Torres del Paine W Trek in 6 days
Torres del Paine National Park is probably the most popular hiking spot in Patagonia, and as such, everyone has their opinion on how, when, and in what direction to do the trek. We had plenty of time so opted for 6 days, with direction west to east.
Once in Puerto Natales, the primary transit town of travellers, we realised how difficult it was to find accommodation in high season. Every hostel was full, even dorms, so finally settled with an expensive b&b, where astonishingly our room was big enough to set up the tent (more about that later)!
There is a free, very useful inforamtion session every day at 3pm at Erratic Rock hostel (http://www.erraticrock.com/base-camp-pub/), highly recommended, even if you have a solid idea about your trip.
We were looking forward to camp all the way, despite there were some refugios (very expensive mountain hostels with cooked food and small stores), usually all reserved months before.
Next, getting the equipment was easy, as countless outdoor shops spacialise on renting gear for tourists, from tents through gas cookers to cutlery. We made the mistake of not setting up the tent right in front of the rental shop, as we could have done easily, and just taking it after a quick inspection and suffering the consequences. As an engineer, I luckily had purchased the most valuable and useful piece of equipement earlier, duct tape. It saved our trip I think, as the tent had a few holes, a missing plastic bucket where one end of the cross-poles go, and after the second night of camping in high winds one of the poles broke in half too. Dani just called me McGuyver for a few days after all this.
Anyway, back to preparaion. At last, but not least, food. We had to think about what to carry and eat for 6 days that we can prepare with a gas cooker, a pan, a mug, a swiss knife (thanks Szabi;) ), and a couple of spoons. We bought about a kilo of rice meals (flavoured 12-minute rice with some sad dehydrated vegetables in it), dried sausage, a kilo of Knorr pasta with cheese, porridge, a dozen protein bars, and nearly two kilos of nuts and dried fruits.
Water was something we didn't need to carry, because amazingly, due to the pristine nature of the park, water from all sources were crystal clear and drinkable. A rather unique experience in our civilised world. Never drank, and probably never will, water that tasted so good before, or was as refreshing as from the rivers and streams there.
Anyhow, getting to the park takes about 2.5 hours and there are many bus companies offering the same itinerary, leaving town twice a day.
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| Laguna Amarga with view of the towers |
The first stop is at Laguna Amarga, the park entrance, where you need to register, watch a 3-minute safety video and sign a form of rights and responsibilities, accepting that if you are using fire anywhere except dedicated areas you will be subject to a fine of USD16,000 and up to 5 years in prison. For arson, the sentence could be 20 years. Serious, but kind of understandable knowing that two major fires in the last ten years destroyed 160 sq km of the national park.
The entry fee for foreigners is 18,000 Chilean pesos (about USD 36).
The bus waited for us and then left to Pudeto, nothing else but a ferry dock, where we hopped on a catamaran (12,000 pesos / USD 24) for a 30 minute ride to Paine Grande refugio and campsite.
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| The view from the catamaran passig Lago Pehoe |
Day 1 - Paine Grande to Grey campsite (4 hours, 11 km)
Everyone said that the weather in Patagonia was unpredictible, and if you ask a local about the forecast they laugh at you. In a matter of hours it can be hot with sun burning your skin (the ozone layer is very thin at this part of the world and after all you are in the mountains), it can rain or even snow, then shine again. One thing is certain, wind. Strong wind coming from every direction.
I was always smiling when I saw people with walking sticks, either thought they think of themselves a bit too seriously, or were just simply old people who should not necessarily hike at all.
Well, I may be getting old but renting a pair of sticks proved to be the best decision, after the duct tape of course. They are not just significantly take off pressure from the knees but helping to keep the posture right under the heavy backpacks and also, when gale strong winds are about to knock you over, you feel like having four legs with these. Pretty awesome.
The first hour or so of the trek was horrible. I started to regret coming here in the first place, with the head wind, the rain that just starting, nearly falling over my own walking sticks from time to time and feeling out of shape, as we haven't done much hiking or sport since we left Hawai'i.
It got better slowly, the trail wasn't too bad, rocky, but not very steep, I started to get the hang of the walking sticks too and it stopped raining as well. Then I started to realise how magical the surrounding was. We found ourselves in the middle of a dead forest, burnt in the fire that was caused by a couple of backpackers a few years earlier.
Towards the middle of this section, it got a bit more hilly, with the trail heading mostly up, reaching a summit with a view of Lago Grey and a glacier with the same name.
We reached the camping finally and were happy we picked this moderate, not too long leg of the 'W' for the first day. Even the rice-in-a-bag felt delicious.
Day 2: Grey campsite - Grey glacier - Paine Grande (7 hours, 19 km)
The next morning after a delightful porridge breakfast (yuck!) we left our stuff in camp and hiked to see the glacier from up close.
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| A pretty cool suspension bridge over the river |
We picked up the tent and our bags and headed back to Grande on the same route as yesterday, and oh wow how much more enjoyable it was without the wind! It was a pretty nice day with sunshine all over. To our surprise, someone started to shout 'Daniella! Daniella!' at us, god knows how they recognised us from a distance and with sunglasses on, it was the fantastic Australian/Thai couple we shared a flat with in Buenos Aires! Even more interestingly, we lived just about 15 mins walk from each other in East London. What a small world it is! They were part of a group so we met again later in camp, where they even nicked a few cakes from their set dinner and bought beers for us. Very very kind, but more likely felt a sorry for us carrying our tents and all the crap and cooking on rubbish gas stove :) We agreed to catch up sometime in the summer back in London when we are all back.
The campsite was prety well equipped and had a view...
As this campsite was on an open field, the night proved to be a nightmare. Despite we tried to settle as close to the little hill as possible, we got hardly any sleep due to the wind constantly trying to rip our tent apart.
Day 3: Paine Grande to Frances campsite (3.5 hours, 9.6 km)
We had a late breakfast (porridge, of course), and decided to take it easy that day after the miserable night.
There are two, very popular and free campsites in the park, Italiano and Torres. In others we had to pay around 8,000 pesos / USD 11 per person but that included the spot for the tent, kitchen, bathroom and shower (mostly hot water too). The free ones had no shower, kitchen or any kind of facilities, only basic toilets, so we were not so keen to stay at those.
Torres was an exception though because it was so close to the famous towers, only an hour, while from El Chileno, the closest well equipped camp it would have been a 4 hour round trip.
Everyone else had the same thoughts, and it was of course high season, so when we arrived to the park a few days before, we were warned that Torres was fully booked and we could not possibly stay there. That was a real bugger, the only hope was to pop into the rangers office at Italiano, as it had a few reserved places to be given away for Torres.
We got lucky, so happily continued our journey to Frances. Arriving rather early, at about 3pm, we were welcomed with the fact that the camp was full and we should go back to Italiano. Obviously that I was not very keen on, so with broken Spanish managed to insist for long enough to convince the rangers to give us half a spot, which looked like this:
In this hillside forest the only way to set up the tent was on these platforms. Luckily big enough for two small tents.
The forest protected us from wind but the night was absolutely freezing!
Day 4: Frances to Britannico lookout to Los Cuernos campsite (8 hours, 18 km)
We left our stuff at camp and headed to Valle Frances early. It's a rather demanding hike to the Britannico lookout but this place was probably our favourite, even more amazing than the famous towers.
Walking along a river, to the left you have this snow covered 3050m high mountain with frequent avalanches.
Then looking back at Lago Nordenskjöld.
To the right you have this wall of fascinating peaks over 2500m, giving a nearly 360 degree of wonders.
It was a long trip and after picking up our backpacks and tent at Frances, we were not that excited to carry on to the next camp, Los Cuernos, according to the official map 2 hours away. It was a rather pleasant surprise when we reached it in only an hour! Not to mention this scenery
And the rivers we crossed and filled up our bottles from, of course
And this brilliant spot we found at the very end of the campsite
Day 5: Los Cuernos to Torres campsite (5 hours, 14 km)
Hiking is always more cheerful with some warm porridge in the stomach (still not a fan), so this day we had a long stretch of trail ahead of us mostly uphill.
After a long walk through an area that pretty much looks like Scotland, we reached Valle Ascenico
Then passed Chileno campsite
And settled quite early at Torres campsite.
The weather wasn't that great towards the towers so I decided to climb anyway just in case it turns to the worse for the day after.
It was an hour steep hike over some smaller and bigger rocks..
..but reaching the top it was absolutely worth it.
Everyone was crazy about hiking up there for the sunrise, was a must have among all the backpackers. Well, we woke up for the alarm the next morning and decided to go for the more romantic option and stay in the tent and carry on sleeping while the others gathered their headlights and headed up at 4am in the cold rain, which was falling pretty much all night.
So we went a few hours later in the morning when it cleared out.
Day 6: Torres campsite to Torres Base to Refugio Las Torres (5 hours, 11km)
After the very last delicious porridge (hallelujah!) nothing else left but heading down from the hill through the valley to a refugio with the very same name (to avoid confusion..).
Some we came across were too lazy to walk though.
To their defence the way up from that direction was pretty steep and boring, we were so glad we did the W from west to east!
Crossing this suspension bridge meant the journey was nearly over.
And here we were. After one of the most fantastic week since we left London we were, to be honest, happy to go back to civilization and sleep in a BED finally, but Chilean Patagonia, and Torres del Paine in particular, has definitely become one of our all time favourite.
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