Andes are rich in mineral resources, and mining is extensive – with Chile ranking as the world’s largest copper producer, supplying a third of the world’s copper consumption. Argentina is also a major copper producer, while the Bolivian Andes are particularly rich in tin; and historically, it was the mineral wealth of the Andes which supplied the Inca civilization – and later the Conquistadors – with silver and gold.
Torres del Paine national park lies a little under 2000km south of Santiago on the edge of the vast Campo de Hielo Sur or Southern Ice Field, fingers of which (the Grey, Tyndall and Dickson glaciers) penetrate deep into the national park. These feed the lakes and rivers which, in their turn, drain southward into the Seno Ultima Esperanza or Last Hope Sound. The lakes and rivers carry large volumes of suspended particles of rock produced by the action of glaciers (‘glacial milk’), and it is this which gives many of the lakes (such as Lago Pehoé and Lago Nordenskjöld) their vivid turquoise hue.
On the trail by Lago Pehoé (Walk 1)
The national park covers an area of some 240,000 hectares, and is roughly delineated by the Chilean-Argentine border and Argentina’s Los Glaciares national park to the north, the Río Zamora and the eastern shore of Lago Sarmiento in the east, the Southern Ice Field to the west, and the Río Serrano and the enormous Bernardo O’Higgins national park to the south. The Cordillera del Paine or Paine massif lies more or less at its centre, slightly separate from and to the east of the main Andes chain – a landscape of vertical granite spires and shattered rocky peaks, which emerge above unspoilt forest, fast-flowing mountain streams, spectacularly coloured lakes and massive glaciers.
Much of the Paine massif constitutes the exposed remnants of a granite laccolith – igneous rock, which was injected into the earth’s crust some 12 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, forcing the surrounding sedimentary rock upwards. An earlier intrusion (a mafic intrusion of monzonite, and later olivine-gabbro) underpins the granite laccolith. Since then the surrounding sedimentary rock has been gradually eroded, leaving the more resistant granite Torres (‘towers’) – along with other peaks such as Fortaleza and Cerro Espada – gloriously exposed. This exposed granite also forms the central portion or band of the Cuernos (‘horns’), while their dark, spiky upper bands constitute the shattered remnants of the surrounding sedimentary strata. The underlying intrusion is only partially exposed.
The southern portion of the Paine massif is bisected at its centre and towards its eastern side by the two river valleys, the Valle Francés and the Valle Ascencio. Both the Río Francés and the Río Ascencio drain south into Lago Nordenskjöld, which then drains into Lago Pehoé and Lago Toro; on the western side of the massif the huge Glaciar Grey feeds Lago Grey and the Río Grey.
THE SOUTHERN PATAGONIAN ICE FIELD
The Southern Patagonian Ice Field or Campo de Hielo Sur is the largest expanse of ice in the southern hemisphere outside Antarctica, stretching about 350km north to south and covering an area of about 16,800km2 – some 14,000km2 of which lies within Chile (predominantly within Bernardo O’Higgins national park), the rest being in Argentina. The average elevation of the Southern Ice Field is about 1400–1600m, although several of the glaciers descend to sea level in the west, and it reaches well over 3000m in places. Largest among its huge glaciers is the Pío XI or Bruggen glacier (the longest in the southern hemisphere outside Antarctica), some 64km long and covering an area of 1265km2; others include the O’Higgins (820km2), Jorge Montt (510km2), Tyndall (331km2) and Grey (270km2) glaciers in Chile, and the Viedma (978km2), Uspala (902km2) and Perito Moreno (258km2) glaciers in Argentina.
In all 48 major outlet glaciers have been identified, together with a further 100 smaller cirque and valley glaciers. Most of the major glaciers either terminate in the sea (on the Chilean side), including the Jorge Montt, Pío XI and the Serrano, or in freshwater lakes such as those in Torres del Paine and Los Glaciares national parks. Only three of these glaciers are not retreating, the Pío XI, San Rafael and the Perito Moreno. Otherwise, the retreat of glaciers in the area has been exceptionally rapid, the Grey some 2.3km and the Tyndall some 1.6km over the past 22 years, and the O’Higgins retreating 14.6km and losing an area of over 50km2 in the period 1896 to 1995 – one of the largest glacial retreats of the 20th century. Almost all of the glaciers are calving (shedding huge chunks of ice from their snout), often in spectacular fashion, into adjacent lakes or fjords.
Glaciar Grey (Walks 1 and 2)
The Southern Patagonian Ice Field forms only one part of what was once the Patagonian Ice Sheet; the North Patagonian Ice Field (now contained within the area of Chile’s Laguna San Rafael national park) is the other, smaller, remaining portion. About 17,500–18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period (the Llanquihue glaciation, as it is called in Chile), the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered an area of some 480,000km2, stretching roughly as far north as Puerto Montt, and also extended across the Andes some distance into Argentina.
Climate
The 16th-century English navigator and adventurer Thomas Cavendish had little positive to say for the Patagonian climate, describing it (or more specifically, the conditions he encountered in the Straits of Magellan) as ‘vile and filthy foul weather’. This is a little harsh, however, for while it is true there can be plenty of wind and rain in this part of the world, the climate isn’t always that grim. In Torres del Paine national park, days are long during the summer, and the weather can be wonderful, with some of the most magnificent cloud formations. You just need to come prepared for, well, foul weather.
Lone Ñirre (Nothofagus antarctica) and low cloud, near Mirador Cuernos (Walk 3)
Daytime temperatures in January/February (that is, summer in the southern hemisphere) in Torres del Paine average around 11°C, although it can vary enormously from around 24°C to just above freezing, and at night will feel much cooler. Precipitation levels also vary, generally increasing further west, and nearer the South Patagonian Ice Field.
Windswept trees near Glaciar Los Perros (Walk 1)
Weather conditions in Torres del Paine are notoriously difficult to predict, the huge glaciers in the area giving rise to various microclimates, which make accurate long-term weather forecasts almost impossible.
One thing trekkers have to get used to in Torres del Paine is the wind, which fairly blasts off the South Patagonian Ice Field straight into the Paine massif, and when it gets really strong (gusts of well over 100km/h are not uncommon) it can make walking almost impossible. Huts carry (tentative) forecasts for at least two or three days ahead, so it’s worth checking these and timing certain sections of your route – such as the crossing of Paso John Gardner – accordingly. It is not always windy, and there are plenty of days when it’s perfectly calm – but if you get round the entire Circuit without getting at least one day of high winds, not to mention a good dousing of rain, you can count yourself fairly lucky.
The wind is at its worst during the peak visitor months of January and February – conditions tend to be rather more settled (but naturally much colder) during the winter. But to quote the excellent local magazine Black Sheep (which has now sadly folded): ‘Wind is as much a character [of] the landscape as the mountains, trees and pampas themselves…. Prepare yourself as best you can, arm yourself with a good attitude, and enjoy.’ Sound advice.
Further north in Chile the climate is very different, with
