Torres del Paine – part 1 – Small Holiday Big Dream

The Crown Jewels of Chile’s tourist industry, the Torres del Paine National parks sits at the northernmost end of the southernmost bit of Chile. That makes no sense I know, but this part of the world is vast, and there is a lot of land still south of here. The Southern Patagonian ice field spills…

The Crown Jewels of Chile’s tourist industry, the Torres del Paine National parks sits at the northernmost end of the southernmost bit of Chile. That makes no sense I know, but this part of the world is vast, and there is a lot of land still south of here. The Southern Patagonian ice field spills out here into Lake Grey, which is actually a fantastic glacial blue. We have a lot of thoughts and takeaways on the Torres del Paine, and will pin them to the end of the second blog. This first part will be more of a travelogue, documenting our eventful days.

Puerto Natales and the final admin before TdP

The plan is to be in the National Park by the evening, and be fully stocked up and ready for 5 days in the mountains.

Mike had broken the bottom of the sink when emptying the waste water, so high on the agenda was visiting a Chilean ferretaria or hardware store and buying some plumbing with our limited Spanish.

Our first port of call however was the Alveoli bakery for some breakfast. They had some fantastic looking sweet croissants and some great bread. We had some of each.

Next the supermarket where we spent 104k CLP on food and supplies for the next few days.

The first ferretaria we visited did not have the right part. They only had a siphon for a dishwasher and not a hand basin, helpfully they pointed us in the direction of Chelech in the centre of Natales.

Upon arrival at Chelech, and brandishing my broken siphon (I don’t know what it’s called in English so I’m using the Spanish term…) I was firmly told I had the wrong shop and needed the one on the street behind. At the next chelech they told me to go one block down, and at that one they said to go next door. In the end I found a shop to sell me the part. Even then I had to deal with there separate cashiers until I had the required part firmly in my hand!

After all that, we were running a little late for the park. Google said the gates shut at 18:30, so arriving at 19:30 was too late. We resigned ourselves to a night in a lay-by by the lake near the park gate.

We were pleasantly surprised on arrival that the gate was open til 8, and we scanned our tickets and went straight in.

Camping (campervanning at least) was permitted at the nearby administrative centre, so that was where we aimed for, and we were happy when, on arrival, we saw a couple of other campers there for the night.

Vanessa and Ewan were a recently retired couple from Tunbridge wells, having not gone back to work post covid and instead travelling the world. Bo and Linda are from Denmark via 15 years in Bulgaria and now live full time in their kitted out transit van. We immediately put them to work fixing our sink. The plug part of the new siphon didn’t fit the hole in the sink, so some creativity was needed to find a solution. Luckily the Danish couple in their fancy van had all manner of tools, so we borrowed Bo and his drill to make the sink hole bigger, and rounder. Creativity not required, just force.

Despite the name, the administrative centre turned out to be a decent place to stay. No showers, but the toilets were open 24/7 and there was a plug to use, all for free. Torres del Paine is a terribly expensive place to be, so when something is free it makes no sense. We stopped here for the next 3 nights.

Mirador Ferrier

Waking up the first morning in the Torres del Paine national park was special, but also very cold. At first light there was barely a breath of wind and the lake next to the Administrative centre was a millpond, the air temperature was hovering around zero.

Rain was forecast for today, along with the usual strong winds. The forecast for the following days looked a lot brighter, so a plan was made for an easy day. Just the four hour hike to mirador Ferrier overlooking glacier grey should do it.

The facilities at Lake Grey are 30 minutes from the Administrative centre on terribly corrugated gravel roads. There’s a lot there though, a cafe, restaurant, minimarket and spotless new loos. Most visitors here take the $100 ferry to see glacier grey so an overpriced can of drink is a drop in the ocean.

It was remarkably fair when we began our hike up the steep side of the glacial valley. It’s a great feeling walking through the pristine lenga forest. Starting the ascent 2-300m behind us was a small group of three Americans. We heard every word of every conversation they had the entire way up the hill. If we wanted to spot some wildlife today wasn’t to be the day.

At the top, the forest opened out onto a rocky outcrop. The wind was extreme in its strength and bitterness, the beautiful views were mostly obscured by cloud, and the promised rain storm was just beginning to set in. In a nice day we’d have stayed up there for lunch, but we dashed back down into the relative shelter of the forest.

We decided to head to Puerto Natales to restock. It’s only an hour and a half drive, and with the biblical rain, staying in the park would be no fun. In Natales we bought a Jerry can of fuel, as well as topping up our tank. Hopefully extinguishing any range anxiety we might have had. We also took a shower at a hostel, and a takeaway pizza from the Alveoli Bakery we’d visited for breakfast the day before.

The pizza was delayed, so we’re in a bit of a rush to get back to the park gates before they closed at 8pm. Sarah drove quickly down the badly potholed road, and we made it at 8:07. Luckily the centre was still open thanks to another American holding up the staff by asking too many questions, so we got our QR codes scanned and went in our way back to the administrative centre. It was far too cold so we were antisocial and went straight to bed.

Mirador Britanico and Valle Frances – aka 28 ks later

The main thing to do when visiting the Torres del Paine National park is to go walking. There are two major routes which you can choose from: the “W” or the “O”, both named from the shape they resemble on the map. We are not partaking in the organised circuits, and instead are doing our own day-walks along the trails.

Getting on an O or W trek requires patience and organisation when booking, as well as reams of cash. A full fruit can cost well over £1,000, and for that you stay in your tent that you carry yourself! Availability seems to be held over all the walkers, so they are frightened into booking the whole thing, and extra food to make sure. Most hikers pre-book dinner which sounds very disappointing, but they make it sound like you’re out in the wilderness and will have no option, but in reality each camp seems pretty well stocked and serves a variety of pizzas/burgers/quesadillas/beers etc. for much cheaper than the inclusive option.

Today we opted to walk the middle leg of the “W”, to do so we needed to get a boat to and from the start/end point at Paine Grande. The boat costs 25k CLP each, each way. Which is a hell of a lot of cash for just a walk. The alternative is staying a night at Paine Grande, which is even more expensive, for a tent and a school dinner.

Maps of the park suggest allowing 5.5 hours each way, the ferry schedule allowed us 9 hours in total. If you don’t take the gamble, you’ll never know. Queueing to get on the first ferry of the day we were optimistic. And after disembarking at the destination we walked briskly after three German guys who were setting a good pace. We reached Campamento Italiano after 1:40 compared to the suggested 2:30. We were up on time!

From Italiano, we headed up the French valley, which is the valley between the Cuernos formation, and the Cerro Grande. The Cuernos are one of the most iconic features of the Torres del Paine. Steep sandy coloured granite cliffs topped by sharp caps of black metamorphic rocks. The cerro grande is the tallest mountain, next to the Cuernos it looks huge and cold, covered in glaciers and attracting more ominous clouds.

An hour after starting our ascent of the French valley we reached a stunning viewpoint overlooking the French glacier. By this point we were up at eye level with the most impressive parts of the glacier. Huge blocks of snow periodically dropped off the top of the mountain and into the lower slopes causing loud rumbling thunder like sounds and plumes of powder.

We pressed on to the Britanico viewpoint reaching our goal after 4 hours and 5 minutes of walking. The last hour of walking had taken us deeper into the French valley, and also given us elevation above the tree line. As we emerged from the forest the reason for the hard work became clear. The perfect 360 degree vista of the towering granite peaks was spectacular. We could now see the peaks behind the cerro grande massif, and how they were similar to the Torres del Paine on the other side of the valley.

It was busy at the top, and in true American style a couple of women had decided to sit down in the very top of the pile of rocks which formed the viewpoint. Meaning everyone else had to work around them to find the view that would work for them. We only got to stay for a few short minutes at the mirador, we had a boat to catch and time was tight.

Paine Grande was reached at just gone 6pm, with under 30 minutes to spare. The boat ride back was much more relaxed than the way out, and the view of the Cuernos more spectacular.

Overall we had covered 28km per my Garmin (or 30km per Sarah’s Strava) and over 1,000m of ascent in just over 8 hours. This was the first time we sat down since the boat ride out. It was an exhausting day, but we earned some spectacular views and you can see why the hiking is so renowned.

A major problem, which I will return to, is the crowds on the paths. Obviously many people from around the world visit the TdP for its spectacular scenery and world-beating hiking. However certain paths on the W trail are overcrowded. What’s worse though is the hiking culture, and this in my opinion seems to be entirely down to the bad attitudes of American visitors. We spent a lot of time backing up or finding spaces off the side of the paths so we could let oncoming traffic pass. Very rarely was this reciprocated. Only very occasionally did we get any acknowledgment for getting out of the way, not even a nod or a friendly hola, let alone a gracias. American tourists on the footpath are uniformly rude, they charge past you without a greeting, they block the pathways in large groups and they did not learn as children how to moderate their voices and therefore we can hear their entire conversations from many metres in front or behind. European and local walkers were all courteous and respectful, something Americans would do well to learn.

We had a well-earned (but not very warm) shower for 4,000 pesos each at camping Pudeto, but headed back to our trusty site at the administrative centre to cook dinner and spend the night.

Mirador Condor – an easy but beautiful day

This morning was a slow start, we had a good and long chat to our neighbours, the Danes, who have an incredible van. We envy their life and set up. They have been permanently travelling for a few years. I forgave them for supporting Elon Musk with their StarLink because they had a full size fridge, hot shower, rotatable front seats AND the tool kit of dreams.

We made fried eggs in ciabatta rolls, which were exactly what we needed after yesterday’s walk. We planned an easy walk to Mirador Condor as a recovery day.

The weather was much warmer and the wind had dropped. From the top of Condor we had a stunning view of the Cuernos, the Cerro Grande, and the French Valley we walked up the day before. It was only a 30 min climb, but we spent a good 90 minutes up there admiring the views. The climb also lived up to its name and we saw three condors from the top.

Tonight we ventured to a new spot in the park, the Welcome Centre at Torres Central. On route we tried to spot pumas, unsuccessfully. We weren’t sure if we were allowed to camp at this new spot (park rules seem to be ever changing and no one knows what’s going on – park rangers included). There were loads of campervans already there. We were very happy to bump into our previous neighbours, Vanessa and Ewan, who had just returned from the leg of the W we were planning on doing tomorrow.