UKC

Anyone done these two circuits? Struggling to find much info on logistics etc on the internet. Planning for next March/April as guessing thats when best weather will be around.
Any info/tips much appreciated.

In reply to BedRock:

March/April might be a bit late. I would go Feb/March if I were you. Especially if you are going to do the full circuit. Its sort of lokey super commercial - when I was there Sodexho were running the park hotels etc, we came off the circuit and had to walk 20km along the road back to our car because we were not hotel guests and they would not let us use any park buses. Hitched, but you get the picture. AMAZING but busy.

Regards

D

In reply to Dauphin:

Fitzroy is easy peasy. Just rock up in town and go talk to the park rangers about current issues. Buy a day or twos worth of food and enjoy the views. As with TDP campsites are organized.

Regards

D

In reply to BedRock:

I did the W trek at Paine, which is half the circuit, and it was easy to organise. April is a bit late, March might be OK, but it's always variable, and windy, there. Plenty of travel agents on the streets in Puerto Natales can organise you the bus and ferry connections etc and just take a tent, stove food etc. The lodges are always booked up during high season, as there are lots of commercially organised groups and camp sites can be crowded. But once on the track people are spread out and people are not a problem. Natales has gear stores and a supermarket. Never been to Fitzroy/Chalten.

There is a Lonely Planet guide to trekking there and also check out the Thorn Tree Forum at lonelyplanet.com

In reply to BedRock:

This info is from Jan / Feb 2001 when I was travelling round South America. Prices will have changed but timings and places won't. Prices will almost certainly be cheaper in Argentina (Fitzroy leg) after currency collapsed a few years back.

Torres Details (Chilean bit)

Exchange rate was 330 pesos per Canadian dollar at the time (Yes I did record all this info in my travel book!).

Punta Arenas --> Puerto Natales 2000 pesos, 3 hours on bus (1500-1800) company Bories. Stayed in Casa Lili 3,500 pesos including breakfast.

Puerto Natales --> Entrance of Torres Del Paine, 3.5 hours by bus, bus company JB, cost 8,000 pesos return.

Torres del Paine Parque Entrance Fee 2,500 pesos.

You can camp or stay in the parque huts. I booked them in P. Natales.

I did the 'W' circuit in Torres, a fellow traveller did the 'O' circuit and we met up again at Glacier Grey.

Here's the locations I stopped at

Huts Chileno (near the famous towers you know and Valle del Silencio and Campo Britanico)
Refugio Cuevo
Refugio Pehoe
Refugio Grey
Admin / extrance exit.

Fitzroy Details

Argentinian Peso pegged at 1 to 1 with the US $ at time.

Puerto Natales --> El Calafate , 6 hours by bus, 9:00--> 15:00, bus company A. Prat 11,000 Chilean pesos

Visited Perito Moreno Glacier the next day. (30 pesos + 5 pesos entrance)

El Calafate --> El Chalten, 5 hours by bus, cost 25 pesos.

Stayed in Los Condores Alburque for 12 pesos.

Let me know if anything else you want to know, my little log book has it all recorded all these years later!

In reply to BedRock:

Found a further entry on exchange rates in my travel log book. It was 860 Chilean Pesos to the £ in Jan 2001. Just so you don't have to try and double convert the exchange rates!

In reply to BedRock:

http://www.besthike.com/southamerica/chile/paine.html

http://www.besthike.com/southamerica/argentina/fitz_roy.html

http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/south-america/trekking-in-the-patagonian-andes...

Thanks everyone!

In reply to BedRock:

I did both the W and D routes which I think is worth doing. Also consider doing it clockwise. Most people do it counter clockwise. It´s also worth knowing that there is a secret campsite not on the official map. From memory its half way between the first and second campsite going counter-clockwise. It used to be a campsite but they had problems with small rodents eating food from the tents and so stopped people using it.

I thought it was very very nice hike. Beware one section of the D can be quite boggy for long stretch.

Graham

In reply to BedRock:

Re timing; it depends what kind of conditions you'd like or are willing to put up with. As others said there are park hotels and all sorts around the Torres del Paine, and if you don't mind hanging out with all those people I imagine it's probably most comfortable in summer. When I went in July, however, there were about two other people in the entire national park. Everything was frozen so we camped where we liked, and even had a snoop round one of the hotels, which was entirely empty but unlocked and most eerie. There wasn't too much snow low down, so walking was ok, although the paths were often icy. Around Fitzroy was much snowier and more difficult walking (we weren't trying to do the whole circuit, although it would have made a fantastic ski tour!)

Basically I'm saying don't write off going at unusual times of year - you can have a very different kind of time depending on when you go but having had Torres del Paine entirely to myself in winter I'm not sure I'd want to go back with thousands of people in the summer.

Whatever you do I'm sure you'll have an awesome time, they're beautiful areas.

In reply to BedRock:

We did both in November/early december, was perhaps a little early though.

The paine circuit is great, we saw 2 other people in 6 days apart from on the W but it was the start of the season.
The campsites on the way are expensive to stay at so make sure you take lots of pennies to pay for them, the campsite before the pass on the circuit was pretty grim, as was the one after it. We made it a really long day by continuing on to the next campsite, this took about 10 hours.

We found the trekking in patagonia book by lonely planet brilliant with lots of info and guidance although day 1 is twice as long as the book states so beware.

Fitz roy is much easier and more laid back, we just did day 1 and 2 though as an animal ate all our food in camp.
Head to El Calafate then el chalten and just walk from there.

to get to torres you must get a bus from Puerto Natales which costs about £30 return (2008) and then pay to enter the park- another £20 or so, once in the park you also have to pay for some buses where as others are free. You can get a mini bus from the park entrance to the lodge at the start of the circuit for about a fiver, well worth it.
Each camp site costs around £7 per person per night, showers cost extra but you can get them at a few huts.

Whilst some may say that march/april is a bad time- the crowds will be gone by then and you will get it quieter like we did but be prepared for bad weather, we had snow and had to cross the pass in waist deep snow and gales, we took winter boots with us thankfully.

Have a good time, its such a beautiful place

In reply to PaleMan:

its is more expensive now- not cheaper

In reply to peas65:

In reply to peas65:
> (In reply to PaleMan)
>

and a lot busier by sounds of things. End of Jan / early Feb wasn't so busy back in 2001. Sure the big overland trucks came for a few days but usually just the one and the were gone very quickly! At the time I was able to do the booking in late December in P. Natales before heading south to Antarctica and returning a month later. The tickets to El Chalten were booked two days before, when I arrived in El Calafate.

Just looked up the company I used to book the huts and bus in P. Natales and they still exist and now have a website! http://www.comapa.com/en/

Also looked up the company I used to book the tickets to El Chalten when in El Calafate and they are still going and have a website http://www.chaltentravel.com/

After Fitzroy / Cerro Torres I headed north up to Comodoro Rivadavia. From there you can visit Parque Nacional Los Alerces. Well worth a visit and has stunning glacier blue lakes and mountains etc. It is 5 hours by bus from El Calafate to Comodoro Rivadavia.

Oh and the timing for Ushuaia if you fancy trying to catch a ship to Antarctica.

Punta Arenas ---> Rio Grande, 8.30 --> 16.30, Bus Techni-Austral
Rio Grande ---> Ushuaia, 18:00 ---> 21:30.

Basically bus stopped in Rio Grande at a road house whilst all the passengers and driver had dinner. Cost of bus ticket was 18,000 Pesos or £20.93 at the then exchange rate.

Have fun

In reply to BedRock:

If you go to Fitzroy trekking I'd recommend Paso Del Viento, it's a pass two days from El Chalten which will give you views over the Southern Ice field. You can then continue down alongside the field before completing the loop back to Chalten. It takes about 5 days, is self supported, no huts or anything, two river crossings, one of which is a Tyrolean, the other is f*cking cold. I met no people after day 1. Brilliant.

As mentioned earlier you are pretty close to Ushuaia, which has some good trekking as well. And the Dientes circuit, which is also recommended.

Jan/Feb is best time to go.

In reply to nawface:yep paso viento was lovely! That Tyrolean was safe as houses but gives food for thought when the river's high!! To the OP, watch out for mice when camping! we bivvied below the river crossing and one ate all my cigs!

In reply to BedRock:

I covered lots of popular and unrecorded treks in detail for Los Glaciares - Fitzroy, Cerro Torre, etc. in a guidebook I wrote a few years ago.

Info, pics, stories and articles at www.colinhenderson.co.uk.

Happy to try and answer any queries.

Colin

Article also here;

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=756