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Trekking the Torres
del Paine Circuit in the Patagonian Andes
By Mady MacDonald
When you've
walked through 110 kms of various mountainous microclimates, where
do you start explaining? I guess at the beginning, where it was
sparkling and happy and a lot like a Doris Day movie.
Walking up
to the Torres lookout
We took nine
hours to walk into the Torres and back (without packs since we were
camped at the base of the trail but there is camping available at
Campamento Torres). It was a long walk and
getting to the lookout involved a bit of bouldering (one of my favourite
treats).
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We had great
weather until we topped the ridge (with the usual big smile on my
face … I love topping ridges to get to a spectacular place) and
then clouds partially obscured the famous Torres del Paine (although
it was still beautiful with it's cloudy glacier lake and towers).
This walk was two-thirds up, one-third down to get there.
What
was lovely was the herd of horses galloping through the campsite
and along the river at top speed followed by a couple gauchos.
Also,
after we had a camp fire (the only place in the park where it’s
allowed) and dinner, I paused before going into the tent and there
was a huge hanging full moon to my right, the Towers lit up by the
sunset straight ahead and the sun setting to my left. It was after
11:00 pm — gotta love these long Patagonian summer days.
What
was lovely was the herd of horses galloping
rough the campsite and along the river at top speed followed by
a couple gauchos.
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Torres
del Paine campsite to El Serón (16 kms)
Now this
was a day I won't soon forget. We woke up to a blue-sky day.
Sunlight
beat down and light breezes played in the twisted trees. Green
parrots cackled above the tent.
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We broke
camp and headed off onto the Torres del Paine Circuit. We
climbed steeply and then levelled out in rolling horse meadows. Every
once in a while we opened and closed the gates while elegant Andalusians
watching us lazily from the trees. |
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Peaks,
lakes and rolling grades accompanied us for this first half
of the day. When we descended we were in a large herd of horses,
primarily one-year-olds and their moms. Pina is allergic to
horses but I waundered into the herd and stood quietly. Soon
enough their youthful curiosity brought them nosing over and
I had new friends. This became a little problematic for Pina
since they wanted to get close to her too. But she loves horses
and so just tried not to touch them. |
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a few pictures, we moved them away from the fence and passed through
into an expanse of daisies as far as the eyes could see. We thought
this would be a temporary situation and took more photos but it turned
out that we walked knee-deep in daisies for the rest of the day and
part of the next day. That's the Doris Day movie part: Horses and
daisies and sunlight and gurgling rivers, surrounded by mountains.
Gotta love alpine meadows. |
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later, after walking through these flat plains of wildflowers
and after one mirage that Pina had saying that she'd seen the
camping area before (so I left her to rest in the sun while
I walked back a kilometre or so only to find that this was not
the case, which is what I expected) we arrived at El Serón.
After lying down in the daisies for a few moments to rest and
enjoy the sunshine, the tent (my lovely new Eureka Mountain
Pass) was pulled out and set up. |
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Cristian,
the guy who oversees the hostel and camp area, offered to help and
proved incredibly friendly, eccentric and welcoming. We saved a
little fuel by cooking on his big cast iron stove and chatted over
dinner.
There’s nothing
quite like waking up to the sound of flitting birds, wind and fresh
air on your face while you’re cocooned in a warm sleeping bag. On
this morning I blearily looked out my little window to an overcast
day. Ah well, could be worse. After cleaning up and having some
oh-so-yummy oatmeal (blek) we packed up and headed off into the
fields of daisies along the lazy, winding river.
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Before
long, the path took a turn upwards and we climbed above the
fields and river to top the ridge and walk towards Lago Paine
for a few hours. Winds and showers accompanied us, but nothing
too miserable. There were still dozens of varieties of wildflowers
(big yellow clumps here, wild purple sweet peas twining there,
little scarlet nodding flowers and lots of sharp, thorny plants
that discouraged grabbing foliage for balance). |
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idled and scrambled along for a few more hours and finally descended
back into the valley. Here, we managed to get a little lost since
we missed a river crossing and instead followed the river, but eventually
we retraced our steps, found the orange markers and continued on.
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stopped for lunch at Campamento Coiron (if anyone plans on doing this
trail, I don’t encourage camping at this midway point since it’s very
basic, but it’s good for lunch stops) and just as we set up under
the cover of a big tree, it began to pour. We had some great instant
lasagna and hot mint tea with honey and as we packed up the rain subsided
to a steady drizzle. |
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| This gloomy
day was unfortunate since this valley was supposed to have superb
views but every once in a while a mountain cleared briefly.
It wasn’t until the end of the day that sunlight began to show
itself and as we approached Lago Dickson, we had a small taste
of the views around us. |
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a bit of mud and a few pasarellas (footbridges that are actually just
logs thrown over rivers... if it’s a really fast river you might get
a rope to help you balance) we crested the small ridge that looked
over beautiful Lago Dickson. |
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It
was a beautiful sight with its sparkling blue glacier, looming
mountains and pristine lake. More photos and then we skidded
down the steep slope, threw our packs over the complicated gate,
climbed over and set up camp. After tending to our feet, we
prepared dinner, munched on some cookies and turned in for the
night. |
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| Page
2 - Lago Dickson to Los Perros |
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