Tierra del Fuego

Tierra Del Fuego

After our trip in to Patagonia and Torres del Paine in December '17, my friend Stefano and I still had a few days of New Year's vacation  left and decided to venture further south and explore Tierra del Fuego, the island at the southernmost tip of South America separated from the mainland by the Straits of Magellan.

We took a bus from Puerto Natales in Chile that wound through 10 hours of vast sparsely-populated, windswept steppe to Ushuaia on the Beagle channel in Argentina, which at 56 degrees South is the southernmost town in the planet and the lanuch-post for trips to Antartica which is just a half-hour flight away.

Ushuaia and the hills we climbed

After 8 days camping in the in Torres del Paine, our hostel in Ushuaia felt crowded and touristy with its itinerant population of Americans and Europeans. Despite the excellent wines and steaks we were able to find in the town, we were happy to be away from the town and off camping. We found a three-day circuit that would take us up the tall mountains that towered 1,200 ms (4,000 ft) behind the town. 

Day 1: Ushuaia to Lago Esmeralda (12 kms., 8 hours)

A 20 minte cab-ride took us past the edges of town through ramshackle farmlands to a track that led to a fast-flowing stream flowing past some very red peat-bogs. We followed the stream through a track on its right bank cushioned by the the soft, red bogs. A bridge then allowed us to cross the stream and led us into woods. The trail started ascending and a steady climb through tall trees, wet roots for a couple of hours led us to a sudden opening and a view down to a pretty lake formed by a large beaver-dam.  

The Beaver-Dam that built the lake

Lake Esmeralda

From Lake Esmeralda to the Peak

Towering peaks surrounded the lake on three sides. Our guide-book said that there was a trail up to the top of the tallest peak, but we saw no signs. We decided to follow a steep stream that fed the lake. Bush-whacking through tall grasses and tufts of moss we ascended steeply along the stream to barely vegetated rocks. After an hour of climbing, we hit the snow-patches above the tree-line that fed the stream. 

We were surrounded by jagged grey peaks fashioned from shingle-piles at very steep angles. It was cold, misty and wet, and it was not even clear where the tallest peak was. We sloughed on up the unstable shingles, slowly slip-sliding our way. A long hour of zig-zagging our way up the steep gravel, we came to some more stable sharp slate; what a relief it was to have stable rock under our feet.  

Slip-Sliding up a mountain of Shingle

Climbing up, we suddenly realized we were on the ridge as dramatic, steep views of Ushuaia and the Beagle Straights opened up in front of us. Phew, what a slog, but what fantastic views. Mercifully the mist and fog opened up for 10 minutes and we managed to get nice views before the mists closed in again.

Ushuaia from 1,200 m (4,000 ft) up

The Beagle Straights

The long walk down to our campsite

A long two-hour trek down the shifting shingles took us back to the steep stream and welcome signs of green life again. 

The long walk home

We stopped on a outcropping with great views of lake Esmeralda for some pictures, gorp and water.

Luckily leads to this

Steep!

Mountains of Shingles

The peaks we'd left quickly for shrouded in mist

Ah, finally the mists leave us

Another hour of walking over soft moss-tufts and grasses took us to back to lake Esmeralda. Another hour through woods finally got us to the flatlands and the fast-flowing clear stream we'd crossed in the morning. 

The magical campsite at a bend in the stream

We crossed the stream and found a pretty meadow at a bend in the stream. What a wonderful camp-site: a soft green meadow; a limpid fast-flowing stream on two sides; mountains all around. 

Wild Horses

We set up camp and started making dinner when we heard thundering sounds punctuating the rustling-sounds of the ever-present winds. Startled, we looked up and saw a herd of colorful horses galloping straight toward us. Ducking behind trees we realized they hadn't seen us; they stopped when they noticed the intruders in what must have been one of their favorite grazing spots. After some curious looks the eight horses -colorfully brown, white and black, went about their business of munching on the rich, moist grasses. It was clear that the wild-horses were very used to people.  

All

the pretty

horses

What a tiring but lovely day: a tranquil lake; soaring-peaks; snow, mist and gusts; stupendous views; idyllic camping and wild horses!

Day 2: Lago Esmeralda to Lago Caminado (12 kms. 7 hrs)

Day 2 started with a long walk through 10 kms of very wet woods where we were constantly navigating through wet sticky mud and trying to discover a root or rock to step on without slipping. It was slow going and when, after four tedious hours, the trail started heading uphill to dryer terrain, we were relieved despite ascending with 35 lb packs. 

A half hour ascent took us to an opening and a view of the pass we'd have to ascend the next day. A side route promised us Lake Caminada. A half hour of ascending and curving through steep, green daisy-filled mountainsides suddenly opened up a to a view below of an emerald lake watered by a waterfall and curving stream. 

Ten minutes later we were at the lake, with a small wood of crooked-trunk lenga-beeches on one side, and mountains dressed in green, grey and white on three sides: pristine, quiet, and enchanting. 

A quick dip in the cold waters was refreshing and left me marveling that we were at an impossibly beautiful campsite: crooked-lenga woods, an emerald-lake, the sounds and views of a waterfall, a clear meandering stream, a beaver, some ducks and storks; jagged snow-touched peaks all around. All I had to do was imagine the cold wind to be an asp, and this would be the Garden of Eden!

Lago Caminado

Emerald Lake Caminado

Peaks surround Lake Caminado

The stream that fed our lake from the Waterfall

Peaceful

Tranquil

Home among the crooked lenga-beech

Simple food never tasted so good

Day 3: Lago Caminado to the Airport (11 kms. 7 hrs)

Some adventures still lay ahead of us on the last day of our trip. We wound our day down from lovely  Lake Caminado, then slowly headed up the pass that would take us over the mountain-range that separated us from the Beagle channel.

We steadily walked uphill on the banks of a small uphill for a half hour. The vegetation disappeared and we were again on gravel and shingle. A long steady slog for an hour up the loose rock and snow took us up the 800 m (2,500ft) pass where the weather turned from sleet to hail; a full-blown snowfall reduced visibility to 20 meters when we got to the pass. We were relieved when we found the cairns and painted-sticks that marked the route down into the long valley along its left bank.

The Pass

The beautiful views

As we descended, the clouds partially lifted and we had views on our right of a spectacular steep valley: the tops of the valley were snow-crusted peaks; the middles were snow-speckled dark rock and the bottoms were an artist's palette of verdant greens demarcated by near vertical streams. The valley stretched and curved, seemingly for ever, on our left towards the Beagle channel about 10 kms away. 

Steep streams streaked the valley

The ice-encrusted peaks

The long-walk home

The long deep valley

A beautiful walk through a path that gently descended the valley through  a shingle-path took us after an hour to woods on the valley floor. An hour through wet woodlands brought us to meadows and pastures with views of the Beagle channel. Another hour of walking brought us to civilization and the end of our incredible trip. 

Civilization

Airports and conveniences and being surrounded by people and drinking coke felt strange and unreal after so many days in the solitude of the woods and mountains. 

Patagonia

It's wintertime in Europe and the US, and so time to escape the short, cold days. Deep South America seemed like the perfect destination when Stefano, a musketeer from our previous trip to the East Coast trail in Canada, and I talked about venues. And I'd been curious about Patagonia hearing it mentioned so many times.

So we planned a Xmas trip to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the island at the southernmost tip of South America that hosts penguins, seals, glaciers and Antarctic explorers. Unfortunately, the third musketeer from our Canadian adventures, Mike, could not make it this time and so Stefano and I bravely set off to see what the fuss was all about.

Our first stop was to be an eight-day circuit of the reddish-granite spires of Torres del Paine, the postcard-peaks of Patagonian Chile.Then the plan was to head further down to Ushuaia, the world's southernmost town, and explore the wilderness around there.

Patagonia

We first flew into Punto Arenas, a sprawling town just north of the Magellan Straight and got a dose of the wild winds of the Furious Fifties: even a sunny day in the middle of the Southern Summer was periodically lashed with reminders of the extreme geographies of the region: winds blustered constantly and every hour seemed to bring in its own weather pattern. 

Windy Punta Arenas

The next day we boarded a bus and headed off to Puerto Natales, a small town on the Magellan Straight that formed a gateway to the Torres del Paine National Park.

We realized how popular and overused the park had become when we got to the park-entrance: there were a half dozen buses packed with European and American tourists. We were given a strict lecture about how to avoid setting off forest-fires -apparently careless campers had set off hug forest-fires in the last few years. The Chilean government had decided to control use of this super-popular destination, and so we had to book camping spots in advance for each of the seven nights we would spend in the park. The visitor center was a super-modern building that contrasted starkly with the corrugated-steel shacks of the neighboring Puerto Natales.

Torres del Paine

With very little idea of what to expect -our planning had amounted to booking camping spaces, bringing our warm clothes tent and stove, and buying 8 days of camping food- we set off. It was to be a 110km (70 mile) loop over eight days that involved about 6 hours of hiking each day. We were promised fabulous views and gusty winds.

The O Circuit

Day 1: Las Torres to Camp Seron (14 km)

We set off, excited and energized.  We happily realized that we'd be leaving the crowds behind as most people were heading away from us and clockwise on the short, popular W hike. A slow ascent took us through daisy and rhododentron spotted meadows and woodlands. After an hour or so of walking we ran into our first groups of fellow-hikers: a large organized tour of young English and American visitors and a second interesting trio of Americans -Nick, Ray and Carey- who were ending a Paraguayan stint in the Peace Corps with a vacation that included our anti-clockwise circuit around the Torres.

Our first destination at the end of the first day was Camp Seron, and it was our first sense of what camping on the O circuit would be like. The camp had a kitchen and bar supplied by horses and 4-wheelers. We realized that the large group we had encountered had porters who would pack and carry the tents and supplies for them.  We also had to register at every campsite. The hiking was strictly regulated to curb overuse and reduce chances of accidental forest-fires set off by careless campers.

We also got a sense for the violent winds and changing weather that would accompany us throughout the circuit while at Seron. Setting up and pulling down camp was slow in these conditions where rain and sun quickly alternated accompanied by constant wind, but we were rewarded briefly by a rainbow over the steppes. 

Rainbow over Camp Seron

Day 2: Camp Seron to Dickson (19 km)

Our second day was long: it first took up a mountain and then around it which opened up beautiful views of Lake Seron below on the right. The trail then slowly crept down and through many streams and long daisy-filled meadows. While waiting on a meadow for Stefano to recover a misplaced camera I got to discuss cricket with a friendly South African and US fishery with an American girl who was working on a fishing vessel regulating and measuring catch.

The day ended dramatically when the trail dipped into a stream-bed rose up over the steep
bank to a dramatic view of Lake Dickson and the camp ground colorfully decorating a meadow
jutting into the lake. And the highlight was a sparkling blue and white iceberg floating on the
lake next to the camp.

The camp ground had a nice warm refugio with a Xmas tree, beer and Salsa playing in the
background, reminding us that it was the holiday season.

Camp Dickson Conaf (Chilean Forestry Dept.)

The views from camp Dickson also gave us an idea of what to expect during the rest of the hike: snow-speckled mountains were all around the horizon.

Iceberg at Lake Dickson

Day 3: Camp Dickson to Los Perros (10 km)

A short third-day took us from meadows into a valley with our first close-up views of the
glaciers. We wandered up a valley from with great viws of the steep Andean peaks streaked with ice with snow.

We then crossed into wet forests above a stream. After an hour we finally we crossed the stream at a rapid and ascended alongside the fast-flowing water to a huge glacial moraine. We then ascended the rock-slopes of the moraine to a dramatic view of the glacier Perro tumbling into a milky lake.

The trail wound past the lake, and behind the tall screes surrounding the lake was camp Perro, a quaint, small campground. Here we saw the wild bushy-tailed Arctic fox that more resembled a large dog or wolf slinking around.

Day 4: Los perros to El Paso (12 km, 1,000m)

The hardest day of the circuit took us up, over and down the 1,200 m. John Gardiner pass. The day started off gently.ascending a scree along the left bank of a rapid stream. Soon we enter and exit woods of short birch and ascend above the tree-line to the first patches of snow on the trip. The ascent steepens as we leave behind the occasional woods of stunted trees with tortured trunks
flattened by wind and snow.

Scree alternates with patches of snow with a steady wind which on occasion bursts into gale-force speeds almost blowing us over and leaving us ducking and clutching our hats.
We have all of our layers on and it is a plod up to the pass through rain and winds only interrupted by a ranger annoyed that we are still ascending past noon.

After a couple of hours of walking on very wet rocks, snow, and streams our feet are completely wet. After sighting many false peaks the plod mercifully ends. The top of the pass is a forsaken, wind-blown saddle of rocks, ice and snow with little visibility. We happily clamber down the Eastern slopes to be stopped cold by the sight of the magnificent glacier Gray: a gigantic mass of blue and white ice streaked with grey, ten kilometerswide and twenty long slowly squeezing its way through the massive valley below us.

A long steep descent down scree, then seemingly endless woods takes us down nearly a thousand meters. After two hours of knee-breaking descent that my poles don't survive, the trail evens out and we are at the minimal Campamento del Paso. There are only a handful of campers at this minimal campsite with only a squat-toilet and a non-enclosed cooking area.

It is however Xmas eve, and our Peace-Corps friends and a couple of friendly German guys join us for some Yule cheer, beer, wine and card-games. Our campsite is a small hollow in the hill well protected from the gusty winds and we sleep well.

Day 5: El Paso to Regio Grey

A short hike with constant views of the huge glacier Grey to the right takes us from the minimal campomento Paso to the swank Refugio Grey served by ferries, restaurants and mini- markets. What a difference a day can make!


El Paso is so remote that supplies are dropped off by helicopter. The chopper approached with a gallon of gasoline just as we were passing the drop-off point, and lent a hand holding on to the barrel: tricky stuff.

 An easy hike took us to Refugio Grey with excellent views of Glacier Grey all along. We got to see details of the glacier as it piled onto an island, split and sent off large icebergs into Lake Grey.  It was interesting to see that the glacier's surface was as marked and crevassed as the surface of hills from the rivers of water that formed when the surface of the glacier melted from the sun's heat.

The huge glacier Grey

An island splits the glacier

As far as eye can see

The glacier melts into lake Grey

Refugio Grey was a jarring return to loud, crowded civilization. We realized it was the start of the popular W circuit and our lovely days of peace and quitter were over. We joined the large crowds for beer and cocktails in the swank restaurant that reminded us of ski-lodges.

Day 6: Refugio Grey to Paine Grande

Another easy days hike took us to the very windy campomento Paine Grande that was perched on the edge of a milky-blue lake.

We continued on the trail along the banks of Lake Grey, the large steel-blue lake formed by the melting ice of glacier Grey.

After a while the trail meandered off to the East and away from the grey waters of Lake Grey. Now we could see the peaks and towers of the "Torres" on the left. On the right we passed various smaller lakes, each with it distinctive color.

After descending and walking through a long valley with short woods,

we saw Lake Pehoe, and the large buildings of Paine Grande and its piers that hosted boats and catamarans.

Lake Pehoe

Paine Grande was even windier than usual and we were glad to find a camping spot very close to the foot of a hill . We spent the evening drinking wine from the bar there and playing card-games with out Peace-Corps friends.

Windswept home under the hills

Day 7: Paine Grande to Campomento Frances (23 kms, 9 hours)

The longest day of the circuit took us from Paine Grande to Campamento Frances with an excursion to the magnificent amphitheater of Valle Frances, a valley that takes you into the heart of the terrific peaks and spires of the Torres del Paine.

It was our first sunny blue-sky day and a leisurely two-hour hike took us to Campu Italiano, a small camground that contrasted with the luxurious "Paine Grande" of the previous day.

The black-topped red-granite torres

A winding route from Lake Pekoe and Paine Grande slowly gained elevation and then gave us a glimpse of what was to come. We could see the red-granite torres, capped with black on the right, and forbidding snow speckled black peaks on the left. 

The high mountains of Paine Grande

We crossed lake Scotsberg and a multitude of small lakes. What was striking was that each lake had it own distinct color: from the dark grey of Lake Grey to the milky blue of Lake Pekoe to the deep-blue of Lake Scotsberg to the pale blue of small mountain lakes. Two lakes next to each other could have strikingly different colors.

The Fauna

We walked along a fast-moving stream and crossed a bridge to Camp. Italiano where we dropped off our packs for the 5 hour excursion up 600 ms. into valle Frances.

Up and past gushing streams

The trail steeply went up alongside a thundering rapid over large boulders and soon we found ourselves in the shadow of a towering black peak speckled with glaciers and snowfields clinging to its sides that sent numerous streams rushing down alongside snow and ice.

We walked past a high glacier into some woods that followed a stream into the valley. An hour of walking gently uphill past hordes of tourists on the W circuit brought us to a large glacial moraine. After passing some open areas with increasingly stunning views of the towering peaks and granite-pillars around us, we climbed up steeply to the magnificent amphitheater of Valle Frances.

The red-granite Torres

In the Frances amphitheater

We were in this magnificent bowl, with towering glaciated black peaks on the left, ranges of mountains and glaciers in front, and red-granite spires on our right. all seemingly near-enough to touch but towering over us. A stupendous show no picture can capture!

The Grandstand view

Weary feet took us down, slowly back through the woods in fading light and mist, down through what seemed interminable, steep boulder-fields to Camp. Frances. Our weary feel picked up our heavy packs and pelted mildly by rain we made our way to Camp. Frances.

Te camp was perched on the side of a very steep hill, and tents needed wooden-platforms to afford horizontal space. The long day had left us tired, and after dinner with our American co-travellers from Paraguay we were happy to get into our sleeping-bags after a magnificent but tiring day!

Day 8: Campamento Frances to Campo Torres (14 km)

The exertions of day 7 and the visit to the magnificent Valle Franes left us tired. A long winding trail skirted a pebble-beach on the shores of a lake where the clear waters beckoned us for a swim but the cool winds and tired feet kept us going after a brief stop.

It was a cloudy wet start after saying "Bye" to our Peace-Corps friends. We soon came across Campamento Cuernos which stocked provisions and we were glad, as we had eaten up all the food we had been carrying for the last eight days. After grabbing some sandwiches, we set off on a trail that dipped and rose over many streams that flowed down the mountains on our left to the streams and lakes on our right.

After two hours we climbed some small hills that took us to a vista from where we could see rolling hills carpeted with green meadows and streaked with streams stretching for kilometers ahead of us. At the far distance we could spot signs of buildings and civilization.

Another hour brought us to our starting point at Campo Torres. After 8 days and 120 kms wuth 30 lb. packs, we were back on the Gringo-Trail. After a refreshing beer, we were back on the bus off to the penguin and sea-lion inhabited Antarctic launch-point, Tierra del Fuego. What unreal and magnificent variety the last eight days had brought us!