Four days south of the end of the world….

It almost went horribly wrong, but in the end the Dientes Circuit trail was probably the most satisfying hiking trip I’ve ever done.

The American university contingent were glimpsed once from a suitably remote distance, and other than that I only bumped into a couple of people along the way, and then only very briefly. I shared a camping spot with a Belgian couple the first night but other than that and about ten minutes chatting to a couple from Alaska I had the place to myself, and what a place!

Certainly, the views of Fitz Roy or the Cuernos in Torres del Paine might stick in the mind as being more spectacular landscapes, but the experience as a whole in the Dientes de Navarino just all came together to be something very special. There is no sanitised trail, full of people carrying backpacks with wheels for the airport, and no ranger stations along the way. Indeed, it’s hard enough to find the marked circuit in some places. The trail itself is sometimes easy to follow, with an embryonic path forming in places, but at other times it’s near impossible to see any sign of the people that have gone before. Spotting way markers that are normally just three or four small stones against a background of, well, thousands of small stones can be very difficult at best.

The walking was continually varied and interesting to say the least. The descent from the final pass might even have been slightly spicier than that, starting with an exceptional scree run that led you directly into a steep snow traverse (big, deep cracks in the snow too) directly beneath a dangerously unstable cornice. The recent avalanche debris littering the traverse suggested that it might not be a place to linger for long….

As a personal experience, I loved every minute of it, even despite some very improvised, slightly epic navigation on day four. I admit that from a photography point of view, I don’t feel that I made the most of the area. The weather is a fickle beast down here: from a hiking point of view I can’t possibly complain, but the photographer in me felt very frustrated at times, never quite getting the right combination of location and conditions.

I’m not going to worry about it this time though – there was always one eye on the project but really, this one was just for me.

A fly in the ointment….

It’s not been that easy getting here. I had to pay an extortionate price for a RIB to myself across the Beagle Channel and when I arrived my arranged transport from Puerto Navarino to Puerto Williams broke down in a distinctly unsubtle, people racing with fire-extinguishers kind of way. All in all I’ve travelled around 450 miles south from the last place that I actually really wanted to see, all just to hike the most southernly, most isolated and one of the most lonely established trails in the world: the Dientes Circuit.

As far as I can make out from the list at the local police station there are around 5 people on it at the moment, which is not really that many for a five day walk. I’ve been looking forward to this since I left the UK: complete solitude. Not even so much as a trail or an established path, just a rough route in the wilderness of the last inhabited island before Cape Horn. Tonight at the hostel a group of around 35 to 40 Americans turned up for dinner….

They’re “doing the Dientes” tomorrow.

Gutted? Not even close.

I’m not trying to be anti-social here; it’s just that some time completely on my own, completely self sufficient in a proper wilderness was the whole point of this trek – I even stayed another day in town because I heard that there was a sole Kiwi lad coming to start the circuit today. Sure enough there was and I personally walked him out of town this afternoon. Ok, I walked him out the wrong end of town, but I’m sure he’ll figure it out at some point…. (it really wasn’t intentional)

After a couple of hours fretting about it, I asked just exactly what the group’s plans were, thinking that I could perhaps wait an extra few days for them to get enough of a head start that I didn’t have to see them. Thankfully, it sounds like the group is only hiking the first day of the circuit and spending three days camping in the same spot, doing short day hikes from there every other day. Better yet, they’re doing the low-level alternative route to day one, so if I stick to my intended route I might not see them at all, particularly as their intended campsite lies before the two trails converge.

How that campsite will cope with a group that large for three nights straight remains to be seen: everyone I’ve talked to that’s done the trail says that there’s hardly enough dry ground to pith the one tent: these are not “campsites” as such: no toilets or shower, just an outside chance at a patch or roughly level ground. You can make what you want of the fact the the group is a univeristy field trip from a Texas university studying Ecological Philosophy….

I’ve been looking forward to this trail, anticipating it to be one of the highlights of what’s already a rather exceptional trip. It’s got the potential to be someting that I’ve never experienced before just on the basis of being so remote, so isolated and so personal. To have to share it with a huge group like that would change it from what I’ve been looking forward to to the point that I’m not sure I’d want to do it: certainly it would still be a nice experience, but it wouldn’t be what I came here for.

Nevertheless, I’ll still leave tomorrow but not as early as planned and if I do end up meeting up with the University group I’ll probably come back to town. I like to think I’m a sociable kind of a guy, but I’ve come here with a clear idea of how I want to approach this outing and I’m quite happy to wait to achieve that if I have to. No great hurry. Worst case, it gives me another few days to keep trying to find a boat to Cape Horn.

I’ll make sure that I have the SPOT on tracking when I leave, so if I turn back it should be obvious!