Patagonia

Sue Carpenter is dazzled by the beauty and challenge of Patagonia

Our landing in Punta Arenas, lurching violently from side to side as we battled through cross winds, confirmed my worst expectations: that the only predictable thing about the weather in Patagonia is the fearsome winds, gusting up to 190mph.

"This is the beauty and challenge of Patagonia," grinned our guide, Pato, as we drove on to Puerto Natales, gateway to the Torres del Paine National Park, pilgrimage centre for international trekkers and mountaineers.

The anticipation mounted next morning as we joined a busload of backpackers bound for the 450,000 acre park. After unloading our gear at the Refugio Las Torres, we layered up our fleeces and waterproofs and set off amid heavy cloud on the well-trodden ‘W’ route that links three valleys - Valle Ascencio to the three Torres (towers) themselves, Valle Frances to Campamento Británico and Refugio Pehoé to the foot of Glacier Grey.

Our first trek, to the base of the Torres, was rated the most arduous in the park, involving a steep ascent, a roller-coaster through woodland, and a final steep climb up rocky moraine. Pato handed out ski sticks to steady ourselves with, and we began the upward trudge. By the midway point at Chileno it was starting to snow. We elected to continue to the base of the moraine, but there the snow had whipped into such a fury that it was too dangerous to ascend.

Back at the toasty refugio we entered into the spirit of the park. Hiking boots are left on pegs outside, accommodation is in basic dorms (BYO pillow and sleeping bag) and bathrooms are shared. You bring your own food or tuck into the set dinner, which, at Las Torres, was an unexpected treat of Waldorf salad, stuffed beef and murtilla mousse, washed down with Gato, the local red plonk. "I will do my sun dance tonight," declared Pato, "and tomorrow I guarantee you will have good weather."

Next morning, hallelujah, was as if the lights had been switched on. Here was Patagonia in all its wild glory! Barren grassland, jagged snow peaks, and the elusive Torres, great walls of granite against a sharp blue sky. Skipping a leg of the W, we took a catamaran across the ethereal turquoise Lago Pehoé to Refugio Pehoé, in the shadow of the park’s tallest peak, Paine Grande, at 3050m. That afternoon’s hike took us to a wild windswept cliffside above Lago Grey, where the sun dazzled upon the lake and beyond lay the incredible clustered icebed of the glacier.

Unpredictable to the end, day three in Patagonia dawned as gentle as the Swiss Alps in summer. I awoke at 6.30am - soundproofing is not a refugio attribute - in time to catch the soft pink sunrise on Paine Grande. Our long walk up the Valle Francés, beneath the fabled black-tipped Cuernos (horns) and into the white bosom of Paine Grande, was the most stunning and challenging of the trip. The sun glistened on leaves and lakes as we threaded past bushes of calafate and red-flowered notro and into the steep rocky valley. At the top, we could see all the way to lakes Skottsberg, Nordenskjöld and Pehoé, and the distant white box of hotel Explora. We descended confidently like mountain goats, singing with elation - only sad that the W doesn’t have more prongs.

Sue Carpenter is a freelance travel journalist, who frequently writes for YOU magazine.