Southern Andes: Our first three encounters

We started our journey north, following the Andes, in Tierra del Fuego, where the very southern peaks are smaller but magical, covered in snow. From there, the roads north take you back into the desert of the Patagonian steppe, with the mountains usually not far from view to your left. Only forays into the national parks along the eastern edge of the range are possible by road – but those encounters with some dramatic massifs have been breathtaking…

Bruce here…

1. Tierra del Fuego

The first of the three national parks that we explored in the Southern Andes was the Parque National de Tierra del Fuego, just to the west of Ushuaia. Strictly speaking, the peaks on Tierra del Fuego may not be defined as part of the Andes range, as they are not on the South American continent itself, but geologically they are all one range, that starts even further south with the Antarctic Peninsula – where you could say our Andean adventure really began.

Parked up in the national park in front of Co. Guanaco with Paula and Jeremy

The park has several lovely campsites and so we chose to camp at what was reputed to be the best free one (Rio Pipo), which is situated next to the track of a little narrow gauge steam railway (originally built and used by prisoners to collect wood for a remote Argentinian prison in the early 20th Century, now reopened as a tourist line), which provided some entertainment over breakfast. The campsite also has the distinction of having the best portaloos I have ever seen – clean, toilet roll, soap, running water, paper hand towels and still in good nick on the second day! We parked up with Paula and Jeremy of seventeenbysix.com, a couple from London whose blog of their trip south from California we had read before we came out. So it was a pleasure to spend some time with them when they arrived in Ushuaia after 3½ years on the road. They are also in a VW campervan and we sat with both vans surrounded by free roaming horses in the picturesque setting of the park.

Becca caught in the act of capturing the view

Most of the peaks around here are only around 1,400m, which is not very high but they all have snow on and come up dramatically straight out of the sea. One of the easiest to get up is Cerro Guanaco, which overlooks the campsite. We had been advised to only do the 6km trek up the 965m summit if you can see the top when you get up in the morning. We were lucky and had a beautiful, albeit windy (as always), day giving us fantastic views across the Beagle Canal from the top. The hike also gave us our first taste of walking in the Patagonian winds, which can be very fierce. We learnt that trekking poles have another use as a walking aide here – bracing yourself against gusts. This felt like a good start to our Andes hiking and we also followed it with a half day of climbing at what is probably the most southerly bolted crag in the world. Short, quite tough and overhanging but great views of the Beagle Channel surrounded by snow-capped mountains – a unique cragging experience!

The regal King Penguin

On the way to our next appointment with the Andes, we managed to catch sight of yet another species of penguin: the King penguin – similar to, but slightly smaller than, the famous Emperor penguin. Our first “proper” penguins, according to Becca, and they are certainly more magisterial than their small cousins whom we had seen so far – a real treat to see. A quick, unplanned, pitstop followed in Punta Arenas to repair our rear shock absorbers, which had suffered from the many thousands of kms travelled on unfinished roads, before we could get back on the road north to the Parque National Torres del Paine…

2. Torres del Paine

The Torres

As we approached, we could see that we were now starting to see something much bigger and more dramatic – Paine Grande is a smidgin over 3,000m. The Torres del Paine is a range of rock massifs protruding dramatically out of their surroundings. It is also relatively approachable, being right on the eastern edge of the range, meaning that it is now also a huge tourist destination. Many of our fellow passengers to Antarctica went there either before or after the voyage and, at the height of the summer holidays, there were 1,000s of visitors, a few doing a 5-6 day trek circling the entire massif, the majority doing a 5 day ‘W’ trek around the eastern side. That being said, it was good to see that most of the tourists are Chilean, reflecting how well developed the healthy Chilean economy is – indeed it almost seemed like doing the ‘W’ might be some sort of right of passage for Chilean teenagers!

Each arm of the ‘W’ is a foray into a valley in, or up the side of, the massif. There are plenty of campsites and refugios, but the refugios need to be booked a long time in advance in summer (impractical for us) and even some of the campsites need places reserving. They are basic but well run and in general, the crowd management of the area is pretty well done. There is very little litter and none of the tissues scattered around that you see in lots of other parts of the world. But you are not able to walk in solitude for any length of time at the time of year we were there!

First night in the trekking tent

We decided to do two separate treks, involving two two-day hikes, one day in and the other out, to see a couple of the legs of the ‘W’. We started by going up the valley to see the Torres (towers) themselves and then went up the middle arm, the Valle Frances. The Torres were stunning to see, but the walk itself was much less interesting than the dramatic and varied Valle Frances, which gave us stunning views of Paine Grande and it’s glaciers (creaking and cracking all the time) on the west and the Cuernos (horns) on the right. Both walks were a fun introduction to multiday trekking for us and were a good test of our little, previously unused, trekking tent.

A rare beautiful summer’s day

After a satisfying week or so, we watched the Torres disappear in our rear view mirror as we headed back into Argentina to continue our journey north, stopping on route to visit the Milodon Cave, just south of Torres del Paine, known for it’s fossil remains of a huge ground dwelling sloth, which was around for a while after the last ice age, coinciding with the first human inhabitants, but went extinct about 6-8,000 years ago – another reminder of the glacial forces that shaped Patagonia.

3. Los Glaciares

The Perito Moreno glacier

Next we were off to spend a couple of weeks at the Parque National Los Glaciares. The first few days were spent at the southern end in El Calafate, primarily to go and see the massive Perito Moreno glacier. This is about 6km across the front and, is unusual, because it is advancing, moving about 2m a day into Lago Argentina, making it very active, with frequent “calving” (when bits melt and break off the front). You can get very close to it, as it advances towards a point of land directly opposite, from which there are spectacular views from viewing platforms.

El Chalten nestling below the dramatic parks of the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre ranges

The northern part of the park is centred around the small town of El Chalten, which is a kind of a cross between Chamonix in the early days and Camp Four at Yosemite (for those who are interested). The park here is free to enter and is the gateway to the big boys – Monte Fitz Roy (3,405m) and Cerro Torre (3,102m), which, like the Torres, are sheer rock massifs. The town is very remote, the one petrol pump is solar and wind powered and internet access almost non-existent, but it has a great outdoor feel about it and we stayed for much longer than we expected. There is plenty of trekking, most of it easily done in a long day and we did one one-day walk as a warm up to get close up views of Cerro Torre.

Both Torres del Paine and Los Glaciares are on the edge of the massive South Patagonian Icefield, which is only beaten in size by the two Poles. It has a noticeable affect on the weather, making the wind that comes across it rather chilly. The main manifestation of the icefield that most people can see are the glaciers creeping out of the icefield into the lakes. Not having any experience with ice, crampons etc., we took a tourist trip onto one of the glaciers, and it was there, we got a little tantalising view of the icefield behind. Becca asked the guide if there was somewhere reachable by ordinary walkers to see the icefield properly and was told that the Paseo del Viento (windy pass) was the most easily reached place. We needed kit and expertise to do a Tyrolean traverse (a crossing on a suspended rope or wire), which, being rock climbers, we have, but the glacier crossing would be fine in ordinary boots, as the glacier is “dry” and covered in rocks and stones at that point. So, we decided to made that our major trek of our stay here and waited for a “weather window” to do it.

Looking out at the ice field from the Paso del Viento

We only had to wait one day until it looked like we could catch a clear, fine day for going up to the pass. Overall, the three days were quite long and hard, but well worth it for the view. This was not one of the standard day hikes and so required registration and a (free) permit from the Guardaparque (who were very helpful and a good source of information, although they were at pains to point out that they won’t come rushing to find and rescue us just because we don’t check back in, back from our trek, on time – fair enough really). We can also say that we have been inaugurated into the true Patagonian trekking experience having spent two very windy and wet nights squeezed, with all our stuff, into our tent camped by the lake near the top of the valley, either side of the fine day we had going up to the pass!

From a climbing point of view, most serious climbers go to Los Glaciares to climb Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre or one of the other imposing rock peaks in the park. However, if you are not such a gnarled and serious a climber, there is also a wealth of cragging and bouldering available within short walking distance of the town, including the 180m long ‘Carsten Route’, which is one of the best sports routes I have ever done! (Made possible by coinciding with the “Hot Rock” overland truck being in town at the same time and lending me a climbing buddy for the route – thanks Callum!) All-in-all, the climbing and trekking managed to keep us there for 11 nights – a record for us on this trip so far.

Beaver damage in Tierra del Fuego…

… is eerily similar to fire damage in Torres del Paine

One of the things that all three parks had in common was the flora, fauna and the threats to them. There are only four or five species of hardy trees (mostly beech species) and a couple of bushes (including the famous Calafate) that are found in the Southern Patagonian Andes but they are quite abundant, slow growing and long lived. This makes the landscape quite magical, with their gnarled limbs, but also means that they are extremely vulnerable to damage. In the 1950s, about 25 pairs of beavers were introduced to Tierra del Fuego, we think with the intention of creating a fur industry, and their damns have devastated many rivers and killed countless trees throughout Tierra del Fuego. Further north, fire damage is the most significant risk and a number of recent fires caused by trekkers have destroyed swathes of woodland in Torres del Paine. The problem is that the trees are so slow growing that it takes decades for them to get established again and in the meantime what is left is open fields littered with the hulks of dead grey tree trunks.

Oh and did I mention the wind? Sixty kilometres an hour gusts are very common and it can be relentless for days on end. On clear sunny days, with no wind, you could believe it was summer, but those days are very few in number. Our guide on our visit to Haberton, an ex-sheep farming estancia set on the Beagle Chanel, who was clearly missing the heat of Buenos Aires, informed us sadly that you could count the days like that each year on the fingers of one hand. If the sun goes in, or the cold wind gets up, or worse, both, it feels more like the end of winter to us. How can it be “summer” if we can’t venture out without a down jacket and a woolly hat, however much the locals jokingly tell us that this is warm!! We travel on looking forward to feeling hot again…

A lot of pictures this time, but it has been three remarkable places:

There was a pioneer feel to the architecture in the very south – this is Ushuaia

One of the oldest buildings in Ushuaia

Old London buses get everywhere

At the end of the famous ruta 3 road, in Tierra del Fuego national park

Passing spectators for breakfast washing up camped by the Tierra del Fuego railway

The lovely restored old prison railway line into the park

All through Patagonia we enjoyed seeing the horses roaming free

Not a great picture, given the distance and darkness in the woods, but we were delighted to get a sighting of the Megallanic Woodpecker

The view from the top of Co. Guanaco of the very southern peaks of the Andes

Bruce on a mission to find the southern most sports climbing opportunity in the world

Too cold to do more than a couple of routes

The fascinating Haberton Estancia nestled in a cove just off the Beagle Channel

The Estancia is home to a large collection of skeletons, collected and processed in a little workshop

And displayed beautifully in a little museum

A spermwhale head and jaw – it’s large!

A Grey Fox passes our camp by the shore that night

The ubiquitous Caracara

Evidence of the dominance of the wind in these parts

After a few months of travelling south, we started our long journey north

A colony of King Penguins on the coast of the Strait of Magellan

Mr White, Mr Pink, Mr Orange returning from a hard days fishing

The Yellow Van leaves Tierra del Fuego… backwards!

A typical building in Punta Arenas – this one our Hostal while we wait to get the rear suspension on the van repaired

And where we enjoyed another sociable few days with Paula and Jeremy

The problem with the suspension – there’s supposed to be a bolt to attach the end of the shock absorber to the van through the hole. Ours had sheered off, on both sides – too many 1000s of km on unfinished roads.

But the shocks themselves were fine and the mechanic managed to get the stubs of the bolts out by welding a piece of metal to each one in turn to use to get them out

Our happy mechanic!

One of the more professional outfits we’ve seen for refilling our gas canisters

Puerto Natales – jumping off point for visiting the Torres del Paine

Setting out on our first overnight trek

Up the first valley in the Torres massif to see the torres (towers) themselves

A long slog…

… but rewarded with this at the top of the valley

Packing up our little camp in the woods in the valley

All the supplies to the refugios are taken in by gauchos on horseback

Ok, we’ll spend the day sitting with this view for a rest day!

We were visited by an Austral Pygmy Owl at our camp

Setting out on our second walk in the Torres

Up the beautiful Valle Frances

The water in the lake is this colour because the glacier grinds rock into a fine powder which then stays in suspension – known as glacier milk.

Surrounded at the top by the dramatic rock peaks

Peak season – the little ferry back across the lake was rather full with walkers and their rucksacks!

All those horses being moved to new pastures

We were lucky enough to have a few beautiful clear days while we were there

The “Milodon” cave – named after the skeleton of the extinct giant sloth found there

But it was also occupied by the early human settlers, the earliest of which overlapped with the last of the megafauna

Magnificent view from the cave – very useful for hunters!

Starting our journey up Argentina’s other famous road – the ruta 40. Much of it is not yet surfaced, but they are working on it!

Gauchos at work herding the sheep

A van life scene – typical evening in the van on the road (when it’s not too windy to have the door open!)

The Perito Moreno glacier

Learning about the era of the Megafauna

Calafate – not so long ago, the town of El Calafate was just a calafate bush where people stopped on route to the glacier

Approaching the Fitz Roy mountain range in Los Glaciares national park

Starting out on a day walk for a closer look under the shadow of Fitz Roy

We got one clear view of Cerro Torre before the clouds came in

And the wind down the valley, off the glacier, was so strong we simply weren’t able to go any further!

We headed back to town with the weather closing in behind us

Bruce’s best multi-pitch sports climb was up this face on the other side of the river from town…

But you need a close up to spot the climbers on the route!

The town of El Chalten in the valley below the mountains

A trip to get up close to the enormous Viedma Glacier

We all put crampons on and took a short guided walk around on top of the glacier

The rocks nearby have been scraped and shaped by the glacier moving to and fro over the years into amazing smooth round shapes. The colours of these rocks made them particularly spectacular – they looked like wood.

Autumn was starting to catch up with us

Preparing for our 3 day trek to see the ice field – this table has 3 day’s worth of food laid out on it

Setting out on our quest to get a look at the South Patagonian Ice Field

Still enjoying the beautiful beech trees

The lowest point on the horizon in the distance is the Paso del Viento (windy pass) – our target

Becca launching herself onto the Tyrolean traverse (a cable to cross the small gorge below) for the first crossing

Wearing a harness, you clip onto a pulley on the cable and haul yourself across. Becca needed a bit of help from a tug on a rope to get all the way over – it was uphill in that direction!

Our next obstacle – a walk across the end of glacier Río Túnel

But, covered in rocks and stones, no crampons are needed and it proved easier walking than the paths on the scree

And, after all that, then came the 700m of steep ascent to the pass

But we got there, in time before we needed to turn around to get back to camp before dark (just)!

And were rewarded with stunning views of the huge ice field running down the middle of the Andes range on a rare, beautiful clear day

And stunning views of the two glaciers into the valley we came up through

Walking back across the glacier

And that Tyrolean – again!

But this time slightly downhill!

Our little camp for the two nights either side of our trek to the pass

The next day, the weather had settled back in again, with a snowfall overnight, which the clouds lifted to reveal as we walked away

Classic river crossings in the valley

Lovely views across the Lago Del Viedma

Back at the van, to find we’d left the lights on… again! It’s a legal requirement to drive with lights on at all times and we just keep forgetting to turn them off. It matters if you then leave it for 3 days! A Guardaparque (Park Ranger) to the rescue!