Torres del Paine – the alternative way

Spoiler

We never actually went to the base of Las Torres

We spent Christmas in a tent, about halfway through the Torres del Paine trek, at the Francés campsite. We did things a bit differently, though.

Our ‘TDP adventure’ started in Puerto Natales, boarding a boat to go up the lake to Balmaceda and Serrano Glacier. The weather was a bit hazy, with a light drizzle and chilly winds on the water, but the views (when we saw them) were spectacular. We passed a cormorant colony on one of the islands, and made our way up to the pier at the end of the Serrano lake.

Our guides brought us along the lake which until the 1940s formed part of the glacier, and showed us the distance markers of the glacier — on average it recedes 40 meters every year.

Back at the pier, we boarded another boat — a small, open speedboat, which was to bring us up the Rio Serrano, all the way to the Southwest entrance to the park. After a pit stop for a very tasty lunch of local Salmon, we were off, racing up the river, zigzagging between rocks and the river’s edge. The guide was great, providing detailed explanations of the natural environment we were crossing.

We got our first views of the Torres and Cuernos (towers and horns) and of the Southern Ice Field (which includes glaciers such as Grey and Perito Moreno).

The trip ended too soon, in the Serrano valley, where our bags were already waiting for us in our lodge for the night.

The next morning, we left “bright and early” (9.30 am) for the park administration and Pudeto ferry. We caught the ferry to Paine Grande, from where we headed on our first real day of trekking… after lunch, of course…

The day was tougher than expected, as we soon realised how heavy our bags were. From Paine Grande to Grey, there is an almost constant Northwestern wind, pushing hikers towards Paine Grande.

We arrived gratefully at the campsite and set up for our first night in the tent, all the while looking forward to a warm cup of mulled wine. The tent and sleeping bags are incredibly effective at keeping the cold out and, overall, we slept almost as well as if we had a real roof over our heads.

The next morning, we headed to the Bigfoot base, where we had booked a kayak tour to see the glacier from the water. In fact, the tour “only” brings us to a line of icebergs, which have broken off the Eastern tongue of the glacier and gotten hooked in the shallowest part of the lake (40 m deep), about 1 km from the current glacier face.

We were blessed with (what turned out to be unusually) good weather and enjoyed the incredible colours of the ice. We saw a couple of condors preying on a black-faced ibis nest and watched a stand-off between both species, as the ibis defended their young.

After the kayak tour, we had lunch in the camping kitchen, with a couple who were finishing the “O” trek.

In the afternoon, we took a peaceful walk to the suspended bridges between Grey base and Paso base, from where we had spectacular views over the glacier and ice field.

The return to Paine Grande the next day was significantly easier, with less weight already and with the wind blowing (more or less) in the direction we were walking. We continued on to Frances campsite, another four hours’ hike after Paine Grande. The last two kilometers from Campo Italiano to Frances fellt llike the worst of my life… until we discovered that our camping platform was at the very top of the steep campground…

We took the opportunity of having hot water to take a quick shower – shortened by the fact that the boiler was turned off a few minutes after we got to the shower block.

We had been trying frantically to change our reservations in the park for several weeks. We hoped to have a second night at Frances, allowing us to go to the Britanico viewpoint as a day trek. We had had no luck thus far and our experience with the company Fantastico Sur did not bode well… as it turned out, their lack of organisation and responsiveness worked to our advantage.

After receiving different replies from the camp staff throughout the day (“move your tent higher up the hill”; “move your tent down the hill”, etc.), we decided to stay put until another client wanted our spot and work it out with them. As it turns out, they arrived while I was away from our tent and went to the check-in to complain.

The employee at the check-in essentially told them to chose whichever site they wanted – and when we offered to free the space, they told us not to bother as the next space was available and suited them fine.

While all this was going on, Marc did the hike up to the Frances lookout, having given up on Britanico, due to the weather. Although the photos he brought back are incredible, my feet were grateful for a day off.

Our last day hiking brought us from Fances to the Central camping. There we had planned a Christmas dinner at the Las Torres Hotel restaurant, where Marc had 3 desserts and half of mine. We were glad for once not to have to cook and do dishes with freezing water and little or no soap.

The next day we had hoped to make it up to the Torres Base but when we woke up we saw the weather was grim and didn’t think it would be worth the eight hour hike there and back – this was confirmed by a French couple we met back in Puerto Natales, who came back frustrated. We asked about doing the combined horseback ride and trek the next day, but the guide talked us out of it, saying the weather would likely be worse.

Satisfied by our decision, we made our way back to Puerto Natales, ready to move on to Argentina.

Total hiking time: 24 hours (+ 3 for Marc)

Total distance: 54.5 km ( + 8 for Marc)