I have never done any serious trekking before, apart from Kilimanjaro, so this was an experiment. As a result I have learnt that I do not want to go trekking for 21 days in the Himalayas but that 5 days treks would be fine. Also, lodges would have been better than tents – but I had to learn that the hard way.
We were to walk about 20 km a day for 5 days in the Torres del Paine National Park in the very south of Chile, which is amazing, and as walking is the only way to see it - I had no choice anyway. It is am igneous massif, which has been eroded by the ice to form magnificent landforms and so as a geographer and geologist (v. rusty) I was in heaven
I was to hike the W – basically that is the shape of the hike on a map – with camping sites (I use the word very loosely) at the angles in the W. 20 km sounds like nothing, but we were carrying all our stuff – the porters only carried the tent, sleeping bag and food. In addition the terrain was poor and undulating, with lots of uphills and boulder fields, – so progress was slow and each day we were walking for up to 10 hours covering 2km an hour!!!!
Day 1 was tough as I battled with the ‘what the fuck am I doing here‘ question? However, as the scenery impressed me more and more, and we started to have fun scrambling up glacial boulder fields and stumbling across hidden glaciers and glacial lakes, I was soon converted.
There were 4 of us in the group – and I was the youngest – so I had no excuse but to keep up – the eldest was 72 – and he was like a gazelle and put me to shame. You get to know people very well when walking for so long and all my companions were great company. My tent partner was Ken – he was a British Columbian MP, the other two were a married couple from Oz – although Bill was originally from UK and at 72 was retired from the MOD, his wife June younger at only 57 was Burmese Chinese and was a GP in Sydney - we had a lot of fun. Our guide was Eduardo – a Chilean – who loved this park. We had three porters / cook – but to be honest their cooking was poor and I certainly did not spend the time walking thinking of dinner!!
What I did think about was my past and the future and I enjoyed having this time just to think.
We did not wash, shave or have showers for 5 days – as even where there were such things – the water was straight from the glaciers, and so super chilled! I would soak my feet in nearby rivers of glacial meltwater for up to 12 seconds each evening – and that was torture enough but really refreshing.
The scenery was amazing, as the photos show I hope, daylight was very long (20 hours at least), the weather sunny, mountain air was lovely, and all the water we collected and drank from the rivers was by far the best water that I have ever tasted and so it was all well worth it – I will definitely trek again.
The very basic wilderness camping was the worst bit. If I had done my research better – I would have discovered that there are Refugios en route – basic huts with dorms and cooking facilities that I could have booked into – but they fill up 6 months in advance, so we trekked past looking longingly.
I also went glacial trekking on the Grey Glacier in Chile and Perito Moreno in Argentina, both of which form part of the Southern Patagonian ice field which is the third largest ice field in the world after Antarctica and Greenland (so with two done – Greenland has to be done soon)
You would not believe how good the first shower and hotel bed felt – it was in a 2 start in Southern Argentina but felt better than the Burj!!
We were to walk about 20 km a day for 5 days in the Torres del Paine National Park in the very south of Chile, which is amazing, and as walking is the only way to see it - I had no choice anyway. It is am igneous massif, which has been eroded by the ice to form magnificent landforms and so as a geographer and geologist (v. rusty) I was in heaven
I was to hike the W – basically that is the shape of the hike on a map – with camping sites (I use the word very loosely) at the angles in the W. 20 km sounds like nothing, but we were carrying all our stuff – the porters only carried the tent, sleeping bag and food. In addition the terrain was poor and undulating, with lots of uphills and boulder fields, – so progress was slow and each day we were walking for up to 10 hours covering 2km an hour!!!!
Day 1 was tough as I battled with the ‘what the fuck am I doing here‘ question? However, as the scenery impressed me more and more, and we started to have fun scrambling up glacial boulder fields and stumbling across hidden glaciers and glacial lakes, I was soon converted.
There were 4 of us in the group – and I was the youngest – so I had no excuse but to keep up – the eldest was 72 – and he was like a gazelle and put me to shame. You get to know people very well when walking for so long and all my companions were great company. My tent partner was Ken – he was a British Columbian MP, the other two were a married couple from Oz – although Bill was originally from UK and at 72 was retired from the MOD, his wife June younger at only 57 was Burmese Chinese and was a GP in Sydney - we had a lot of fun. Our guide was Eduardo – a Chilean – who loved this park. We had three porters / cook – but to be honest their cooking was poor and I certainly did not spend the time walking thinking of dinner!!
What I did think about was my past and the future and I enjoyed having this time just to think.
We did not wash, shave or have showers for 5 days – as even where there were such things – the water was straight from the glaciers, and so super chilled! I would soak my feet in nearby rivers of glacial meltwater for up to 12 seconds each evening – and that was torture enough but really refreshing.
The scenery was amazing, as the photos show I hope, daylight was very long (20 hours at least), the weather sunny, mountain air was lovely, and all the water we collected and drank from the rivers was by far the best water that I have ever tasted and so it was all well worth it – I will definitely trek again.
The very basic wilderness camping was the worst bit. If I had done my research better – I would have discovered that there are Refugios en route – basic huts with dorms and cooking facilities that I could have booked into – but they fill up 6 months in advance, so we trekked past looking longingly.
I also went glacial trekking on the Grey Glacier in Chile and Perito Moreno in Argentina, both of which form part of the Southern Patagonian ice field which is the third largest ice field in the world after Antarctica and Greenland (so with two done – Greenland has to be done soon)
You would not believe how good the first shower and hotel bed felt – it was in a 2 start in Southern Argentina but felt better than the Burj!!
