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South America · Chile and Argentina
Torres del Paine to the Perito Moreno ice field
Fourteen days across the southern ice fields, walking the Paine circuit in the quiet weeks after the summer crowds have gone and the lenga forests have turned. We cross into Argentina by road, put crampons on at Perito Moreno, and finish beneath Fitz Roy with two unhurried days in El Chaltén.
Punta Arenas, Chile
Arrive and settle. A route briefing at five, then dinner together — king crab, because it would be rude not to. Kit is checked tonight rather than at the trailhead.
Torres del Paine
Five hours of open pampas, guanaco and wind, and then the Paine massif appears on the horizon in a way that stops conversation in the vehicle. We make camp at Serón in the late afternoon.
Dickson
An easy first walking day along the Paine river, mostly flat, designed to let legs and packs come to an understanding. Dickson camp sits on a lake the colour of milk.
Los Perros
Into the beech forest and up. Short in distance, steady in climb, and it ends at a glacier lagoon with icebergs in it. An early night, because tomorrow is the pass.
Paso John Gardner
The big day. Four hours up through scree and snow to 1,200 metres, and then the Southern Ice Field opens out below — fifty kilometres of it, all at once. A long descent to Grey camp follows.
Lago Grey
A gentler day along the eastern shore of the glacier, with two suspension bridges that everyone photographs and nobody lingers on. We finish at Paine Grande in time for the light on the horns.
Valle del Francés
Day packs only. Up into the amphitheatre between Paine Grande and the Cuernos, where the hanging glacier calves through the morning and the sound arrives a second after the ice does.
Mirador Las Torres
The classic finish: a pre-dawn start up the moraine to the mirador, with the three towers going from grey to rose to orange over about eight minutes. Down for a late breakfast and a first shower in days.
El Calafate, Argentina
A border crossing at Cerro Castillo, formalities that take longer than they should, and then east to El Calafate on the shore of Lago Argentino. A rest afternoon, deliberately unprogrammed.
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
Crampons, a short rope, and three hours on the glacier itself with an ice guide — blue mill holes, meltwater channels, and the crack and collapse of the face going on somewhere behind you all day.
El Chaltén
Three hours along the Viedma shoreline into the village at the foot of Fitz Roy. Arrive at lunch; the afternoon is yours, and the bakery on the main street is the correct answer.
Laguna de los Tres
The finest day walk in the range and, in its last kilometre, one of the steepest. Fitz Roy and Poincenot rise straight out of the water at the top. Twenty kilometres, and worth every one of them.
El Chaltén
A second unstructured day. Guides offer the Loma del Pliegue Tumbado for the panorama, or the Chorrillo del Salto for an hour's flat walk. Final dinner in the village.
El Calafate (FTE)
A morning transfer back to El Calafate for afternoon flights. Onward connections from Buenos Aires the same evening are comfortable; we will tell you which ones work.
Reservations for Meridian Expeditions — reservations@meridianexpeditions.example · +1 (604) 555-0142. Bookings taken here are written back to the operator’s reservations platform; PEAK 15 remains the system of record.