Torres del Paine

– Full slide show at the bottom of the page –

When the Cerro Aleta de Tiburon (“the shark’s fin”) appears for the first time, it seems in pretty good conditions from the valley. There is maybe this snow patch at the beginning… but probably nothing to worry about. This is a modest goal, far from being vertical but mainly easy slabs are leading to a real narrow summit, amazing belvedere at the end of the “valle del Frances”. Our climbing projects in Torres del Paine National Park are eventually reduced to this summit only. Indeed, a very bad elbow tendinitis kept me far from any kind of climbing since April. The Bonnington route on the Torre Central will remain a dream…

*Bad weather, as usual… – Mauvais temps, comme d’habitude…*

The bus is dropping us in front of the administration building : we need to finalize our climbing permit… Yes, one can’t come here and climb whatever is in good conditions. A climbing permit is mandatory, and even if it is fairly easy to get one, it requires some planning. A visit to the Difrol website is the first step of the process. This is mandatory for any foreigner who is looking to reach a summit in Chile. After 48 to 72 hours, you should receive a confirmation email. Easy. Outside of the national park, this confirmation is enough : you can climb… but in Torres del Paine you need to complete a second step. With this Difrol document, we ended up in the parc administration building. Here we need to be more precise and describe exactly what route we want to climb and where we will set our base camp. Easy too. However, this process requires some serious planning and if the nearby route or summit finally looks in better conditions you would have to start the process over. Applying for a longer period of time and for a couple of summits might be a good solution. For a lot of people, this is just too much.

Add a Disneyland like atmosphere at the parc entrance and I was pretty close to just turn around before being able to admire the long time awaited scenery.

*Paine Grande always in the clouds – toujours dans les nuages*

Indeed, for a little bit more than 10 years, the Paine range has been the cool place to visit and the number of visitor is constantly increasing. The classic hike, the “W” offers 3 to 5 days of moderate hike in the middle of some stunning landscapes. However, this itinerary has been made more and more accessible : (too ?) many private refuges, hot showers every evening,… what could seem regular in the Alps is pretty surprising in the middle of a Patagonia that most of us still imagine wild. Another trail, the “O” is a loop around the Paine range and follow the “W” only for the last days. Probably more interesting. A lot of tourists are coming for a day, just visiting the “mirador de las Torres”, overlooking the lake at the base of the 3 famous towers of Paine.

In September 2016, the parc administration decided to manage this flow of tourists and hikers and set up a mandatory booking system for all the campgrounds and refuges of the “W” and the “O”. Those places are managed by three different administrations (the parc – CONAF, and two other private…) with different booking websites. It is then totally impossible to adapt your projects and activities to the constantly changing weather. End of December, almost all campgrounds were booked for January. The available one were often 2 or 3 hiking days far… but impossible to reach because it was impossible to book the first nights…

We have been told it was a specially rainy year. Apparently, only one Korean expedition managed to reach the top of one of the tower, enduring winter conditions. During a couple of days we are simply witnesses of this disaster : it’s raining and snowing, it is incredibly windy. Our route is obviously not climbable, covered by a pretty nice layer of fresh snow. The main summit of the range, Paine Grande, won’t show its summit over the week. There will be no climbing this week.

Down in the valley, we can still enjoy a couple of great day hikes, between rain showers… and a lot of reading. Luckily enough, the Pehoe campground (Sodexo managed… yup, even far from everything…) offers an incredible view on the iconic summits of the range : the Cuernos del Paine, contrasting wonderfully with the emerald waters of Pehoe Lake. Yes, the place is absolutely stunning. This view is world famous, with thousands of pictures published around the world. This is the view that actually brought me here. Without a car, and even if hitchhiking works pretty well, possibilities are limited and most of the week is finally spent enjoying the scenery like I would watch TV or visit a museum. For years I was dreaming about visiting this place but now I just feel annoyed and out of my element. The way the parc is managed doesn’t really feel like “conservation” to me. This visit makes me realize one more time it might not be necessary to visit everything and it is maybe a good thing to keep dreaming in front of amazing pictures, leaving the place to others.