Puerto Natales
Thunder Pass
Kawésqar National Park
- Difficulty
Challenging. - Equipment
Recommend equipment for low tempetures and wet conditions. - Important
Recommend travel insurance. - Group
From 2 to 8 participants per expedition and only one expedition at a time. - Notice
The expedition is subject to the weather conditions. - Important
The participants must be experienced trekkers.
Overview
Immerse yourself in the remote Resi and Montañas fiords of Kawésqar National Park. On this 4-day expedition, you will discover the impressive Bernal, Hermann, Kiara, Alsina, and Paredes glaciers while learning about the landscape formation and its ancestral history.
Rest in carefully selected campsites and an exclusive floating lodge. Experience a unique connection with nature and contribute to a sustainable project that supports the Puerto Edén community.
Disconnect from the world and feel the energy of the Patagonian fiords in this unforgettable adventure.
Itinerary
Our local guide will meet the participants at the night before the expedition to give general information about this adventure, to confirm pick up time, to solve some doubts the participants might have and to deliver the equipment that we supplies.
We pick up the participants of the expedition from the Hotel around 09:45 am, then we take a boat to navigate 5 minutes from Puerto Natales to Antonio Varas peninsula across the Señoret channel. We continue by vehicle for 1 hour through a gravel road until Estancia Mercedes, where we take our fast boat Explorador IV and navigate for one more hour until the end of Resi fjord. Here is the entrance to Kawesqar National Park and it’s where we have our first campsite, equipped with expedition tents to sleep and a Dome tent as shelter, kitchen and dining room for us while we are in the camp.
During the navigation it is posible to watch seals, dolphins, penguins, cormorants, condors, and other species. We have lunch when we arrive to the camp.
In the afternoon we’ll go trekking off trail for about 2 hours to Resi viewpoint, where is possible to see and appreciate the beauty of entire area from a high view. We finish the day in Camp Resi with a tasty dinner in our dome.
After breakfast we begin our trekking circuit. We go 8 kilometers bush walking through a beautiful valley characterized by evergreen forests, waterfalls, peatland, erratic rocks and moraines colonized by colorful lichens and mosses. After about 4 hours trekking by imposing mountains with whimsical shapes, we arrive to the Thunder lagoon, which is surrounded by huge rock walls that look like an amphitheater. The powerful action of a gone glacier has transformed one of these rock walls into a natural pass that makes it possible to go up through terraces over the Thunder pass till the Mountains fjord.
From the pass it's possible to see some of the summits cover by ice that belong to the Sarmiento mountain range. We will enjoy our lunch by the Thunder lagoon, before going through the pass.
We continue through moraines and erratic blocks as we pass by two beautiful lagoons before we finally have a clear view of the entire fjord that seems tiny surrounded by huge mountains and glaciers in the horizon. From here the terrain is more rocky and solid than the first section, making it easier to trek down towards our campsite Kiara, equipped with expedition tents to sleep and a Dome with an exclusive panoramic view to enjoy of another rich dinner.
This camp is located at sea level. Across the fjord is Kiara glacier which is very active, so it's possible to hear and watch ice avalanches breaking off.
We begin the day with a good breakfast. Then we start trekking off trail from the camp heading to the north of the fjord for 5 km, going by erratic rocks, evergreen forest, peatland and some streams that we'll have to cross. It will take us about 2 hours to arrive to a beautiful beach with Alsina glacier in the background, a live postcard. From here we go uphill until we get an incredible panoramic view of the glaciers Alsina and Paredes, both flowing down from the icy summits of the Sarmiento mountain range till the fjord itself. Here we'll have our lunch with such a view.
We come back down the same track to the beach where our boat West Patagonia awaits for us to take us all the way to Bernal glacier navigating 30 minutes towards South in the Mountains fjord. During the boat ride we will visit Alsina glacier, getting a better perspective of this beautiful glacier with huge seracs.
We disembark in the coast of Bernal glacier and hike through a particular trail with colorful moraines that cross a pro-glacier lake, allowing us to get close and safe enough to touch its ice. This permits us to watch and understand the glacier movements and how it changes the landscape through the years.
The contrast of colors between the vegetation, the ice, the mountains and the fjord in the background, makes any picture postcard worthy.
After visiting this glacier, we navigate again in our boat West Patagonia 10 more minutes to the remote Huiros bay where we will find our exclusive floating refuge Explorador. Here we can enjoy the facilities, a hot shower and a delicious parting dinner.
After a nice breakfast, we will go out for a 1 hour hike around the Huiros bay, to Buena Vista lookout, an awesome hike for a last amazing view of the fjord, the mountains, the glaciers, the bay with the floating refuge and the route we must take to go back to Puerto Natales.
We begin the return to Puerto Natales trekking by an Indian Pass known as Alacalufes Path, named as the canoeist ancestors Kawesqar who inhabited all the fjord lands in the last 5,000 years and used this pass to connect the Mountains fjord with Resi fjord. We have to go for 1 kilometer to reach the Acantilados lagoon, which is incased between huge rock walls all around, so the only way to go across it is by boat, so we have to navigate 5 minutes to get to the other side of it to continue hiking for 20 more minutes to get to Resi fjord.
In Resi fjord we are back to the beginning point, so we meet again our fast boat Explorador IV and navigate one hour until Estancia Mercedes in Antonio Varas peninsula as the first day.
We eat our lunch somewhere on the way and continue until Puerto Natales, ending this expedition around 15:00 pm, weather conditions permitting.
Included
- A memorable experience!
- A dry bag (20 liters) for the porter service, another dry bag (40 liters) for personal belongings.
- Porter service up to 5 kilos (20 liters) between Resi fjord and the floating refuge.
- Local guide service during the entire expedition.
- Meals during the expedition (breakfast, lunch and dinner).
- Accommodation in our campsites (double tens - mat - sleeping bag) and in our exclusive floating refuge (shared rooms - sleeping bag).
- All the land and maritime transportation specified in this program.
- Entrance fee to Kawésqar National Park.
Not included
- Tips for the crew.
- Travel and accident insurance.
- Accommodation in Puerto Natales.
Starting place
After the purchase is made, we will contact you to pick you up at your hotel in Puerto Natales. Pick-up time: 09:45 am.
Policies
Read our Terms and Conditions where our cancellation policies and changes are defined. Always remember to plan your trips in advance.