Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (third leg)

Torres Del Paine by Debbie –

I stroll along serenely, with my eyes, my shoes, my rage, forgetting everything.
~Pablo Neruda

I didn’t do my homework as well as I should have before we got to Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine. I didn’t realize it was considered one of the world’s best. I had seen pictures of the scenery and thought they were beautiful, but as we all know, the pictures never give it full justice. I knew we would be backpacking with long days of hiking, but I didn’t really stop too long to think about what we would be seeing. It is an understatement to say I was pleasantly surprised; I was amazed. I was moved. I was inspired. I understood why Pablo Neruda can move me with his words. I gained a new sense of awe and respect for God, Mother Nature, and the vastness of beauty in this world we live in.
After getting completely outfitted with camping gear from the grandmotherly hostess of Casa Cecilia, we were set for our four day/three night backpacking adventure. (I also left a good portion of the top layer of my epidermis from my forearms as this was when the sunburn hit major peeling stage. CJ you would have loved it! I spent the next four days itching and flaking inside all my long sleeve shirts!) We opted to go against the crowd rather than with them and took a catamaran ride to begin our trek at the west end of the park. The $22 catamaran ride was beautiful. I sat up on top of the boat just drooling over the massive, jagged peaks coming out of the aqua water. It really was the postcard picture you see when you see pictures of Torres Del Paine (TDP), but much more astounding when you’re at the base of it.
By this time Matt, a guy we met on the Navimag, had decided to trek with us through the park. This was a nice addition and his endless stories kept me entertained while hiking and the hours felt like, well, slightly shorter hours, but it’s always nice to have fresh stories to fill the time. We also crisscrossed paths a trio of fellow Navimagers who had met on the boat and decided to go through TDP together. This came in quite handy night 3 when Cam spilled our last pot of soup when we were famished after 11 hours of hiking, the majority of which we talked about how hungry we were and couldn’t wait to eat that evening. There was a moment where time stood still as ours eyes met over this calamity, however, our newfound friends rushed to our aide, providing us with another soup mix and Ramon and summer sausage to give it a little kick. What could have been a very tragic evening turned out to be one of the tastier ones. Thanks Martin, Stefan, and Polina! Did I mention how much I loved the Navimag ferry?
The camping part of this trip was not much to write home about. We opted for the free campgrounds rather than the Refugios (backpacking hostels, complete with hot meals and showers). However, the campsites are not regulated, so they end up a heap of tents 5 feet apart from one another. We were warned about the masses of people we would encounter on the trail and I mentally prepared myself for it, but it’s hard not to feel a sense of entitlement when you haul a pack through the trails with gear and food and the day hikers won’t step aside on the narrow trails. Not my ideal situation, however the scenery and few private moments appreciating nature completely made up for it.
My favorite part of the whole trail was our second day. After arriving at the campsite in the early afternoon, we set up our tent and headed up the Valle de Francis (French Valley). It was one of those hikes where you come to the first lookout and you think, “Wow! It just can’t get any better than this. I could turn around now and be happy.” Then you get to the next corner and you think it again and again and again. It truly did just keep getting better. It’s hard for me to put in words what it looked like, I’ll leave that part up to Cam and the pictures, but here is an excerpt from my journal that night when we got back into camp: I went on one of the best hikes of my life today. Walking away from the viewpoint was hard. I left feeling so at ease and content and at peace. It wasn’t an adrenaline rush; it was awe, awe at how incredible this planet is. To see thousands of years of glacier history carved into those peaks right before your eyes is really humbling. We’re only here for a smidgen of time compared to that, just a blink. Not much time to make the most of it. I will never forget how beautiful and inspiring that view was or how I felt today, so small yet somehow significant. I’m on the right path. This is my journey and I will make the most of it.
Day 3 was a long day. We hiked about 9 hours (mostly uphill) to our last campsite. I had blisters popping up left and right (maybe I should have gone for the Super Feet the REI shoe saleswoman was pushing on me). We arrived at our campsite around 7pm. We had just set our tent up when the Navimag trio (also the soon-to-be dinner saviors) told us about how awesome Las Torres (The Towers) was. We had planned to get up early and see them at sunrise, but it was about a 50/50 chance they would be out as most mornings were cloudy and rainy. After hearing how amazing they were and that there was a chance we wouldn’t see them, I was motivated to go up, it was only an additional 45 minutes each way and we still had about 2 hours of daylight. Cam and Matt were ready to eat that dinner we’d been talking about for the last 5 hours, but agreed it would be a tragedy to miss them, so we headed up. We caught them at sunset, and they were spectacular. Well worth the rock slide mountain we had to climb to see them. If that wasn’t enough, we still woke up at 5:30am to see them at sunrise as well. I’m happy we did it, but my legs took about a week to fully recover, but it was worth the once in a lifetime experience.
Torres Del Paine doesn’t hold that wild, rugged feeling I get when I hike in Alaska, Montana, or parts of Western Washington, like a coastal brownie could cross your path any second and you might have to make do or die decisions, but it truly is one the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. I guess I can’t be too upset with the hoards of people that visit every year, hoping to connect with it in a similar way to my experience.

Torres Del Paine by Cameron

Geologically, I don’t think I have ever seen anything as impressive as Torres Del Paine. I find even the scientific explanation a little difficult to comprehend, and that is because I have no frame of reference for geologic time. I may go even further to say that even in geologic time, the enormity and beauty of this formation (or creation if you prefer) seems all to perfect. I say this because in my life spirituality has never been more present than in nature. No church, doctrine or social affiliations can touch it. It is only in the solitude of nature that I am able to literally climb above (or out of) my fears, look beyond the tragedies of the world, and realize that the moment is small. In this moment I acknowledge the power and perseverance of this planet, this universe, as it seemingly pauses to tell me that we sit somewhere between a single tick of its watch. In this moment I am hopeful about life, and thankful for the spiritual presence I feel here that gives all life.
Torres Del Paine has its own life. Billions of years ago, tectonic plates collided and shifted to form rifts in the earth, and magma pushed through cracks in the earth’s crust to form rocky peaks. Later, glaciers formed during an ice age, carved out massive valleys and deposited layer upon layer of rock in the process. Later still, melting glaciers exposed these valleys and striated mountain sides and displaced massive amounts of water to form streams and lakes that eventually feed into the ocean. Vegetation grew in many of the exposed areas because strong winds carried seeds from the hills below and deposited them in fine sediment, while some other plants slowly advanced up the valleys. The variety and abundance of plants increased over many generations as they adapted more favorably to the harsh living conditions of the mountain range. These events all took place in geologic time and continue to occur, realizing of course that a brief pause in geologic time may exceed our own lifetimes by millions of times. There is no doubt this happened, but because I can’t comprehend the lifetime of this mountain range, I still don’t get it…
We found ourselves reiterating these thoughts over and over on the hike. What a beautiful place it is. I would have to agree with Debbie, however, that while Torres Del Paine has vistas as stunning as anything I have ever seen, the wildness is partially lost on the hoards of hikers in the park. There won’t be any encounters with pumas, the lone large carnivore of the region, unless one opts for the whole circuit (the “W” plus maybe 50 km on the back side of the park). The overrun trails of the “W”, some of which are accessible to day hikers, are the result of a park service that fails to regulate the flow of visitors, due in major part to the fact that there are several private companies that run hostels (“Refugios”) inside the park. There is also a private company that gave us a boat ride to the trailhead for a ridiculous price. My greatest frustration with this occurred on our third hiking day (about 9hrs and 23km), when we stopped at Refugio Chileno to pick up some small additions to our last package of soup. One can of imitation Pringles, 4 granola bars, and one chocolate bar: US $22! Suffice to say I think there is something wrong with the way this park is operated, and I’ll leave it at that. Fortunately, this won’t be among the memories that last.
What an amazing trip it was, especially near the Grey Glacier, the French Valley, and The Towers (Las Torres), where we were able to find peace and solitude. These places were indescribable and I only hope the pictures are good enough to inspire others to go someday. Thank you to Matt and our other Navimag friends for making it more even more enjoyable.