Those who love walking sooner or later want to do, or imagine, a trek in Patagonia. Now there is a new one to explore in an adventure without borders: 2800 kilometers in Chile, from Puerto Montt to Cape Horn: with the Ruta de los Parques (or Route of Parks) the dream of every walking enthusiast (and of bike trips). And of Douglas Tompkins, the founder of The North Face who invested millions of dollars to preserve Chilean Patagonia and make it a place where tourism marries environmental protection. In short, there is no longer just the Torres del Paine National Park.
What is the Route of Parks, trekking through the parks of Chile
It was announced a year ago, now it’s official. The Route of Parks path has just been inaugurated and is aimed at those who want to tread the ground with the light step of trekking or cycling a Patagonia different from the Argentine one known to most. A virgin territory made of infinite panoramas, powerful nature, peaks, lakes as far as the eye can see, expanses of glaciers, flora and fauna free to grow and prosper and corners truly never touched by human beings. And we know how being in nature makes us understand emotions better.
The itinerary, beaten and marked over years of work, stretches for 2800 kilometres across 17 parks, 60 communities and 11.5 million hectares immersed in Chile wilder and lead directly to what literature, exploration and geography consider the end of the world, Cape Horn.
The very long journey starts from the glacial lakes south of Puerto Montt in the Parque Nacional Alerce Andino. You descend towards Antarctica along the Chilean cordillera (including 940 km of navigation sections) until you reach the famous Torres del Paine, but you don’t stop there: the itinerary continues southwards to the end of South America. A path that already has traces of the myth within itself, given that it passes through Tierra del Fuego and arrives at Cape Horn.
There are 3 fundamental hiking routes: the Southern Way, the Patagonian canals and the World Way. The official website of the Ruta de Los Parques provides information, GPS maps for the 50 trekking routes, transport directions and accommodation.
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How and why the Chilean Patagonia trail was born
The Ruta de Los Parques arrives at the right time, given that the Torres del Paine park is overflowing with walkers to the point of having to introduce a maximum number of daily entries, making trips to Patagonia a challenge to book well in advance.
The credit goes above all to Douglas Tompkins, che fondò il brand outdoor The North Face becoming very rich and decided, together with his wife Kristine McDivitt, to donate a large portion of his earnings to the preservation of the Patagonian environment. The copy has invested millions of dollars in the purchase of lands between Chile and Argentina to free them from possible speculation and make them the cornerstone of the project of a route that would be among the most beautiful and exciting in the world.
In 2015 Tompkins passed away but his project did not stop. The Tompkins Conservation Foundation has sold 408,000 hectares previously purchased to the Chilean government, making it the largest donation of land from a private individual to an entity. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet speaks of an “unprecedented conservation effort”. In total,
Among other things, the Tompkins lands have made it possible to widen the boundaries of some of the parks that make up the Ruta de los Parques and to give birth to five more: Alacalufes, Cerro Castillo, Melimoyu, Patagonia and Pumalín.
(foto Tompkins Conservation)
If you want to know more about the most beautiful paths in the world, and how to tackle them, read here:
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2024-01-24 10:04:42
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