Hiking TDP
Dear all,We need some advice on our hiking plan in Torres del paines. We are on a tight schedule and do not have the time to do the entire W trekking.
We are with 4 girls so we were thinking about renting a car at the airport, pick up some hiking gear in el calafate (some of us might want to rent hiking poles) and drive to Torres del paines straight away.
We will fly from Buenos Aires to El calafate and will arrive around 12am.
From there on we have 2 possible options:
1
Park our car at camping las torres and stay the night there.
The next day hike up and down mirador del torres and afterwards drive to paines grande to stay the night.
The third day hike up and down mirador grey and stay the night in paine grande.
The forth day take the boat trip across lago Pehoe and back (if possible walk to viewpoint mirador cuernos). Afterwards we planned to drive back to camping las torres.
The fifth day we will drive back to El calafate.
2
Park our car at camping paine grande and stay the night there.
The next morning hike up and down mirador grey, stay the night at paine grande.
The third day take the boat across lake pehoe and back. Drive to mirador torres and try to walk to camping chileno or if possible camping torres.
The next morning hike up to mirador torres early to see the sunset and hike back to camping las torres.
The fifth day we will drive back to El calafate.
Is this a realistic schedule? Which one would you recommend and is it even possible to park our car everywhere in the Parc?
1
If you have your own car be flexible. If the weather is good go to the Torres lookout but try to camp above to see the viewpoint early in the morning at sunrise when there are usually no clouds. If the weather is bad go to Grey first. You can park you car everywhere in the park, no safety issues at all. We left our car and hiked the full circuit. You will probably go to El Chalten too and you will have very good scenery there too2
It seems like you have enough time to do the W (4 days and it can be done. I did it over 4 days last year). I personally think that Glacier Grey can be missed, and that the French Valley is one of the best bits of the whole trek. I'd be focusing on going there and mirador torres. And seeing as your going/coming from El Calafate, you could do a quick stop at the Perito Moreno Glacier. Be careful, as taking food across the border can be difficult (and some of it may be confiscated).3
Good advice by trent. Regarding the food, you cannot bring any fresh food like vegetables, fruits or meat. You can bring packaged food, cans, chocolate and stuff like that and also cheese from a wellknown brand and sealed like Sancor or La Serenissima in Argentina. It is important to declare everything as there are important fines.Food inside TDP is very expensive and there is no shop to buy anything when going directly from El Calafate to TDP. They register the car and parts of your lugagge.
