After the World Masters, since we were already on the other side of the world, we took a trip to Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. Of course everyone knows Patagonia is beautiful, but I was frankly unprepared for how spectacularly beautiful it was. Everywhere you look there is a post card view!

We were there for three full days with a full travel day on either end. From Frutillar we drove back to Puerto Montt the day after the regatta ended with the usual multiple leaving takes 1 (Lisa forgot her suitcase), 2 (Lisa had the AirBnB key on her bag) and 3rd time’s a charm. Shocker, I know!

We took a 2 hour flight from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, an old fishing village that has turned into a bit of a chi chi (as chi chi as Patagonia gets) gateway town to Chilean Patagonia with some excellent restaurants and bars and even a distillery that bills itself as the southern most distillery. We picked up our rental car (a Nissa Versa standard) with the stern warning “NEVER OPEN THE DOOR WITHOUT A FIRM GRIP” and being shown a few pictures of doors ripped off the hinges, checked into the cool little hotel and went a few miles up the road to see the Milodón caves.

The next day we drove to the Morrena Lodge just south of Torres del Paine, a 90 km drive north. But it took more than three hours as it was all gravel and in terrible shape. The lodge is located in what I would call an “outpost” called Rio Serrano – can’t really call it a city or town – of several hotels (one a really bougie place that we went to for drinks) and some government buildings. Once we got checked in we hiked around the Serrano River for a bit to stretch our legs. The Morrena Lodge is a really nice place with a very comfortable “campy” feel, a nice restaurant and a third space with great (Starlink-based) wifi. The booking we had was for one of their “tiny houses” out back which was really cool. Kind of reminded us of a cross between the van or cruising boat and a Hobbit house. It had two small twin beds and a small head/shower. While it was pretty cold at night, not quite down to freezing but close, there was decent heat and it was a very cool Alex and Lisa kind of experience.

The next day was the big hiking objective for me, the 12 mile hike up to Mirador Las Torres. It was an all day affair and thankfully I had done a 12 mile hike a few weeks earlier at home to test the gear and body. Good thing as it was a bit harder than that test. But no problems and the reward was the most amazing view of the signature 3 granite peaks in the Torres del Paine Massif. You can kind of get the view if you get close from the park road but the Torres are on the back side of a horseshoe with a little lake in the middle so you really do have to do the hike to get the full experience.

We – me and my two companions Kim Couranz and Laura Jeffers, this was a little much for Lisa but she did her own shorter hikes that day – left early for the hour and a half drive to the welcome center at the base. It took a little longer than expected because we stopped at every overlook for pictures. If you ever go there, renting a car is the trick because if you take one of the buses to the base, you end of having to do a transfer from a large bus to a small bus because of small bridge crossing. With a rental car, you just drive up to the base parking lot. Arrive early (before 8) because it does fill up!

The route is essentially up the valley made by the river that the lake at the top drains into, although it doesn’t really follow the grade of the river. It occasionally goes way up above the valley in places, then down across various foot bridges. This is the route: Torres del Paine viewpoint via Las Torres – El Chileno Trail on All Trails: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/chile/magallanes/mirador-torres-del-paine-via-sendero-las-torres-a-chileno

It was a very chilly morning but the cloud cover cleared by the hike start and the outer layer didn’t last long. We started a little on the late side at 9:15 (for the early shift anyway) and the reviews said it would be sort of a “conga line” affair which turned out to be pretty much true as this is the most popular hike in the park. It’s rated hard due to the length but is pretty accessible for a fit hiker, adding to the number of people that do it. That said, I was a bit surprised to see some really young kids and some adults that looked pretty out of shape. I’m a reasonably fit guy and it was hard for me. But then again, I do have to enroll in Medicare this year… It’s mostly just walking up with a number of steep spots, switchbacks, and rutted paths though wooded areas and much of the surface was loose granite rocks. Trekking poles really helped. The last 1.5k gets much steeper, just shy of “scrambling” but you had to pick your way through the boulders and seemed like it went on forever. Just when you think it was right around the corner there was another pitch. But eventually you could see Las Torres peak (pun intended) over the rock and the next turn was the “Ta Da” view.

Like climbing in cycling, you have to go at a pace that is comfortable for you regardless of what others are doing. I went out ahead of my companions as I am a pretty fast walker and took advantage of wider spots of trail to get around slower sections of the conga line. I didn’t stop at the refuge center half way and pressed on to the top not wanting to cool down, for a total time to the top of 3:15. I wasn’t sure where they were so found a good spot to eat my lunch and soak up the views. They are almost surreal in a way, the pictures really don’t do it justice.

After eating and relaxing for 45 min or so I decided to head back down and ran into Kim and Laura just getting to the top so we all hung out while they ate which made for about an hour and a half at the top. The weather was SPECTACULAR with not much wind and bright sunshine. The forecast a week out had been for rain everyday so we got really lucky. We saw TWO proposals and a gazillion Instagram poses with las Torres as a backdrop.

The trip down was about the same, three and a half hours. While it was easier, I was being cautious not to slip and/or pound my knees too badly as I definitely was getting tired. That’s when you start making mistakes, so caution was key. Again I was doing a pretty good job of leap frogging the conga line and again distanced myself. I waited at the refuge center for a bit and we joined up after a brief rest and to shed the final layer of leggings.

Getting towards the bottom, I was definitely smelling the barn (and needing el baño) so I booked it on the last easy mile to the end and waited for Kim and Laura to finish. We finally got back to the lodge for dinner at about 8pm where Lisa and her hiking companion Carol Cronin and the Callisons, who arrived that day, were just sitting down to dinner. The two beers felt really good!

The second day we were all a little tired and I certainly was a little sore and on point it was raining and cold. We had booked a catamaran tour to see the glacier at the top end of Lago Grey but when we got there, we were told it was cancelled due to the weather. The safe bet was to rebook the next day, so sadly we would miss it as we were headed back to Santiago. In retrospect we should have stayed one or two more day in Torres del Paine instead of spending 3 days in Santiago at the end.

Anyway, after hanging around the Hotel Lago Grey and taking a quick walk around in the rain, we decided to find a lunch place followed by a hike as the forecast was for a couple hour weather window. The (late) lunch stop was on a little island with a walkway to it and some guest houses. This seems to be one of the few places to eat actually in the park. No doubt was grandfathered in when the park was created in the 70s. It was a nice stop and surprisingly not particularly crowded given it was the only thing around. We had driven by it on the way to Mirador Las Torres so was cool to stop there.

The food was good and the view amazing. And right on cue after lunch the sun came out so we went just down the road to a short hike up to a view of the area – Mirador Condor. While it stopped raining, the wind was howling and the higher we got, the stronger it got, maybe blowing 40 knots at the top. It was hard to stand against it and frankly was a little scary to get up. It was such an amazing 360° view of all the local “Lagos and Riós” as Lisa put it. The crazy puffs on the lakes were interesting. Well worth the effort.

We eventually scampered down as the rain started again and drove a bit further into the park to see a waterfall that connects two lakes and then headed back to the lodge. Even though the distances in the park are on the order of a few to 10km, it takes a while in the gravel at 20-30 km/hr. We had a nice dinner with Steve, Janet, Kim, Carol and Laura for our last night. The next day we drove back to Puerto Natales through the park and out a different way to avoid the potholes on the route up. Funny, our park passes had expired and wen were prepared to give a song and dance that we were just driving through, but there was a “strike” and the people at the gate said something to the effect of “whatevs”. After the easy drive through the park (the gravel roads in the park are much better maintained!) and back to Puerto Natales on the paved road, we dropped the car and got our flight to Santiago.

I’ve only shown a few highlight pictures here, but check out my detailed photo album for more: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ShYBHZMkvzkkThjaA

I’m not going to write about Santiago because it wasn’t particularly interesting, but we did do a nice Maipo Valley wine tour that we wrote about on Find Penguins.