(Puerto Natales)
Torres del Paine - The W
The W is the most popular circuit in the park and usually takes 5 days, whereas The Circuit takes about 8-9 and sees more. They told me the pass on one section of The Circuit was closed so I did The W, although I found out that was a nasty lie. It hurt my feelings, but The W was awesome nonetheless. The whole W name thing comes from the relative shape the trail of the trek takes, which is a W. I ended up taking 6 days, to be explained later, and had a phenomenal time.
(view back to Glaciar Grey)
Day 1 - A 10 hour stroll
So despite leaving Puerto Natales at 7:30 for our two hour bus ride in, it really took 5 hours to get to our stop (the last stop of three) where we were going to start our trek. This is a pretty important detail when you have planned on walking 9 hours in the first day. At least the days are long, with enough daylight to hike until about 10 to 10:30. It was a beautiful drive though, and you get a good view of the Paine Massif mountains on the way there.
(somewhere on the trail)
We started off in the wrong direction following a few people on the road back the way we came. Rule 1, never ever follow someone else, especially when they arrived on the same bus you did, having about as much knowledge of the land as you do. I checked the map to see if were going in the right direction and it looked right, but still, we shouldn't have followed them. Half an hour later a ranger drives by and says we are heading back to the park entrance, so we had to turn around and had now lost time, distance, and strength from that little detour.
(Lovin' Trekkin')
The rest of the trip went well, and it was a beautiful walk in, albeit a long one. We were pushed to rush due to the daylight factor, which was annoying since we were up at 7:30 ready to start the day. But we got to camp, set up, and crashed in our tent after the long day. We ended up doing around 36 km in one day, or 21.6 miles, with our little detour and long road in, and we would end up paying for it.
Day 2 - Age catches up with us
(Glaciar Grey)
The day started out fine, with a visit to the impressive Glaciar Grey, which slinks down into the lake Lago Grey and is split by an island in the middle. It was a cool scene, especially for my first glaciar sighting. It was then back to camp to get our heavy packs for day two, and we were feeling it from day one. 10 hours was too long to start our first day, especially on the first trek in some time for either of us. At some point in your life your age catches up with your will, and no matter how much you might want to be able to do something, your body has another idea. Usually it didn't matter when we were little, but that slowly changes. 1 hour in to our second day and Darren couldn't hardly walk on his knee, and we had 5 hours ahead of us, and 2 1/2 to the nearest camp and way out. After it became clear he had to just get back to camp and take a boat out of the park and he couldn't continue the trip, I loaded up as much of his weight I could and lugged my pack back to camp, then went back to get what was left of of Darren's back and legs. It took him nearly twice the time to hobble that section of the trail as would be normal, but I think his spirit was more hurt than his leg. He had planned on doing this trek for 5 years and now had to head out. It ended up he is still hurting after 2 weeks, and definitely still bummed, as most of the featured activities in Patagonia are the hikes. He didn't even twist his knee or do anything adrupt like that. It was simply an aggravation from the weight, distance, and rough trail we had been walking in.
Day 3 - Flying solo
Darren caught the boat out in the morning, and I headed off to the next campsite, only 2 hours away, deciding to take it easy that day after the two days before, from which I was definitely feeling the effects. It ended up being a good day to chill out, as it rained lightly on my walk there, stopped briefly when I got to camp (so nice for setting up the tent), and then poured for the next 6 hours. Patagonia has some savage weather, and is the catch that comes with the beautiful landscape and setting. I have been lucky in that I have only had a couple bad days, usually there are more, but everyday is one of rapidly changing weather, with no day (minus one or two) that ended the same as it started. Most of this day was spent in the tent or shack where you could cook and eat in shelter, and I pitied the people arriving late, who had to set up in the muddy, rain soaked campsites.
(Valle Frances)
Day 4 - A piece of heaven
(rickety bridge over a rushing glacial river)
I dropped the big pack for a hike up into the Valle Frances (French Valley) above camp, a great lookout onto the lakes below surrounded by cool glaciar covered mountains. They day was amazing with it being o
ne of the few that was warm and clear the whole way through. I changed camp sites to a Refugio below Los Cuernos, or horns, a set of horn looking mountains that are very cool in their shape, colors, and setting. This refugio is one of a few that nice-ify the wilderness setting, allowing people to have warm beds, hot showers, cooked meals, and other comforts on their trip to the park. One can also get away with carrying a day pack everywhere if they are staying at these sights. You have to pay for the campsites, and get access to the shower (I protested and didn't take one) and can pay (way to much) for their meals. The campsite was amazing though, and I took a short walk to the lake shore for dinner and couldn´t believe where I found myself. Here is what I wrote in my travel journal for the day. (And it is a journal, not a diary. I am way to manly for the latter. FYI)
"I am writing from one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. In front
of me is Lago Nordenskjold [a neon green lake that glows in the sunlight], with
green, shrub covered hills across the shore to the left, whose rock formations
create stripes diagonally up the hill. The right side of the lake opens up and
has a few small islands with snow covered peaks in the back drop. Even further
right is Cerro Paine Grande, a jagged mountain partly covered by a white and
blue glaciar and dusted with snow. Behind me are the Curnos del paine, or horns,
an awesome formation...and nearby a small glaciar waterfall drones in the
background...I keep looking up at the scenery, trying to burn it into my brain,
as a photograph can't do justice to this awesome panoramic view." That was the
coolest thing about it I think, just being entirely surrounded by such dramatic,
beautiful, and different scenery on everyside. I didn't want to leave.
(Some of the views that day)
Day 5 - You know you are there when your jaw hits the floor
(Los Cuernos)
I changed locations to a free campsite beneath the base, although without a view, of the Torres del Paine. These are the highlight of the park and dominate the pictures you will see of this place, and rightly so. I think they receive too much hype, diminishing other aspects of the park. Glaciar Grey is very impressive, Valle Frances and Los Cuernos as well, and a 5 minute walk from where I stayed on day 4 gives you a killer view of which I just spoke of, especially at sunrise. To see the Torres at sunrise you have to get up at and start walking in the dark an hour before the sun comes up to hope that you get a cloudless view of the sunrise (rare occurrence). But that said, they are quite impressive. I was amazed by them. Someone in the base camp asked the range
r there how you knew when you arrived at the lookout for the Torres, and he said, "you know when you go like -" and without saying a word, very animatedley opened his mouth wide and made a facial expression of total shock. It was quite funny, but how true those words were, as I felt that feeling when I reached the lookout. The whole way up you see nothing really, but right at the end the Torres come into view in dramatic fashion, rising out of a green glaciar lake. This day I had a nearly clear, blue sky as a backdrop, so they were amazing. I wasn't planning on going up that day; it was quite a long climb witht the big pack to get to the base camp, but you learn quick that if you have a clear day, you take advantage. I was quite happy, as my pre-dawn climb the next day ended up being cloudy. I sat up at the lookout for maybe an hour and a half, just taking in the scenery, which was spectacular. Just unreal. My manly journal entry for this place was this: "Epic. That is what the Torres del Paine are. Epic." 'Nuff said.
Day 6 - Rewards where you least expect them
(Freezing at the lookout, waiting for sunrise)
(perched in the clouds, the pre-dawn hikers enjoy their view)
I got up to do that pre-dawn climb I mentioned. The goal besides a beautiful sunrise is to see the Torres turn a deep red, a very, very rare phenomenon, but always possible. I almost didn't go up though, as it was very lightly raining and cloudy, although the clouds did look high and had a break on the horizon where the sun was rising. That was enough for me, and so I made the one hour scramble up a very steep boulderly hill in the dark. I was one of the first up, and headlamps dotted the hill as I looked down. The Torres were indeed covered in clouds, but the lake was visible as well as the canyon where you hike in, which was between me and the rising sun. The sunrise, although not the one we were hoping for, was still amazing. It lit up the clouds and canyon beautifully, and part of the rocks to the side and below the Torres. The coolest sight for me was another peak off of the Torres range that got that pink alpineglow on it, then had a rainbow shoot out the top of it while it was pink for about 5 minutes, arching to the rocks next to the Torres. It was unreal. I took a picture, but it doesn't do justice. I have learned to accept this fact though. 90% of the pictures I take don't do justice to where I am. Sometimes I can't get the color or angle or whatever, butusaully I just can't make it fit, either because it is too big or more often because the effect comes from all that is arround you. Just 360 degree panaramas that will blow your mind. Patagonia is a land of amazing proportions, and the best views are those that don't just occur in front of you, but surround you.
When I got back to the guard station at the entrance to catch the bus, it had been 6 days without a shower, and the cloud of flies swarming me made me feel like a dead animal. But all the trekkers were the same. It definitely seperated us (in hygiene and pride) from the day trippers to the park. The long smelly bus ride back was one of sweet memories of spetacular views and surreal settings. I left on a high, and have basically been planning my trip based on treks ever since.
(That is "Dubwa" for "I done licked da Dubwa")
The Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) given to the southern tip of South America conjures up in my head a land of scorching deserts and fiery volcanoes, something reminiscent of Mordor in Lord of the Rings. It is anything but. The proximity to Antarctica brings in cold southerly weather, made highly erratic and savage by the large amount of ocean surrounding a very small land mass. Rain is frequent, and the ground is wet. Really really wet. I went on a trek up in the Mountains behind the city of Ushuaia, and I hiked over bogs, swamps, mud, streams, rivers, muddy swamps, swampy bogs, and then switched it up with some snow on the pass. The mud made the steep uphills and downhills a slippery slide of muddy fun and frustrations (fun for a bit, then frustratingly annoying after that), and my feet and boots came back quite wet. I actually lucked out with the water from the sky though, only enduring half a day of rain and minor snow on the pass. Also, after the overcrowded Torres del Paine and El Chalten trails, not seeing a single person for three days was a nice treat as well. The wilderness actually felt like, well, a wilderness. I visited some beautiful lakes, some still iced over and covered in snow, and caught some great views of green valleys, both by walking through them and then from above once I cleared the tree line. 
They also suggested it would take 4 hours to summit, but I did it in 1 hr 5 min, with the whole trip including lunch at the top taking 4, so their recommendations are a little loose. But the views were spectacular, as the picture and video attest.
