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Patagonia - Fighting the Wind

Part 27 - Around the World 06/2015-02/2016

By Beyond All Maps - Portraits of our Planet by Thorsten Mehret

May 16^th, 2016

Introduction

In 1999 I read a travel book with the title "Abgefahren". It´s about the adventure of a German couple traveling around the world with their motorcycles from 1981 to 1997. Especially the Patagonia section fascinated me and the cover photo with the two motorcycles connected to each other having a big sail in the middle and riding with the strong winds along an endless gravel road was burned into my mind since then. For me, Patagonia was the embodiment of a wild, empty and epic landscape. A real adventure.

Well, times change and although still an epic landscape, many gravel roads are surfaced now and you will have to share the "emptyness" with thousands of travelers in the main season from October to March and especially around mid-December to January. At least in the famous main spots El Calafate, El Chalten and Torres del Paine it can become difficult to get even a single bed. Luckily, I had booked in advance, however I met people arriving in the afternoon in El Chalten that had to walk around for hours to get accommodation. Nevertheless when you are lucky with the weather, the nature in Patagonia is absolutely breathtaking.

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El calafate

Calafate is the gateway to the famous Moreno Glacier. Also El Chalten and Parque Torres del Paine in Chile can be conveniently reached in a couple of hours by bus. The town feels a bit like an artificial ski resort in France, with masses of hotels, restaurants, cafes, travel agencies and shops in wooden style. Prices are similar to Europe too, but this is the same everywhere in Patagonia. Although I prefer a single room in hostels nowadays, the high prices convinced me to try a dormitory, which worked out well.

Perito Moreno

Wow, this glacier is just amazing! It´s one of few glaciers in world that is not retreating. The viewing platforms on different levels allow for a comfortable and close up view. You can listen to the cracking of the ice or even see the glacier calving, which is spectacular!

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Big Ice Tour

There are two possibilities to get on the glacier. A small ice (half day) and a big ice (full day) tour. The latter allows for a longer time on the ice in the middle part of the glacier. As the demand is high in peak season, I wanted to book a tour for my return from Torres del Paine in a couple of days, but to my surprise there was a single place left already for the next day. As the weather forecast was promising, I took the opportunity.

After crossing the lake by boat and a 1 hour hike partly through beautiful forest along the moraine, we had to put crampons on before entering the ice. Quite a strange feeling, but absolutely necessary for walking on the glacier. The walk was fantastic and I especially loved the several blue lakes on the glacier. The guides did a great job finding their way through the ever changing landscapes on top of glacier. At one point we had to retreat because it was too dangerous, at least for us tourists. After a couple of hours with the crampons on my feet started to hurt and I was not the only one. The whole group was glad to get rid of them at the end of the tour and walking without them felt like walking on soft clouds. Overall, a great experience and highly recommended.

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Torres del Paine

This is probably the most famous National Park in Patagonia, well known for its excellent hiking possibilities. I decided to go on the famous W trail, as most people do. It usually takes 4 to 5 days. Torres del Paine is all about weather, as it's unpredictable. Thick clouds, heavy rain or even snow in summer is not uncommon although in the last summer periods the weather conditions tended to be more friendly and stable, I was told. Maybe a positive effect of the climate change. I was lucky, and except for a little drizzle one day, the weather was fabulous.

Day 1

My bus was scheduled to pick me up at 5:30h at the hostel, and at 5:30h it was there. Respect! The landscape from El Calafate to Torres del Paine is not really spectacular. It´s wide and empty and like most of the other travelers I used most of the time to get some extra sleep, only interrupted by the border procedure in the middle of nowhere. Close to the park entrance we had a stop to watch the Guanacos with the Torres in the background. At 15:00h I finally started my hike toward the refugio El Chileno which I had prebooked already 6 months in advance, knowing it will be the absolute peak peak season. And indeed, the date I had originally planned was already fully booked, but fortunately one day later few spaces were still available. The hike took only 1.5 hours, starting with an ascent and then along a nice valley.

Day 2

The main reason to stayed at El Chileno is the proximity to the the Mirador Las Torres, which is most beautiful at sunrise. Alas, proximity still means an early start at 3:00h, but I was not alone. A long chain of headlamps made its way up the steep ascent to the Mirador. The weather was good and the beautiful change of colors during sunrise even made the cold bearable. Unfortunately, shortly after the first sun rays hit the Torres, some clouds blocked them and stopped the magic moment at an early stage. Bad luck, but still a great experience.

After sunrise, I made my way back to the refugio for a hearty breakfast, than heading back the valley, making my way through beautiful landscape on a perfect day towards refugio Los Cuernos, which I reached in the afternoon.

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Day 3 - French Valley

Another beautiful day. The path first leads along the beautiful lake, then making its way up into the French Valley, crossing rivers, offering glacier views and finally, at Campamento Britanico a 360 degree mountain view like in an amphitheater. Stunning. A perfect hiking day!

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Day 4 - Glacier Grey

From Domo Frances an easy 3 hours walk leads to the Paine Grande Lodge. A couple of years ago this section of the park was hit by a big fire caused by careless hikers doing illegal wild camping. The damage done is still visible and the scenery was different to the rest of the park.

As I had enough time left for the day, I decided to hike to the viewpoint for the glacier grey. The weather was changing rapidly, sun and drizzle followed each other in a 5 min. rhythm.

Fighting the Wind

Patagonia and especially Torres del Paine is well known for its fearsome strong winds and I belief it´s hard to imagine without having it experienced by your own. Until day three I had no idea about it, but on the way to the Glacier Grey I got a big tasting. Wow, it was sometimes almost impossible to walk against the gusts of wind or even to stand my ground. A very tiring experience and I found myself shouting several times angrily to the wind to stop. But damn, this bloody bastard just disobeyed. I was quite glad that I had this stormy experience only in one of the five days.

Day 5 - Mirador Pehoe

Another early start at 4:30h. This time, I was the only one and already in doubt if the mirador I planned to see was worth the effort of this early start. Fortunately it was, however I also was bitterly cold, and returning to the lodge I couldn't wait to crawl back into my warm bed where I stayed until I had to leave to get the catamaran that brought me to the other side of the lake to catch my bus.

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Border Crossing Chile - Argentina

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Parque National Los Glaciares

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El Chalten

The town was founded in 1985 to reinforce Argentinas sovereignty over this territory close to Chile. Since then it has been continuously growing from few huts to a proper town. Its proximity to the famous Cerro Torres and Cerro Fitz Roy first attracted climbers, followed by hikers. Both is big business nowadays, and although it´s way more relaxed than El Calafate it is developing clearly in this direction. A 30 min. hike away from town center there is a mirador with overlooks the town and the mountain massive in the background. Once the sun has dropped, it gets brutally cold because of the wind. But hey, the ones who are looking for the best picture opportunities have to suffer from time to time.

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Laguna Torre

There are no refugios close to the base of the Torres or Fitz Roy. To catch the best light in the morning, camping is the only option. I decided to camp one night at Laguna Torre and from there making my way to Cerro Fitz Roy for another night camping. It was a while ago since I had done some hiking with all camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, cooking utensils,...) and honestly I wasn´t too excited to carry all the stuff with me. But it worked better than expected. Actually the hardest part was to get some rental equipment due to the high demand in the peak period. It took me some hours and several shops to arrange everything and I had to leave a day later than planned. The weather was fantastic and the scenery breathtaking.

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I said: "I can´t imagine bringing an instrument on a hike. Too heavy." He replied: "But you brought your big heavy camera" Chapeau!

What a sunrise! And what makes it even better is the feeling that it´s a really earned one by carrying all the heavy camping equipment.

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Fitz Roy

Knowing that the mountains can cover themselves for weeks behind the clouds, I was really, really glad for the perfect weather conditions on my 3 days hiking. Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre (3,400m) are considered as extremely challenging mountains for climbers. Some of the vertical granite walls are more than 1,000m high, and in combination with the extremely unpredictable weather conditions, which can change in minutes due to strong winds, climbing here is nothing for novice and the fainthearted.

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