|
|
|
|
Link #11
21 Mar - 24 Mar, 2000
Torres del Paine, CHILE
After three full days of rest in El Calafate, the life of leisure got
the better of us - instead of hammering the remaining 250 km of the treacherous
and windy ruta 40 to Puerto Natales, Chile, we opted to hop a bus instead.
The five hour ride allowed us to exchange four days tough pedaling for
four days scenic trekking in Torres del Paine national park.
Often considered South America's finest national park, the "Towers
of Paine," covers an area of 240,000 hectares and includes many amazing
sights: vertical spires soaring some 2000 meters above the Patagonian
pampas, turquoise lakes, raging rivers, and fantastic wildlife including
guanacos, the ostrich-like rhea, Andean condors, pink flamingos, and fox.
What used to be a large sheep estancia is now the focal point of most
Patagonia travel itineraries, ours included.
Panoramic
Rather than try to capture our trek in words, let me give a quick synopsis
and then encourage you to check out the
photos...
Quick Summary
Left the bikes in Puerto Natales and took the daily bus up to the
park. Nice that we hit tail end of the season, so crowds were minimal.
The risk we ran was with the weather - changes quickly and can get nasty.
Fortunately mother nature was kind. Nights were real cold, usually with
rain in the valleys and fresh snow on the peaks, but days were breezy
but warm.
The basic path of our trek... DAY 1: day-hiked up Valle Ascencio passed
Refugio Chileno to the Torres mirador atop a moraine shelf, camped near
Hosteria Torres. DAY 2: backpacked to Refugio Cuernos along Lago Nordenskjold.
DAY 3: backpacked to Camp Italiano, hiked up Valle Frances, camped at
Italiano. DAY 4: backpacked to Refugio Pehoe, caught catamaran ferry to
Puerto Puneto, picked up bus back to Puerto Natales.
One morning watched a mammoth avalanche fall 3000 ft down a jumbled face
of rock and ice. The torrent started with the collapse of a serac (ice
tower) from a hanging glacier. We were lucky enough to observe it from
the start as we paused at a vista for lunch. Took about 20 seconds for
the first crashing sounds to reach us. Ended in a massive billowing cloud
of pulverized snow and ice. For the rest of that day we could hear smaller
avalanches echoing off the valley walls.
< Prev
Next >
|
|
