Trekking in Torres del Paine: Patagonia's premier national parks in Chile and Argentina, including Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy areas
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About this ebook
A guidebook to 8 walking and trekking routes in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park and Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park. Exploring the beautiful scenery of Patagonia, the routes are suitable for trekkers with some experience.
The routes are presented as 4 multi-day treks, ranging from 3 to 11 days in length, and 4 shorter day walks. The 10-day, 141km (88 mile) Torres del Paine circuit (or ‘O’) and 5-day, 71km (44 mile) half circuit (or ‘W’) are detailed with side trips to the ‘towers’ and the Valle Francés. A 4-day, 39km (24 mile) trek in the Cerro Fitz Roy area of Los Glaciares National Park is also described.
- Sketch maps included for each walk
- Detailed information on accommodation and facilities
- Advice on planning and preparation
- Highlights include excursions from Puerto Natales and El Calafate
Rudolf Abraham
Rudolf Abraham (www.rudolfabraham.com) is an award-winning travel writer, photographer and guidebook author specialising in Central and Southeast Europe. He is the author of 14 books, including the first comprehensive English-language hiking guidebooks to Montenegro and Croatia, and has contributed to many more. His work is published widely in magazines. He first visited the mountainous borderlands of Montenegro and Albania in 2004, having already lived and worked in neighbouring Croatia in the late 1990s - and has been a frequent visitor to this little-known corner of Europe ever since.
Read more from Rudolf Abraham
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Trekking in Torres del Paine - Rudolf Abraham
About the Author
Rudolf Abraham (www.rudolfabraham.com) is an award-winning travel writer, photographer and guidebook author. He is the author of over a dozen books and has contributed to many more, and his work is published widely in magazines.
Other Cicerone guides by the author
The Juliana Trail
Walking in Salzkammergut
The Peaks of the Balkans Trail
The Mountains of Montenegro: A Walker’s and Trekker’s Guide
Walking in Croatia
The Islands of Croatia: 30 Walking Routes on 14 Adriatic Islands
St Oswald’s Way and the Northumberland Coast Path
St Cuthbert’s Way
TORRES DEL PAINE
PATAGONIA’S PREMIER NATIONAL PARKS IN CHILE AND ARGENTINA, INCLUDING CERRO TORRE AND FITZROY AREAS
by Rudolf Abraham
JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS,
OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL
www.cicerone.co.uk
© Rudolf Abraham 2023
Third edition 2023
ISBN 9781787650268
Second edition 2016
ISBN 978 1 85284 840 8
First edition 2010
ISBN 978 1 85284 593 3
Printed in China on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Author photo by Ivana Abraham All other photos by Rudolf Abraham
For my daughter, Tamara
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Martina Diez-Routh of Travel Trade UK for her enthusiastic support of this project and for putting me in touch with clients in Chile; Adrien Champagnat, Maria José Eguigoren and Matías del Sol at Remota; André de Mendonça of South American Experience; Anna Francis and Mango PR; Hotel Fundador in Santiago; Alejandro of Hostal la Estancia in Punta Arenas; the Latin American Travel Association (LATA); John Biggar; Lisa Phillips at New Holland Publishers; Vicky Atkins at A & C Black; and Jonathan Williams and all the team at Cicerone. Finally I must thank my wife, Ivana, who checked the language section – and who was with me every step of the way.
Updates to this Guide
While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk/1171/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such things as transport, accommodation and shops locally. Even rights of way can be altered over time. We are always grateful for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, LA9 7RL.
Register your book: To sign up to receive free updates, special offers and GPX files where available, create a Cicerone account and register your purchase via the ‘My Account’ tab at www.cicerone.co.uk.
Warning
Mountain walking can be a dangerous activity carrying a risk of personal injury or death. It should be undertaken only by those with a full understanding of the risks and with the training and experience to evaluate them. While every care and effort has been taken in the preparation of this guide, the user should be aware that conditions can be highly variable and can change quickly, materially affecting the seriousness of a mountain walk. Therefore, except for any liability which cannot be excluded by law, neither Cicerone nor the author accept liability for damage of any nature (including damage to property, personal injury or death) arising directly or indirectly from the information in this book.
Front cover: View across Lago Pehoé to the Cuernos del Paine. Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile
CONTENTS
Map key
Overview map
Location within South America
Location of routes
INTRODUCTION
Geography and geology
Climate
Wildlife and plants
History and culture
Early exploration and mountaineering
Getting to Chile
Transport within Chile
Agencies and tour operators
Visas and arrival
Accommodation
Language
Food and drink
Money and costs
Keeping in touch
Safety
About this guide
Trekking in Torres del Paine national park
Refugios, campsites and hotels
Booking ahead
Transport to and around the park
Maps
Equipment
Low-impact trekking
What to do in an emergency
TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK, CHILE
Walk 1 Torres del Paine circuit (the ‘O’)
Stage 1 Refugio Paine Grande – Campamento Italiano
Stage 2 Campamento Italiano – Valle Francés (return)
Stage 3 Campamento Italiano – Refugio Las Torres
Stage 4 Refugio Las Torres – El Chileno
Stage 5 El Chileno – Mirador Las Torres (return)
Stage 6 El Chileno – Campamento Japonés (return)
Stage 7 El Chileno – Refugio Las Torres
Stage 8 Refugio Las Torres – Campamento Serón
Stage 9 Campamento Serón – Refugio Dickson
Stage 10 Refugio Dickson – Campamento Los Perros
Stage 11 Campamento Los Perros – Campamento Paso
Stage 12 Campamento Paso – Refugio Grey
Stage 13 Refugio Grey – Refugio Paine Grande
Stage 14 Refugio Paine Grande – CONAF Administración (the ‘Q’, optional)
Walk 2 Torres del Paine half-circuit (the ‘W’)
Stage 1 Refugio Las Torres – Mirador Las Torres (return)
Stage 2 Refugio Las Torres – Campamento Italiano
Stage 3 Campamento Italiano – Valle Francés (return)
Stage 4 Campamento Italiano – Refugio Grey
Stage 5 Refugio Grey – Refugio Paine Grande
Walk 3 Salto Grande and Mirador Los Cuernos
Walk 4 Puente Weber
Walk 5 Mirador Lago Toro and Laguna Verde
Walk 6 Mirador Cóndor
Walk 7 Río Pingo and Mirador Zapata
Stage 1 Guardería Lago Grey – Campamento Zapata
Stage 2 Campamento Zapata – Mirador Zapata (return)
Stage 3 Campamento Zapata – Guardería Lago Grey
Other walks within the national park
Laguna Amarga – Portería Sarmiento
Laguna Azul and trail to Lago Dickson
Excursions from Puerto Natales
Excursion 1 Cueva del Milodón
Excursion 2 Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers (Bernard O’Higgins national park)
Excursion 3 Sierra Baguales
LOS GLACIARES NATIONAL PARK, ARGENTINA
Excursion from El Calafate
Excursion 4 Perito Moreno glacier
Walk 8 Cerro Fitz Roy (El Chaltén) and Cerro Torre
Stage 1 El Chaltén – Campamento Agostini
Stage 2 Campamento Agostini – Campamento Poincenot
Stage 3 Campamento Poincenot – Laguna de los Tres (return)
Stage 4 Campamento Poincenot – Laguna Piedas Blancas (return)
Stage 5 Campamento Poincenot – El Chaltén
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Gateway towns and cities
Appendix C Accommodation within Torres del Paine national park
Appendix D Language notes and glossary
Appendix E Contacts and online resources
Appendix F Further reading
Balmaceda glacier in Last Hope Sound, Bernardo O’Higgins national park (Excursion 2)
INTRODUCTION
‘These vast piles of snow, which never melt, and seem destined to last as long as the world holds together, present a noble and even sublime spectacle… they may be likened to great frozen Niagaras; and perhaps these cataracts of blue ice are to the full as beautiful as the moving ones of water.’
Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle (London, 1839)
Chile’s Torres del Paine national park lies towards the southern tip of South America, surrounded on the west by labyrinthine, lonely fjords and on the east by seemingly endless, dry steppe, and sitting on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the largest sheet of ice in the southern hemisphere outside Antarctica.
The Cuernos from near the CONAF office on Lago Toro (Walks 1 and 4)
There is a feeling of immensity in the landscapes of this, Chile’s premier national park – vast sheets of fractured blue ice, turquoise and emerald lakes, primeval-looking forest, vertical granite spires and seemingly limitless cloud-streaked skies. It is one of those rare destinations with which you think you are familiar even before arriving – after all, one or more of its iconic views decorate almost any publication or webpage associated with Patagonia – yet it has somehow managed to lose none of its magic. It is, quite simply, a staggeringly beautiful place.
Trekking in Torres del Paine – a national park since 1959 and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1978 – is a hugely rewarding experience. The Torres del Paine Circuit (a circuit of the park, and the main route described in this guide) is without any doubt one of the world’s truly great treks, an opportunity to travel through awe-inspiring mountain scenery in an area with a fascinating history and rich in wildlife. Trails are for the most part clear and well marked within the national park, there is a comprehensive network of huts and campsites, and transport both to and within the park is all refreshingly simple.
It takes about 10 to 11 days to complete the 140km Torres del Paine Circuit as described here – but bad weather can delay your crossing of the highest point on the route, the 1180m Paso John Gardner. The shorter version of the route, the ‘W’, requires five days. None of the walking is particularly difficult, and elevation gain is minimal for most of the stages on the route – the exceptions being the hike over the pass, and up the Valle Ascencio and Valle Francés (but, be warned, rain and wind can turn either of these treks into a considerably more demanding undertaking). The northern part of the Circuit is also fairly remote, with no convenient exit point should you want or need to cut your walk short. This guide also includes some of the shorter walks in the national park, as well as excursions from the nearby town of Puerto Natales, and a trek in the equally beautiful Fitz Roy area of Los Glaciares national park over the border in Argentina.
Torres del Paine takes its name from the magnificent granite spires which launch themselves skyward near the head of the Valle Ascencio (torres meaning ‘towers’) – one of the most iconic sights in Patagonia, or anywhere in South America for that matter – and the name of a local estancia (ranch), upon which part of the national park still lies.
The national park does attract an increasingly large number of visitors each year, most of whom arrive in the peak (summer) season of January/February, when the ‘W’ route can get quite crowded, yet despite this it is still possible to find solitude, particularly in the more northerly areas of the park. On my first visit to Torres del Paine I sat among boulders by a stream in the Valle Francés, mesmerized, as shafts of early morning sunlight struck the enormous east face of Paine Grande, all dark rock slung with glaciers, and glistening crags festooned with clouds. It mattered nothing that there was a campsite with a few dozen tents hidden in the forest behind me; in those few moments I was completely and utterly alone. On another visit I clung to an exposed section of trail in screaming winds, only to turn and see a Condor rising effortlessly out of the valley, utterly still except for the feathers on its wing tips, and so close I almost felt I could reach out and touch it.
What’s in a name?
Torres del Paine
Place names almost always provide a fascinating window into a region’s past. The Paine massif probably takes its name from the Tehuelche world for ‘blue’, paine. The Tehuelche, the indigenous inhabitants of this part of Patagonia, have also left their legacy in other place names (pehoé means ‘hidden’, as in Lago Pehoé; baguales means ‘wild horses’, as in Sierra Baguales; as well as in the names of various plants and animals. And the correct pronunciation should really be ‘pine-ay’, not ‘pain’.
Patagonia
Patagonia is a region covering the southernmost part of South America, made up of the southern parts of Argentina and Chile. The name ‘Patagonia’ derives from the description of the native Mapuche population by Antonia Pigafetta, in his record of the voyage of Magellan. Pigafetta described the Mapuche as ‘Patagones’, which has long been considered to have meant ‘big feet’ or ‘big footed’ in Spanish – although while pata does indeed mean foot, there is no real explanation for the -gon suffix. His description gave rise to enduring legends of a race of giants inhabiting the wilds of southern South America. His description tells us as much about the teller as the subject – the average height for an adult male Mapuche was 5′ 11″, while that of the average Spaniard at that time was 5′ 1″.
Another more recent explanation for the origins of the word Patagonia is that it comes from a 16th-century Spanish romance, Primaleón of Greece, in which the hero encounters a race of ‘savages’, who ate raw flesh and clothed themselves in