The Towers of Paine by John Warburton-Lee

In a landscape sculpted by wind and ice, the Towers of Paine stand proud: blades of granite soaring six thousand feet into the Patagonian sky. Swathes of ice reach around the base of the massif before petering out at the edge of turquoise lakes. These glaciers are finger-like extensions of the Southern Patagonian ice-cap, a great sheet of ice, 240 miles long, which divides Chile in two, isolating the Magallanes Region in the far south from the remainder of the country.

From Puerto Montt, the last major town of central Chile, it is a 900-mile journey south to Puerto Natales the northernmost town in the Magallanes Region. By ferry, it takes three days, wending a convoluted path between off-shore islands and the steep, stark fjords of the mainland. The slow pace of this journey enabled us to gain a feel for the ruggedness of the region that we were entering as forested hillsides and distant volcanoes gave way to an icy wilderness punctuated by imposing mountains.

After the long ferry journey, Puerto Natales appears as a cheerful huddle of brightly painted buildings clinging bravely to the shore of the Gulf of Almirante Montt. The waterfront is a teeming mass of gulls, tufted ducks and black-necked swans. Hundreds of cormorants roost on the rotting timbers of a disused pier. Puerto Natales was founded in 1911 to support the region’s massive sheep ranches, but now it is better known as a ferry terminus for visitors to Torres del Paine National Park.

The 90-mile drive to the National Park took us through spectacular windswept country. Forests of stunted trees and scrub alternated with broad valleys of fenced ranch land. Estancia houses stood isolated, islands in a sea of swaying grass, each protected by a screen of tall conifers. Heavily fleeced sheep hunkered down behind tussocks of tawny grass for shelter. Coots, ducks and flamingos clustered around the fringes of shallow tarns whilst great flocks of upland geese, buff-necked ibis and lapwing settled on the plains to feed. A herd of wild horses galloped across the pampas, tossing their heads in a display of wild exuberance, against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains.

The scenery became increasingly desolate as we approached the national park. After several tantalising glimpses, we crested a rise to be confronted by the fantastic panorama of the full Paine Massif: on the left, the solid block of Cerro Paine Grande, its great summit heavy with cornices and fluted snow faces; in the centre, the chocolate-coloured spires of the Cuernos; and on the right, the sheer rock walls and perfect lines of the Torres, the alluring towers that lend their name to the park.

Established in 1959, Torres del Paine National Park contains 600,000 acres of the most exhilarating scenery you could wish for: a wilderness of magellanic forests, deep brooding lakes, clear rivers, expansive glaciers and commanding mountains. The park is home to 105 species of birds ranging from condors and austral parakeets to rheas - the South American ostriches. Herds of guanacos, a form of llama, browse the grassland. Other mammals include hares, foxes, skunks, huemul deer and in winter, pumas come down from their mountain lairs. 160 miles of well-marked trails offer walks varying from short hikes through to several-day expeditions. The circuit of the Paine Massif is one of the great walks of the world, taking between 6-10 days.

We established our base-camp beside the Rio Serrano. Having put up my tent I wandered along the river bank, stopping to watch a fisherman haul out a good-sized salmon. I crossed the river by an old warped wooden bridge and scrambled up the hill behind to a vantage-point from where I could see across the flood plain towards rivers of blue glacial ice cascading down from the flanks of distant mountains. A condor soared high above me as I watched two gauchos on horseback gallop across the plain chasing a herd of horses that they then drove through the river in an explosion of spray.

Over the next few days we explored the low lying regions of the park, following narrow paths through wild rolling uplands carpeted in spiky moss-covered gorse, down into quiet wooded valleys, to emerge at remote lake shores.

Patagonia is subject to violent mood swings. At one moment it can be warm and invigorating, a rich canvas of natural colours alive with the honking of geese, cries of raptors and hammering of woodpeckers, and the next, comfortless and austere as thick grey cloud descends over the mountain peaks. Gale-force winds spring up with little warning, whipping the surface of the lakes into a frenzy of white-capped waves. Faced with this onslaught, animals and birds alike seek shelter.

We set off on our circuit of the massif on one of the rare perfect Patagonian days, beneath unblemished azure skies and burning hot sunshine. As we followed the Rio Paine valley around the eastern and northern sides of the massif, our perspective of the main peaks changed all of the time. The peaks are made up of clearly distinct bands of rock that vary from light grey to dark brown and purple. In the evening, as the sun set, the Towers glowed rose pink. The highest mountains were cloaked in mantles of snow and ice with glaciers perched in the hanging valleys as though suspended by some invisible thread from the summits. But increasingly, as we circled around to the northwest, it was the great expanse of the Patagonian ice cap that drew our gaze.

An awkward ascent, hopping from tussocks to old stumps through a deep mire, and then a stiff climb up steep screes, led to the high point of the circuit, the John Garner Pass. From this elevated viewpoint the peaks of the Paine massif appeared as tightly packed turrets in some fairyland castle. To our west, the great sheet of ice that stretched before us was almost too much to take in. The Grey Glacier stretched as far as the eye could see, punctuated only by a line of bare peaks that separated it from the main bulk of the ice cap. The other side of the mountains, to the south and east, the pampas stretches all the way to the ocean. It is as if the great ice field had finally run out of energy when it reached the immovable mass of the Paine massif.

We dropped 1,800 feet, swinging down from the twisted morass of gnarled trunks and roots that covered the hillside, to the edge of Lago Grey. Close up, the surface of the glacier was impossibly broken by closely packed crevasses. The glacier’s snout rose up from the water’s edge in a wall of ice 50 feet high, riven by cracks, fissures and caves. The glacier constantly creaked and groaned, animated by the enormous pressure that forces it inexorably forwards. Every now and then a massive block of ice calved off into the water. Under an overcast sky the icebergs looked almost magical, weird ice sculptures emanating a blue light from deep within them.

The culmination of our time in the park was a climb up into the heart of the massif to see the Towers in all their glory. We contoured around the southern face of the mountains, in the shadow of the Cuernos, dropping into countless ravines as we crossed the grain of the country. Above us, waterfalls tumbled down the mountainside from glaciers that hung over the lip of high cols. Skirting the edge of Lago Nordenskjold, we climbed up into the Ascensio Valley where we spent a wild night, blasted by gusts of wind that threatened to tear our tents apart.

Next day, we continued up the valley before clambering up the chaos of boulders and moraine that led to the cirque at the base of the Towers. Scrambling over the edge of the cirque, we were confronted by a broad but deep, boulder-strewn depression with a lake in the bottom. On the far side, above a smooth rock wall plastered over with old, stone-encrusted ice, rose the three soaring monoliths of the Towers of Paine. We stood, open-mouthed, gazing in awe at sheer faces that swept up to imperious summits high in the sky above us.

As an eco-tourism destination, Torres del Paine National Park has a huge amount to offer. There is sensational scenery, fabulous wildlife and air of unsurpassed clarity. The park has a network of luxury lodges, refuges and campsites to cater for all tastes and budgets.