TREKKING IN PATAGONIA, Guest Post by Owen Floody

Cerro Torre, Las Glaciares Park, Argentina

Our friend Owen Floody did a trekking and photo tour of Patagonia in Chile and Argentina this spring.  Owen recently retired from a career of teaching and research at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He has always been an avid photographer and in his retirement has taken several trips that allow him to pursue his passion. Here is a short reflection on his Patagonia trip and some of his excellent photographs.

Andean Condor

I spent the first half of March in Patagonia, on a 14-day trek run by Mountain Travel Sobek which included Torres del Paine National Park (4 days), Perito Moreno Glacier (1 day), and Los Glaciares National Park (3 days). The other days were spent assembling in Punta Arenas (1 day), sightseeing in Buenos Aires (between 1 and 2 days) or traveling from one place to another. Most of the folks in my group arrived a day before me and did visit a penguin colony near Punta Arenas. During the first half of the trip, we were in southern Chile, having met and begun our travels in Punta Arenas. Later, we moved into Argentina, ultimately beginning our homeward flights in Buenos Aires. The group of eleven ranged in age from the mid-40s to -70s. But don't be fooled by the upper age boundary, as nearly all were impressively fit and experienced.  The hikes themselves didn't include huge elevation gains.  However, some were long (on the order of 15 miles) and there typically were a lot of ups-and-downs as we crossed valleys or glacier moraines.  The weather was good in the sense that we almost always had clear views at our hikes' destinations.  On the other hand, we ran into rain several times and frequently were buffeted by high winds, one of the things that Patagonia is famous for. The hiking was manageable but strenuous.

Torres del Paine, taken from a scenic lake near their base and at the end of our day hike in the Ascension Valley.

Our major activities in Torres del Paine park included four hikes--along the Ascension and French valleys and the shores of Lakes Nordenskjold and Grey (avid trekkers may recognize these as components of the well-known "W route"). We hoped to see as many of the famous mountains in this park as possible, including the Paine peaks (cumbres), towers (torres) and horns (cuernos). 

 

Cuernos del Paine, as viewed at sunrise from our lodging.

The photo above was taken from our lodging, a refuge tucked into the narrow strip of land between the base of the Cuernos and the shore of Lake Nordenskjold. Incidentally, maps suggest that a more distant view could be achieved elsewhere with little or no hiking. But a significant hike may be required for a good view of the Torres.

Chilean Hawk

We saw some nice birds in Torres del Paine but the group was moving so fast that it was nearly impossible to find the time to change lenses, take a shot, and hope to keep up. We had one nice sighting of condors alongside the road. And our best wildlife encounter was with a very calm juvenile Chilean hawk that forced me to change lenses and get the shot despite the fact that we were in the midst of a hike.

In Torres del Paine we stayed at Hosteria Las Torres (at the south end of the Ascension valley), Refugio Los Cuernos (right at the foot of the cuernos), and Refugio Paine Grande (at the northwest end of Lake Pehoe), all of which I think are pretty standard places for folks hiking the W route.

Glacier overview

Our visit to the Perito Moreno Glacier was brief but pleasant. All of us viewed one face of the glacier by boat and spent up to several hours taking in other views of it from a wonderful system of metal walkways where the views were spectacular. Optional tours, including glacier walks, were available, but strangely only to those under sixty, excluding me.

Glacier calving

It never hurts to be lucky when traveling, and we were in the right places at the right times to see two instances of glacier calving, with roughly seven-story slabs of ice tumbling down to cause an initial explosion of water followed by a long succession of large waves. 

 

El Chalten, Los Glaciares Park, Argentina

The last phase of our tour used the town of El Chaltén, within Los Glaciares Park in Argentina, as a base. As you approach this town, there is little doubt as to why you're there.  Our three hikes all were geared toward providing views of the most famous peaks in this park, Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. 

This trip was a good one, to what for me was a new part of the world.  It impressed upon me both the rigors and rewards of hiking in windy, changeable, Patagonia.  Though we hiked a lot, we left many trails untouched and possibly demanding exploration on some future trip.  More generally, though, I was impressed by all of the wonderful sights packed into southern South America, and will be on the lookout for treks, cruises, and other trips that will permit me to explore more of them.

 

PATAGONIA: Spectacular Scenery and Abundant Wildlife

View from Hosteria Pehoe in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

The trip to Patagonia in 1995 is among our top family vacations ever. At the extreme southern tip of South America,  Patagonia is a land of rugged seashores, jagged mountains, enormous glaciers, and vast, windy grasslands. It is half the size of Alaska with just 1.5 million inhabitants. As the climber Yvon Chouinard, founder of the Patagonia outdoor clothing line, says, “It is a mystical, almost imaginary place.” 

Rounding up the cattle

Some people in Patagonia live on remote estancias, or ranches, but the majority reside in Punta Arenas, a city that had its heyday in the era of clipper ships.  In those days, before the Panama Canal was built, ships traveling from Europe and the east coasts of the Americas had to go around the southern tip of South America to reach San Francisco and other west coast ports.  Victorian style architecture still dominates Punta Arenas.

Magellanic Penguin

Punta Arenas (which means Sandy Point in Spanish) sits on the edge of the Straits of Magellan, the connector of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We flew into the Punta Arenas airport and then rented a car and drove north to the spectacular national park, Torres del Paine, passing few cars or signs of habitation on the way.  We did stop at a penguin colony and walked the paths between the nesting burrows of Magellanic penguins, who go there each Austral summer to raise their chicks. (See my post for June 20, 2011.)

Mustering the sheep on the Patagonian plain.

The broad plains bordering the Straits of Magellan provide rich grazing for huge herds of sheep and cattle and nesting grounds for millions of birds.  As we drove north we were awed by the giant flocks of flamingos, endless nesting geese, and vast array of small birds, all in the midst of laying eggs and rearing their young.

Torres del Paine is truly one of the last Edens on Earth.  Towering granite peaks rise above ice cold lakes, and flocks of giant Andean condors soar on the updrafts created by the ever present winds that collide with the mountains.  On the grassy slopes below the peaks, herds of guanacos, once in danger of becoming extinct, are now multiplying. Patagonia is a wildlife photographer’s paradise. I used a few of the photos we took of guanacos, foxes, penguins, and rheas (South American relatives of ostriches) to illustrate my book South American Animals (Morrow, 1999.)

Guanaco, Torres del Paine

In Torres del Paine we stayed at Hosteria Pehoe, a comfortable and somewhat rustic hotel with a spectacular view of the “torres”, or towers, of rock that are the iconic image of the park.  The hotel where we stayed when we went to Chile’s Atacama desert four years ago, the Tierra Atacama, has recently opened a sister hotel in Torres del Paine called the Tierra Patagonia.  Here’s a short (one minute) video from Tierra Patagonia that gives an overview of what you can expect when you visit the park.  It brought back many memories for us.  We’d love to go back someday.  Perhaps we will!
Update:  Here's another absolutely amazing video from Tierra Patagonia.  Enjoy!