View Full Version : Possible New long hike in Patagonia anyone heard of it?
wordstew
10-04-2018, 12:18
Anyone heard of this yet
https://thepointsguy.com/news/new-chile-route-of-the-parks-patagonia/
Here is a possible new long haul hike for any adventurous sort who wants to be one of the first to do a thu-hike of this.
Why does it have to be first to do goal? Sounds like a wonderful thru if being the 200th. I need 9 lives. Not another wonderful to add to the burgeoning bucket list. 17 Chilean NPs! This just knocked Running with the Bulls down several notches. Still going to the tomato fight in Spain though. TU WS. :)
wordstew
10-05-2018, 07:35
You have a point HOH where/when/how is up to you. Still though as you said this could be a nice addition to the bucket list
fiddlehead
10-05-2018, 08:10
I had 4 of my FB friends send me that link.
I hike a lot internationally and OK, I put it on my list.
But the list is long.
We'll see. Not to happy about the crime rate in South America. (hiked in Bolivia in the 90's and a friend got robbed at gunpoint)
But I think Patagonia is probably OK.
I'll have to research it a bit more.
But for now: It's Sweden and Scotland for next summer.
Fiddlehead, where did you hike in Bolivia? Just curious - there's a ton of the country I haven't covered, but I've spent a fair amount of time in Cochabamba and a bit in Santa Cruz and La Paz.
colorado_rob
10-05-2018, 08:27
I had 4 of my FB friends send me that link.
I hike a lot internationally and OK, I put it on my list.
But the list is long.
We'll see. Not to happy about the crime rate in South America. (hiked in Bolivia in the 90's and a friend got robbed at gunpoint)
But I think Patagonia is probably OK.
I'll have to research it a bit more.
But for now: It's Sweden and Scotland for next summer. Yup, all of this, except our "incident" was in Ecuador (not actually robbed, but close call, and we already did the Scotland thing, but Sweden looks enticing....)
But the positives: would be an "off season" hike, meaning Jan-March would be the best time, plus the Chilean peso is cheap, meaning cheap trip once you get down there. And, this will give us a perfect incentive to work on our Spanish, which we've wanted to do for years, but had no real incentive.
The hike is fantastic looking, thanks for the heads up!
1700 miles of those views...sign me up! Seriously though, I had looked at the W in Patagonia, but got turned off by the reports of all the crowds at the designated campsites (makes the AT bubble seem tame in comparison). I don't need isolated backcountry the entire time, but I don't care for the hut to hut thing either. This might warrant some more research!
wordstew
10-05-2018, 16:41
I'm curious to get some accounts from people who have hiked that part of the world. Other than the stellar views I see on the net have no Idea what one would expect hiking in this part of the world, IE: trail difficulty, resources/water Huts towns, re-supply, transport.....
fiddlehead
10-05-2018, 17:53
We did a few weeks hiking in Peru around Cusco (Inca trail and then went on to some old roads we found on maps and that was the good stuff (no tourists)
Then we went to La Paz and were about to do a hike for about 4 days (I don't remember exactly where when some hikers came into town who had just been robbed of all their gear at gunpoint.
So instead, we went down the Camino del Muerto to Rurrenabaque and took a guide into the jungle for 3 days I believe it was.
That was great but it wasn't the mountains (like I prefer)
Most of our hiking was in Peru though.
This was in '95, before you needed guides.
Of course, you hope with the guides it is a lot safer.
I think I'll be putting S America on the back burner as I'm into the E1 trail in Europe right now and want to start piece-ing that together.
It's 5,000 + miles so might take a while.
This is the result of Douglas Tompkins (The North Face) bequest of land for parks in Chile.
“Douglas Rainsford Tompkins was an American conservationist, outdoorsman, philanthropist, filmmaker, agriculturalist, and businessman who assembled and preserved the land which became the largest gift of private land to government in South America.”
Wikipedia
Wayne