. We set up in our storm suits, wrapped our bags and set out. When we were half way up it started snowing and it was really great, I enjoyed the entire climb immensely. When we got to the top of the pass (at about 1200m) we could se in front of us the huge Glaciar Grey (about 16km long) spread along the valley. We then continued to go down the other side of the pass. At the beginning the going was easy, but soon the climb down became very hard - the ground was slippery and the slopes were hard to handle. When we finally saw a tent we could barely contain our happiness. It turned out that no one really knew where the camping ground we were looking for was, but since everyone was so tired they just put up their tents where they could.

Through the whole of the fifth day I trekked with the two Americans we met in Bariloche (and later spent the Sylvester with).
We had great views of the Grey glacier (and that’s a name, not a color!) and some adventurous bits - climbing rope ladders, crossing rivers etc. When we finally got to Refugio Grey we put up our tents and then noticed that the sun had come out. We decided we would go to another lookout on the glacier. I started by going down to a little cove where bits of the glacier were floating. Surprisingly they made very gentle noises, like crystal wind chimes. I then went up to the cliffs overlooking the glacier and lake. It looked dangerous but was really very easy climbing and I spent a couple of hours just jumping around on the rocks and taking pictures.


The sixth day was a two-part walk. The first to Refugio Pehoe that is near an amazing lake, the likes of which I have never seen. I hope the pictures come out well because I can’t even begin to describe the great color the lake had (a very clear blue-turquoise). The second part of the day was getting to Campamento Italiano, which was a rather uneventful walk.


The seventh day started with a smile. This was the first day in which we didn’t have to carry all of our equipment with us. We left the tent and most of our equipment down in the camping ground and went up into what is called the French Valley, where we had great lookouts on another glacier, some snow capped mountains and forests.


The following day was supposed to be a very long day - we had to walk all the way back to the beginning of the course - about 7-8 hours of walking with all the equipment. Somewhere along the way my watch set itself back to 1/1/85, so I had no clear notion of the time (or day for that matter). After a couple of hours I got to a small hotel-like Refugio. After a week in the field, I did the natural thing and abused their toilets.

The last day finally came. Again we walked without our big packs and just took some basic things for the climb up to the Torres del Paine. The Torres themselves are three huge granite "towers" with a nice pinkish color. The climb took us a few hours but was great. We had a great day with no clouds (and this is rare in this park) and a lot of sun.


That’s about it. All in all, it was a great trek and if I didn’t include too many details it’s because it’s all still one big, long and dirty mess (well, we had no showers) in my mind.

Talk to you all soon,
Adios!