Patagonia: Torres del Paine to El Chaltén
Patagonia punishes tight itineraries. Four seasons pass in an afternoon, the wind on the Pehoé shore reaches a hundred kilometres an hour, and the Base de las Torres hike is simply not on some days. Every good route here has slack built into it.
Three nights inside the Chilean park, three on the Argentine side, and one long crossing at Cerro Castillo between them. Fitz Roy from El Chaltén and the Perito Moreno calving face are the two things nobody regrets the drive for.
It works for walkers and for people who would rather not. The same route runs as day hikes from an estancia, or as three nights of the W circuit in refugios, without changing the lodging on either end.
In from Santiago, a night on the Magellan Strait, and the cemetery cypresses that explain the town’s wool money.
The steppe road via Puerto Natales, with the Milodón cave, arriving to the Paine massif in the late light.
Nine hours up the Ascencio valley to the tarn below the three towers, with an early start against the afternoon wind.
The catamaran to the calving face, icebergs in the lake, and an easy afternoon on the Pehoé shore.
Into the middle of the massif for the hanging glacier, or the spare day if the weather has taken one already.
The Cerro Castillo crossing and the long steppe drive to El Calafate on Lago Argentino.
The walkways at the ice front in the morning, then a boat along the south face and an afternoon on the estancia.
Up the Viedma road to the village under Fitz Roy, and an evening walk to the Chorrillo del Salto.
The climb to the lake under Fitz Roy, or the gentler Laguna Capri traverse for anyone who prefers it.
Back down to El Calafate for the flight to Buenos Aires and the connection home.
Related itineraries
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Nine days that start low in the Sacred Valley, so the altitude never becomes the story.
South Island: Queenstown, Fiordland, Mount Cook
Eleven days from the fiords to the glaciers, with a night on the water at Doubtful Sound.