Vistas and Blistas

Provisions

We’re just back in from an experience of a lifetime. M keeps saying “If I had to go home tomorrow I’d be happy”. That’s generally a good sign that we’ve done something special. We successfully completed the 5 day trek in Parque National Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia known, because of the shape the route makes on a map, as “The W”. We did it 100% under our own steam, without a guide, laden with our tent, stove and 5 days worth of food. This is by no means an advanced trek but for us, two multi day trekking novices, it wasn’t easy either. It was a sort of challenge we set ourselves. If we didn’t make it all the way round it meant we’d bitten off more than we could chew. If we did there’d be a big victory dinner waiting for us when we got back. Food for us is the ultimate reward. It has always been a dream of M's to come to Chile - I don't think she dreamed she'd end up doing something as amazing as this when she eventually made it.

Novices

They say the weather in Patagonia is literally cloud by cloud, that if you don’t like the weather hang around for ten minutes. This proved to be very true and we experienced four seasons in an afternoon nevermind in a day. I kept humming the Crowded House song throughout the trek and it’s words have taken on increased significance since we’ve come back – typical of me to force the square peg of our experience into the round hole of someone else’s lyrics :

Four seasons in one day | Lying in the depths of your imagination | Worlds above and worlds below | The sun shines on the black clouds hanging over the domain | Even when you’re feeling warm | The temperature could drop away | Like four seasons in one day | Smiling as the shit comes down | You can tell a man from what he has to say | Everything gets turned around | And I will risk my neck again, again | You can take me where you will | Up the creek and through the mill | All the things you cant explain | Four seasons in one day | Blood dries up Like rain, like rain | Fills my cup | Like four seasons in one day | It doesn’t pay to make predictions | Sleeping on an unmade bed | Finding out wherever there is comfort there is pain | Only one step away | Like four seasons in one day

Mission Headquarters

Day 0: Gather up your boots and your oul’ tin cans…..Puerto Natales is a small town which is full of international backpackers and trekkers using it as a base to load up on gear and food before they head into the park. An Irish couple we met on the bus gave us a heads up about a free talk given daily by an American guy who owns a hostel down here (the excellent erratic rock hostel). It proved absolutely invaluable with information about weather, a suggested route, what clothes to pack, what food is good for what conditions and even where to pick it up. It really set us up and we spent the rest of the day running around buying food, socks, gas for the stove etc. Yet again M did a great job of packing our packs, sending me out on messages to get me out from underneath her feet. But by late that night we were ready.


Day1 : 22km round trip from Lake Pehoe up to Glaciar Grey. Bus from the hotel at 7:30 which would bring us the 120km from Puerto Natales to the park. The coach was packed with people from all over, young, old, hippies, gearheads with Gore-Tex sunglasses, independent women, the shy silent types. You could tell the novices (us) from the pros by the size of their packs. The art of trekking is less about fitness, the great outdoors and what sights you encounter on your walks and more about how compact you can get your pack. The bus driver was an insanio throwing the coach around hairpinned gravel roads like it was a rally car. I’ve never seen anyone so casually but confidently reckless with the lives of other people. We hadn’t envisioned being in fear for our lives quite so early on in the expedition. We caught our first sight of the towers, the mythical, jaw dropping Torres del Paine from the bus and you could feel the attention of the whole bus being gravitationally attracted to them. Amazing. We had decided to do the route counter clockwise which would mean we’d finish up by climbing to the Mirador del Torres for the best view of the towers. The first few days would be spent eyeing tantalising partial views of the towers from different parts of the trail without them fully revealing themselves.


We took a catamaran across Lake Pehoe, pitched our tent in the strongest gale, helped a girl from Limerick pitch hers and we took off up the trail, up the first leg of the W completely buzzed that we were actually doing something which we’d heard about and talked about for weeks before hand. Come whatever misery that may in the following days we’d gotten this far and were both well up for it. It was a 7 hour round trip with several lookouts on the way. We made it up through the valley, spotting mini blue clinic shampoo icebergs in the dettol lake along the way. We were totally knackered by the time we got up and couldn’t even relax at the top as we were being thrown around like rag dolls by the insane winds. The winds in Patagonia would officially tear the meat from Superquinn spare ribs. The trek down was never ending and we barely made it before dark. We started getting delirious after about 7 hours and had confusing thoughts like how close is your forehead? We kept seeing mirages of our tent aswell and when we eventually got back we were absolutely exhausted. We had completely over stretched ourselves but we were still delighted that we had completed Day1 successfully and were on schedule to complete the W in 5 days.

Rockin' The Glaciers

Day 2 : Lake Pehoe to Camping Italiano, 8km : We set out from Lake Pehoe walking like badly animated cartoon characters such was the extent of our leg muscle distress after yesterday’s marathon walking. It started out fine, we had a hot porridge breakfast and some hot coffee compliments of our stove, dismantled the tent and were on our way by about 9.

On The Trail

It started drizzling by about 10 and was proper raining by 11. We were told that if the wind was blowing hard the weather would change quite regularly. But if not, get used to whatever weather was around because it was going to be around for a while. And so it turned out. It was a miserable and very cold day. We got absolutely soaked through and more depressingly our packs were completely soaked aswell. We’d taken the precaution of double wrapping our sleeping bags in bin liners on the American’s advice and it proved to be very good advice indeed. We pitched our tent in the rain, threw all our wet gear into the tent, changed into our dry clothes and set up thermarest islands in the lake of our tent floor. A definite low point in the trip. The campsite had zero amenities, nowhere for wet trekkers to congregate to get warm, nowhere to set up your stove out of the wind to cook some hot food. We took to the bed for the wet afternoon and ate chocolate. Mura-cuckoo! We eventually surfaced for tea around 7 when the rain cleared temporarily and cooked ourselves some piping hot packet macaroni and cheese and some lovely hot coffee – the unlikely combination conspiring to warm our bones and soothe our souls after the stressful wet day.

Valle del Frances

Day 3 : Camping Italiano up Valle del Frances and back across to Los Cuernos, 11km, 7 hours. Another interesting piece of advice the American imparted – only pack 2 complete sets of clothes. A wet set and a dry set. Keep the dry set dry at all costs as you’ll need it to sleep in to keep warm. No matter how wet the other set gets, throw it on the next morning and the wind and your body heat will eventually dry it out saving you lugging around a lot of heavy wet clothes in your backpack. Sounds like great advice. In practice though, throwing soaking wet clothes on first thing on a frosty windy morning before a days hiking is a thoroughly unpleasant experience. Our nerves were indeed “at us” as we left the campsite the following morning to trek up Valle del Frances feeling like we’d just walked out of the lake.


A half an hour later and we were back on track though and enjoying some of the most intensely beautiful scenery we’ve ever seen. Glaciers, multiple mountain peaks, a sweeping steep valley, azure blue lakes, mini avalanches and waterfalls on mountain streams the only noises breaking the deep silence in the valley. Stunning. Instant justification for all the muscle trauma, blisters on blisters, mozzie bites, frostbite, sunburn through the ozone hole and weather issues. It snowed the softest snow in the sunshine and everything was ok with the world again. We floated down the valley, packed our tent and were on our way to Los Cuernos, the next overnight stop on our trek.

Chile is it?

The journey involved a long walk along the stony beach of the beautiful Lago Nordenskjold a surreal but welcome interlude in the generally rocky uphill or downhills we’d had up to then. At this stage we’d been well and truly bitten by the trekking / camping buzz. Getting to places where the day trekkers don’t gave you such a sense of guilty superiority. I think I’ve lost M to the great outdoors – she’s already talking about doing the legendary 3 day Fitzroy trek in El Chalten (back across the border into Argentina). It’s funny, when we arrived in Buenos Aires we met a couple of seasoned Irish trekkers who had travelled to Argentina and Chile specifically to do these walks and here we are lucky enough to be doing them because we’re in the neighbourhood. At Los Cuernos we bumped into Riva, an American Princeton architecture graduate working in Santiago teaching English who filled us full of interesting stories about Ivy League college life over a shared dinner of rice and smash with Paul an English guy doing the 9 day circuit (solo) who we met at the previous campsite. The freezing cold eventually put an end to our after dinner conversation and we retired to our sloped floored tent for the coldest night of our adventure yet. We also had several visits from mice who could smell our chocolate stash. So it was a night of very fitful sleep and jarring cold. The cold was a result of the unbelievably clear skies which had appeared earlier in the day and which we would be blessed with for the remainder of our trip. Frosty nights were a small price to pay for the stunning views the clear skies allowed us.

Worlds Above and Worlds Below

Day 4 : Los Cuernos to Chileno. 16.5km, 6.5 hours. This was going to be a tough one and we knew in advance that the last 2 hours of the trek were basically straight uphill followed by a descent to the campsite. The plan was to get as close to the base of the towers as possible in order to catch them as early as possible – ideally at dawn the following morning – in all their strange coloured glory. We got about two thirds the way along and I managed to knock out my knee. It’s interesting that at times of great stress on the body, all your old injuries decide to return and have an impromptu reunion. The weight of the backpack coupled with a few staggers over the rocks and the pretty heavy uphill going probably all conspired to knock the knee out. Strangely though, it was just the downhills that caused me problems – I was fine on the flat and when pushing uphill. So the last hour or so to Chileno, located deep in a river valley – all downhill – was pretty excruciating going. I wasn’t so much worried about getting to camp that night as whether or not I’d be able to do the climb to the towers in the morning. Then there was the small matter of the 6 hour descent to catch the bus out of the park. Stressful and depressing times. We set up camp, had dinner and I basically took it easy not even thinking about my knee, hoping that it would sort itself out with a bit of rest and some more macaroni and cheese.


Day 5 : Chileno to Mirador Los Torres and back down to Refugio Los Torres. 14km, 6 hours : We woke at about 6:30 after another very cold night. We caught the end of the sunrise from our campsite and it was pretty spectacular. It’s a common practice for people to get up at 4am – even earlier at the height of Summer - and hike 2 hours in the dark, over rocks to the Mirador, the lookout which gives you an incomparable view of the majestic towers. Given the state of my knee we had decided against that late the night before. After breakfast I strapped on my boots and warm gear half expecting to have to turn back 10 minutes into the trek up to the towers.
We left around 7:30, took it very handy and despite some niggles and jolts and Dinny Byrne impressions we made it up to Base Les Torres a campsite 2 hours up the hill and a 45 minute trek up the boulders from the Mirador. The boulders were a bit of a struggle given the fact that the trail basically disappears and you have to make your way up the mountainside over shale, rocks and boulders to the lookout. But we made it and it was so worth it. It was a spectacularly beautiful morning with the clearest blue sky you could ever hope for. We heard later that the previous day was the first day in over two weeks that you could actually see the towers as the weather had been pretty bad with a lot of rain and overhanging cloud. Needless to say we were absolutely blown away by the sight of the Torres in the early morning hyper bright light. We both couldn’t believe we (I) made it up and I think going to sleep the previous night that we’d pretty much silently resigned ourselves to an incomplete end to our 5 day adventure even if we didn’t admit it out loud. To get to the top together was an unbelievable feeling. Having done the previous 4 day’s slog and then to have the scare of a dodgy knee, coming over the rise to see the towers rise out of absolutely nowhere was an experience I think both of us will remember forever. Words genuinely cant explain our experience. Pictures might help but honestly it was one of the best feelings ever to have succeeded in seeing the towers. If all this seems overly self congratulatory we apologise but we’re genuinely proud of ourselves. We think it’s the start of something new.

Only One Step Away :



M gets Calor Kosangas Housewife of the Year. No question. She succeeded by mere intuition in keeping us well watered, dry and fed on the trail – not easy when you’re living out of a bag for 5 days in the wilderness. She also patiently waited for me every step of the descent, a descent which should have taken about 6 hours and probably took us close to 8 despite a donation of anti inflammatorys from some English girl we met on her way up. The camaraderie on the trail was unbelievable, people constantly offering to take a couple photo at a scenic spot, people stopping to check you’re OK when you’re fixing a blister, offers of food, dry clothes – the whole lot.

Day2

You learn a lot about yourself and each other when everything but the challenge is removed. We somehow managed to keep each other buoyant at all times, each one dragging the other along at different stages. We heard later – and this may be an urban myth – that last year a French rock climber was halfway through an ascent of one of the towers and he slipped and fell, hanging suspended from his climbing ropes in a particularly inaccessible crevice on the rock face. Apparently there he still hangs as a rescue is impossible due to the location of his suspended body. Scary stuff. Since then no climbers have been allowed onto the towers.


Yeah so after all the heavy stuff it was time for some fun :

Look Behind You!

Some Stretches To Relieve The Tension

Adrienne!!....

Returning Home

We returned to Puerto Natales to a delicious victory dinner followed by a sweet pizza dessert – a fresh sweet pizza base with ice cream, cream, grated apple and nuts. Bizarre but very very tasty.

The view from the jacuzzi

As a reward for our exertions and because of the money we saved over the 5 days in the park (I think we spent a total of 30 dollars the entire time we were in the park) we checked into the rather plush Indigo Patagonia Spa Hotel in Puerto Natales. This place is absolutely amazing and it’s rooftop spa overlooking the mountains we had just conquered was exactly what we needed to bring ourselves back to earth.

The view from our hotel room window to the National Park

Tomorrow we move back into Argentina to El Calafate and some more glaciers. Then it’s onto El Chalten to take a look at that 3 day trek around Mount Fitzroy. Happy happy times. We’ve hooked up with an interesting Danish guy, Jesper – also an architect, but an architect on a sabbatical - who we met at the base of the trail. He had impressively completed the 9 day circuit solo having not a huge amount of prior trekking experience. We’re heading to El Chalten with him to seek enlightenment and to suffer the path. It’s gonna be great crack altogether – so long as my knees hold out.

You Can Take Me Where You Will