The photos below were taken during my Torres del Paine trek. An 8-day trek of the Torres
circuit including most of the "W" that I made with Rob Bull. Half way round we joined forces
with a Swiss couple, Thomas and Sibyl. After all they had all the goodies. Chocolate, cheese,
coffee and more. Rob and were just making do with soup, spaghetti or rice with tuna in a tomato
source and some biscuits. Breakfast was oatmeal in hot water. I just couldn't eat any
more of that stuff after four mornings.
We had 50% of the circuit almost for ourselves. During our first late lunch break, which also
turned out to become our first campsite we met Thomas and Sibyl and a pair of Australian girls.
It seemed like we were the only six starting the circuit that day. At the registry
we thought we (Rob and I) might even be the only ones. Everyone else was doing the much shorter "W".
After the lunch break the girls pushed on to the next campsite. One that wasn't marked on our
map. And for a good reason, it didn't exist. Not that that mattered much, ours was closed.
We lost sight of the girls until the last day.
The next two days were relatively light going. The nights, as were all the rest of them,
were often harder going. The ground was hard in spite of the extra thick camping
mattresses we'd brought along. They (the nights) were cold too. We sometimes even had ice forming
on the tent. This was to be expected. After all, there weren't many doing the circuit for nothing,
we are out of season!
Had I mentioned that we hired our tent, cooking utensils and Robs extra thick sleeping bag in
Puerto Natales.
Out of season also meant that the rains had started. This caused some land to marsh up, which
in turn meant that we had to jump around from turf to turf still getting muddy ankles and
sometimes losing the path on the way. The path was otherwise well worn and marked. At a certain
stretch the markers (they who marked the path) obviously had a competition on who could mark the
most. Just about every other tree and stone had yellow paint on it.
It wasn't until the 4th morning that we joined forces with the Swiss. After all we were
doing the same route and ended up at the same site at night anyway. And they had cleaned up the
closed campsite and lit a campfire before we got there the previous night. That night we
taught them a dice game (the Mendoza game) and we all got smoked out of the hut we'd arrested for
food and fun. The mice had fun with the food Thomas left out that night, but left our sugar alone.
Strange animals.
The hardest part of the trek must have been the next day. Thomas and Sibyl set of a little
earlier than us, as we'd catch up anyway. We did, at the next camp site. That day brought us
over the pass to the glacier. Besides being a pass, that means just about the highest point of
that part of the trek, it had snowed there the day before and there was still a little under
Gail force wind up there. As we found out just before we reached the summit. Trying to find
a solid location for your next step, the wind would come and go, set you of balance, which was
pretty easy with about 12kg on your back, and you'd put your foot down in the soft snow where
you hadn't intended. That set the next cycle off as you were immediately off balance again.
Going downhill in the snow/mud was even worse, as one can imagine.
The views were stunning. Doing the circuit anti-clockwise had it's merits. The scenery build-up
was good, going from good to great. Going through plain autumn scenery, via marchlands and
mountain scenes to glaciers and the Torres themselves. We didn't try to catch the Torres
at sunrise, even though it should be spectacular. We got a good view of them in the late afternoon sun.
Not all campsites were closed. Some on the "W" were still open, as more tourists were still doing
it. The "W" that is. So we did manage to have some hot showers, dry our clothes and restock.
Although there wasn't much to re-stock with. And what there was, was d*mned
expensive. I'm just glad we didn't have to carry all the water we needed for
the whole trip. Nearly all the water from the streams was safe to drink
from. Direct, without any purification. Only near the Torres
main campsite, our last day or the first for many others, had cattle in the neighboring
fields.
So those streams weren't safe to drink from.
Not only was cattle roaming the fields, other wildlife as well. As we found out approaching a
manmade hanging footbridge. Walking over it, as if it owned it, coming our direction was a Puma.
It stopped briefly on the bridge, seized us up and just carried on walking. That was a great
photo opportunity, but of course the camera was back in the backpack at that time. We did take
some photos, but it was too dark to do so without flash and the puma by that time was too far
away for the flash. Unless you count the one with the flash in the eyes.
Otherwise we didn't see much wildlife. It's hard to look around when trying to stay on track
at the same time. Who knows how long that puma had been following us.
All in all, worth the effort.
13 April 2004 - 24 April 2004, PNN Torres del Paine:
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