I came across this one, taken on day 4, of Cerro Paine Grande, the high point of the massif. This peak is renowned for the ice mushroom at its summit, a feature specific to this and a few other Patagonian peaks. As alluded to by the title, there also seems to be considerable uncertainty as to the mountain’s height. Irrespective, it’s an awesome sight, looking up from the shores of Lago Grey…

Cerro Paine Grande.

Day one was a fairly gentle introduction with, as it happens, the worst weather of the trip. Overhearing many other travellers’ tales, it seems we were incredibly lucky, experiencing a great deal of dry, calm weather.

Anyway, onto the diary…

4th December 2002 — Setting Off on the Torres Circuit

Up quite early today, for the first day of the Paine circuit. A week’s trekking lies ahead of us! Had a pretty shitty breakfast, got everything packed up, and struck camp. My rucksac wasn’t ridiculously heavy, which I was pleasantly surprised by, and glad of. It’s still going to take some getting used to though! The good weather is holding for now, though it is quite windy.

The track left via the Refugio, and worked its way up and down hill through lovely countryside — a mixture of open plain, and wooded areas. Loads of birdlife. After a flat section, we reached Campamento Seron, a fairly basic campsite, but staffed, and with a small shop, shower and toilets. Bought a bottle of coke here, and we stopped for lunch. The forecast for tomorrow wasn’t clear, but it seemed that things may not be getting any better. We left Seron after 40 minutes or so, and continued on our way.

There was a short, sharp climb around a spur, and then we had our first views round the back of the massif. We could see some spectacular mountains in the distance, and a view of the lake (at the end of which is tonight’s campsite — Coiron). It got much windier at this point, with some rain in the air, but it was still fairly pleasant walking.

Not long after lunch, and the rain and wind starts.

I was surprised by how far it was before we finally got to Coiron, but we got there eventually! This is a very basic campsite (consisting in its entirety of a sign — “Campamento Coiron”), which is great as far as I’m concerned. A beautiful spot to camp, overlooked by spectacular mountains. We found some vaguely flat ground for the tents, pitched, and prepared tea. I finished all my pasta, unbelievably; must be working hard! Had a fairly early night.

Follow these links for day 2 and day 3 of the diary.

Yes, it’s another diary entry, and in direct contravention of how these blog thingummies are supposed to work (allowing, of course, for the fact that I’m already 2602 days late publishing) this post concerns the day prior to that covered by yesterday’s offering. Or something.

Anyhoo… one day into “The Circuit” in Patagonia’s Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, and my four trekking companions and I are setting ourselves up for an eyeful of icefall.

4th December 2002 — Meadows, forests and an ice-fall…

Up at a reasonable hour today. There’s been considerable discussion as to whether we should do a “half-day” (as far as Refugio Lago Dickson — only 3 hours’ walk from here), or continue on as far as Los Perros (another four hours) for a full day’s trekking.

Breakfast was cooked with minimal faff, but I was the last to be ready after we’d struck camp. Martin then had some problems with his rucksac, which entailed some waiting about. The other three carried on in front, as far as the first river. This first section today comprised sections of undulating open ground, interspersed with forested stretches — very pleasant trekking.

Second day — Campamento Coiron to Lago Dickson/Los Perros

It was only 5 minutes from camp that we had a tricky’ish river crossing, and there was at least one other tricky crossing before Lago Dickson. I really got into taking macro photos of the wild flowers this morning.

Wildflowers on the Torres Circuit (I'd be very grateful if some kind soul reading this could help me identify them!)

I suspect that bending down and getting back up again with the big rucksac probably led me to pull a muscle in my thigh. This didn’t happen suddenly, but came on gradually. This was very worrying, as it felt very much like the lateral ligament problem I’ve had before with my knee, which would leave me completely shafted as far as this trek goes (only a day-and-a-half into a week-long trip). In spite of this (or perhaps, belligerently, because of it), I pushed on quite hard after catching up with the others, and gradually left them behind.

The terrain grew more undulating, and gradually rounded a spur that was hiding the Refugio. The final approach was along a low ridge, and then steeply down some scree onto the plain on which the Refugio sat. I collapsed at the door to the main building — very glad to get my boots and pack off — then headed inside to buy a coke. It was about another 15 minutes before the others turned up — I’m definitely walking too fast! We sat around outside the hut for quite a while, eating lunch, and pretty much decided to carry on to Los Perros today.

The route from Refugio Lago Dickson was excellent, pretty much from the start. Most of it was through lovely forest. This seemed pretty wild, following a contorted track that was often blocked by fallen trees. There were also a few “interesting” river crossings! At about the half-way point to Los Perros, there was a fairly impressive cascade.

By the time we reached the foot of the morraines below Los Perros, we were all pretty knackered. A distinctly dodgy looking bridge saw us safely across the main river draining Lago Perros, and then it was onward and upward over the morraines.

This bridge had seen better days...

At the top of the final slope of choss, a wonderful sight was revealed — a rich reward for a hard day’s trekking. The Glacier Perros plunged down in an icefall, into the small lake just below us, which was filled with icebergs.

Icefall at Lago Perros.

From here, it was but a 10-minute walk across flattish ground to the Los Perros campsite. This was in the woods, and not quite what I was expecting, but better than it at first appeared, with toilets, a “shop” and a cooking shelter. Bought some beers (after putting the tents up) and cooked tea. Then headed to bed after a long, but excellent day. Definitely the best single day’s trekking I’ve done, to date!

Follow these links for day 1 and day 3 of the diary.

I recently came across the diary I wrote at the time. Though blogging was pretty much mainstream by then, I’d scarcely dabbled with internet publishing, preferring to keep a limited number of folk updated with my news via regular emails.

And so, I present an illustrated account of the goings-on of Thursday December 5th, 2002, which I hope may provide some inspiration for those considering a trip to Paine, or rekindle fond memories if you’ve already been there. Three days into the seven-day circuit then, and it’s time for the highlight of the trip, as me and my four companions (Brad, Martin, Martin, and Helen) prepare to cross the Paso John Garner, and come face-to-face with the Southern Icefield.

5th December 2002 — Ice as far as the eye can see…

Quite late up this morning, a consequence no doubt of the length of yesterday’s walk. Prepared breakfast in the cooking shelter (loads of porridge — Yum!) and then packed up. I was last to be ready (again).

Leaving camp, it wasn’t long before we came across what had been described to us earlier by an American girl as an “unavoidable knee-deep bog”. She’s obviously never walked over Brown Knoll. It wasn’t particularly pleasant, but neither was it unavoidable (or knee-deep for that matter) — it did drag on for a bit though; probably an hour-and-a-half before we were totally done with the boggy stuff, and had climbed above the tree line. From here we got our first look at the route to Paso John Garner.

Scoping out Paso John Garner.

We now needed to cross the Rio Paso (unbridged). Brad attempted a dry-shod crossing at one point, and promptly filled one boot. Martin balanced across further downstream, using a wire for assistance, but the rest of us just decided to wade across. Mmmm — wet feet for the rest of the day.

Once across the river, it wasn’t long before we hit the first snow slopes leading up to Paso John Garner. This side of the pass was much easier than I’d expected, not too steep, and the snow was very soft.

Climbing towards Paso John Garner.

At the summit of the pass, we got our first view of Glacier Grey, the peaks on the far side, and part of the great Southern Patagonian Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur). This was all the more spectacular for having been revealed so suddenly as we crested the pass.

Looking across Glacier Grey, and right to the Southern Icefield.

Glacier Grey — a sea of crevassed ice.

I continued down the other side of the pass, stopping at an obvious shelf, where I could get a better view of the glacier. The others caught up a bit later, having stopped at the pass proper for a while. Shortly after we regrouped, a condor flew practically overhead.

A condor flying above Paso John Garner.

We then started the descent, which soon took us back below the tree line, and degenerated into a steep slither down towards the glacier.

Descending towards Glacier Grey.

This was very hard on the legs, and my left thigh really started complaining. Martin and Brad got ahead somewhat, whilst I raided Helen’s first-aid kit for some Ibuprofen cream, and my own for some painkillers. Not long after stopping to patch myself up, I came across an unopened packet of spaghetti lying on the track, which I picked up and shoved in my sac. Someone ahead had been very careless, losing part of their food supply along the way!

Once the steep section was done with, the track ambled up and down, in and out, through the forest, including numerous diversions over and around fallen trees. Eventually, we bumped into Brad, who’d stopped on the track, and he explained that Martin had gone on ahead (having dumped his sac), in order to see where the hell the camping ground had got to (we’d expected to have reached it by now — according to the map). Martin was soon back, with the news that El Paso camp was 10-minutes away, at a fast pace (this info. having been passed on by some other trekkers Martin had met along the way).

So it was that 15-minutes later we arrived at El Paso. It was a pretty rough spot (in terms of ground where you’d want to pitch a tent), but there was a cooking shelter, and a “hole-in-the ground” toilet. We managed to find a couple of barely adequate spots for the tents, and we were soon pitched and moved over to the shelter to cook (having reunited a grateful trekker with her pasta).

Turned-in quite late.

Follow these links for day 1 and day 2 of the diary.

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