We left Puerto Natales at 8AM, a luxury after the earlier start on Monday. We had a two hour drive to the start of the Torres del Paine National Park and the trail for the day. This first section of the “W” track was the right side of the visual of the “W”, and led up to the lookout at the base of the Torres (towers). (See the map below — the “W” is outlined in yellow). From the visitor center to the top and back was a 14 mile trail, reaching a height of 2,700 ft, and potentially a view of the three towers. We set off at 10:45 with just our day packs; this was the only day we were able to leave the large ones behind, and that was a good thing, as this was also the longest and most challenging of the days.
Just as we crossed a swinging bridge a couple of miles from the visitor center we stopped for a group photo in front of a park sign, and John (from Australia, with wife Carol), called out “Holy Shit”! He’s a joker so we weren’t sure what he was seeing, until we all looked at the bridge to see a Puma crossing over and calming walking up the hillside next to where we were standing. While we’d been told that there were puma in the park, they are rarely seen since they are nocturnal animals. Jay, our guide had only seen one a couple of times in 15 years, so it was quite the topic of conversation for awhile.
There were three distinct sections of the trail. The first part was mostly uphill and somewhat rocky, and about 4 miles long. When we reached a Refugio called Chileno the trail changed to a rolling (but mostly uphill) trail through the forest for about 2 miles. The last bit was described as morain by Rosario, our guide for these days, which meant almost a scramble up hill, big rocks, crossing streams, some boulders and mostly open, without lots of trees. It was about a mile and a bit, but seemed longer. Once we got to the top the drizzle rain that we had encountered beginning at the forest section had become snow, and there was a glacier lake of a beautiful turquoise blue/green. The three Torres del Paine (towers of blue) are at a height of 2,700 feet and are believed to be the highest natural cliff faces in the world. Only 2 of the towers were visible, so we rested awhile, hoping the sky would clear. But it was pretty cold and with no guarantee of a better view we then set off back down the morain.
I followed closely behind Rosario during this section, mirroring her footsteps so as not to make a wrong step. It felt difficult to me, and I was glad for my poles, despite the difficulty of using them in the rocky area. When we finally reached the Chileno Refugio again it had stopped raining, and a large and beautiful bird called the Southern Crested-Caracara sat on a tree stump waiting for scraps from the many hikers who had stopped to rest there. The bathrooms cost 500 pesos to use, but were clean and well managed, so worth it.
Liz was a strong hiker on this day, and went on ahead after the last downhill bit to the “puma bridge”. The last couple miles are always seemingly the longest, so I walked with Chris from Idaho, who I learned was a pilot for NetJets. She was thrilled that I actually knew what that meant; many people aren’t aware of how those private, corporate rental jets worked. I was glad for the distraction.
We arrived at the visitor center at 6:30, apparently setting a record for time it took, and had a 15 minute van ride to our first Refugio, just outside the park. There we had to re-arrange our stuff again — sending back our day/smaller packs, along with anything that we didn’t want to carry. Unfortunately, I didn’t lighten my load much. Dinner was right away, so we headed into the dining room for rice with olives and a pork chop, and a very large pour of a glass of white wine. We had negotiated sharing a room with Bob and Katherine, and these were set up for 4, so it was a good introduction to Refugio living. They provided sleeping bag liners and a comforter and pillows, so we didn’t have to use our (heavy) sleeping bags, which was nice. The hot shower felt terrific after our long day, but sleep didn’t come automatically, but did eventually. And while I tried to minimize my snoring, I’m sure I did; my roommates were kind about it!
