Torres del Paine Trek

On arrival in El Calafate you will be met at the airport and transferred to your hotel in Calafate town. In the evening you will meet your local trek leader who will hold a pre-departure briefing (normally around 7.00pm). Please check the notice board or ask at Reception to confirm the time and place of your meeting.

You will leave El Calafate in the early morning by regular bus service to the Chilean frontier. Having completed passport formalities you will change buses and continue on to Las Torres, the starting point for your trek. Here you will spend your first night. Torres del Paine National Park was declared an international biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1978. Jagged snow-capped mountain peaks contrast with beautiful turquoise lakes to create breathtaking scenery that is undoubtedly some of the finest you will see anywhere. There are four huge glaciers in the national park, Grey, Dickson, Pingo and Tyndall, that regularly disgorge icebergs into the lakes. We spend the night in Refugio Las Torres.

The Towers (Torres) of Paine are three granite pinnacles that stand overlooking a deep valley and are all that remain of a once great cirque, having been slowly eroded over time by the sheer force of glacial ice. The tallest of the Towers, Torre De Agostinia is 2850 metres high. The towers are what give the national park its name and the return trip takes approximately 9 hours over a well-defined path. It is well worth the effort as the views from the base of the towers over the barren surroundings are spectacular! The lookout at the base of the Towers is the highest point (approx 950 metres) on your trek. We return to Refugio Las Torres in the late afternoon.

We leave Las Torres and trek towards the Los Cuernos Refuge. The pace is relatively easy today. The path takes us across small mountain streams and through eroded gullies to our refugio at Los Cuernos where we spend the night.

After breakfast we take a side trip into the French Valley, which lies between the Cuernos del Paine and Cerro Paine Grande, for fantastic views of the Needles, Mascara, Hoja and Cabeza de Indio, which lie behind the horns. We trek through forests, past waterfalls and come to a clearing that provides views of the magnificent French Glacier. In the afternoon we continue our trek down to the Pehoe Refugio. This is the longest trekking day in the program.

Leaving Pehoe we trek for approximately 4 hours before arriving at the Grey Refuge where we will spend the night. After a break at the refuge we follow the undulating path along the lake's often-steep banks to the Grey Glacier viewpoint. Here you will have spectacular views of the stunning Grey Glacier. Later we return to the Grey Refuge for the night.

This morning, providing the weather is okay we take a boat across the face of the magnificent Grey Glacier (See 'Itinerary Variation' information below). After our boat trip we reluctantly leave the spectacular surrounds of the national park and, farewelling our trekking leader, we return by regular bus to El Calafate, arriving in the late evening. Remember to keep your passport handy this day for the border crossing back into Argentina. Upon arrival in El Calafate we are transferred to our hotel.

With our Argentinean guide on hand we continue our exploration of Patagonia. A short drive brings us to the Perito Moreno glacier. UNESCO declared the Glaciers National Park a World Heritage Site in 1981. Thirteen glaciers descend and flow into the Viedma and Argentino Lakes to form the Patagonian Continental Ice Field. During our visit to the park we will witness the most impressive of the glaciers, the Perito Moreno Glacier, which descends to the surface of the water across a five-kilometre frontage and reaches a height of sixty metres. The vivid hew of the ice floes and the dull roar of huge chunks of ice breaking away from the glacier, is unforgettable. Our full day excursion includes a mini-trek on the magnificent glacier. We return to El Calafate in the evening.

Your trek ends in El Calafate after breakfast.