Torres del Paine

I'll let the pictures tell the story.


The Grey Glacier from Campamento Las Guardas. Its not often you get to have dinner with a view like this.



The front of Glacier Grey. Ice falls from the glacier and is pushed along the lake by the strong Patagonian winds.



Look - it's Sarah John's wooly hat on the bridge over the Rio del Frances at the entrance to Campamento Italiano.



Cerro Principal (2,600m) and Cerro Norte (2,400m) loom directly above Camp Italiano. The rock face on the mountain on the left is completely sheer.



The Torres del Paine at dawn.


The Torres del Paine trek was fantastic, probably the best hiking I’ve done anywhere. The walk for the most part was not too arduous, the weather generally good (except for a snow storm at the top of the Valle del Frances), and the scenery absolutely stunning.

Some of the highlights:
The Grey Glacier. The lookout at Campamento Las Guardas is diredctly in line with the face of the glacier. I sat on rocks overlooking the glacier and cooked my dinner and drunk the wine I had lugged for the previous four hours in an already heavy pack. I was entranced by the glacier's blue-white purity and sheer size. It was an amazing place to be on your own. Unlike the Perito Moreno glacier there weren’t thousands of tourists there to spoil the moment. It was just me.
Seeing my first ever avalanche (and then my second and third etc etc) and hearing scores more while camping at Camp Italiano.
Seeing condors (the largest bird of prey, wing-span 2 - 3m) – dozens of them – as we hiked on day 4. They would float high in the sky around the mountain tops then circle in lower in lower until they were just above us, as if they were waiting for us to expire.
The Torres!

My route
I hiked the 'W' independently, staying only at free camp sites (no facilities). It is possible to stay in fully equipped refugios or at campsites with running water etc, though the refugios are expensive (US$40/night + dinner).

Day 1
Bus from Puerto Natales to Lake Pehoe. Catamaran to Refugio Pehoe.
Trek from Ref Pehoe to Campamento Las Guardas (14km, 4 hours).

Day 2
Trek from Campamento Los Guardas to Ref Pehoe and then on to Campamento Italiano (22km, 6 hours).

Day 3
Day hike up the Valle del Frances: Campamento Italiano to a lookout above Campamento Britanico (11km, 3 ¾ hours).
The views at the top of the valley are supposed to be one of the highlights of the trek, unfortunately minutes after I arrived at the lookout the weather closed in and soon after it was snowing heavily. I waited as long as I could for the weather to clear but had to leave after 15 minutes or I would have frozen to death.

Day 4
Trek Campamento Italiano to Campamento Torres (22km approx, 7¾ hours). A long day.

Day 5
Trek from Camp Torres to Mirador Las Torres (40 min’s each way)
We were up at 6.15am to trek to the lookout to see the sunrise on the Torres – red light is supposedly cast on to the Torres at dawn. Unfortunately thick cloud made it impossible to even tell where the sun was rising, so we didn’t get to see the effect. Despite the cloud and the cold we sat on the rocks to cook breakfast and wait for the cloud to lift so we could see the Torres. Eventually the cloud did lift just enough for us to briefly see 2 ½ of the 3 towers.