There are so many ways to explore this park ranging in price, effort level, etc. If you want to, you can stay in 5 star hotels and take daily tours to different areas. You also can carry everything but the kitchen sink on your back and camp either for free or for a small fee at the various campsites around the park. You can spend one day or 10. We decided to do something very in the middle. The "W" hike in Torres del Paine is labeled as Medium-Difficult and is said to take anywhere between 3 and 5 days to complete. There are refugios (basically hostels) along this route that offer basic amenities (like a bed and a bathroom), but at close to 90 bucks a person per night, this can add up pretty quickly. These places also provide meals that too are quite pricey.
We had no issue camping, but we don't own any camping equipment here. Also, this being our first true multi-day hiking experience, not knowing what medium-difficult REALLY meant, we weren't sure if we wanted to rent equipment in Natales (there is no shortage of places to do so) and carry it with us the whole time. All this in mind, we decided to rent tents and sleeping bags from the refugio/campsites for a fraction of the price of a bed, and 0 percent of the trouble of carrying that nonsense on our backs. I have to admit, I feel like we made the absolute best decision here for us and in general.... I'll lay some insight on that as we go along.
We arrived to the park in the afternoon, paid our money to enter and made our way to our first campsite. We didn't do any real hiking the first day, just settled in our tent (feeling a little under the weather) and tried to go to sleep early since we knew the next few days would be full of activity. The guy at the campsite said, "It might be a little windy tonight so if your tent breaks, we can get you a new one." Neat. Our tent didn't break, mainly because it had been set up by someone who knew just how crazy the wind was going to be, but the wind howled and caused the sides to slap us in the face all night. We managed to get enough sleep and started our journey around 8 the next morning.
A map for reference...notice why it is called the "W".
We got up super pumped to start our hiking adventure. Since we were staying in the same tent that night, we only had to take day packs and our trekking poles (best things ever... totally necessary). We took about
15 steps before the Patagonian wind decided to introduce itself with gusto!! I grew up in West Texas... lived in the panhandle of Texas... I understand winds; however, sorry WT Wind, but Patagonian Wind will take you out back and show you who is boss. Anyway, we started off on the trek to see the Torres for which the park is named. The weather just continued to worsen, alternating between wind with rain and just wind. About one hour in, we started running into people that had attempted to make it to the Torres that morning for sunrise on their way back down, telling us that the final pass to the Torres was closed because of high winds. We sat down and debated whether just to turn around and got back or not like some other hikers. We decided to give it the good college try, because... it is about the journey, not the destination, right?? We continued up the trail through the what we later found out were 200km/hr winds. Holy geez!! At one point we quite literally had to drop to the ground and grab a rock to keep from being blown off the mountain. When we made it to the start point of the final trail, there was a park ranger preventing anyone from heading up the final leg, describing it as peligrosissimo... yikes. Although, we and the other hikers around us were a little disappointed, we made our way to what the guy called "Mirador Falso" to get a glimpse of the Torres. We were able to see them for about two minutes before clouds covered them for the rest of the day, so we'll call that a win. On our hike home, it rained and the wind blew more dirt. Honestly, by the time we made it back to our campsite, we had a mud film from head to toe and were super cold, but our spirits were high. We took full advantage of the hot showers available at the campsite and took a walk to the refugio across the bridge to have some tea/coffee, play cards and warm up. That night, there was no trouble sleeping, even with the tent in our faces. :)
View from our tent at the Las Torres campsite
Wind doesn't photograph...
Check out those super stylin zip off pants... and poles.
Our best picture of the Torres from the "Fake" lookout point. T minus 30 seconds until they were covered for the day.
See that TINY hiker... I told you Patagonia is BIG!!
An upclose view of my obnoxiously green Patagonia ear thing... best purchase ever...
Day Two: To the Cuernos.
This was our shortest hiking day at only about 5 hours, but it was stunningly beautiful. The majority of the trail followed alongside Lago Nordenskjol, which was a color of blue I have never seen before, and the weather cooperated fantastically. The wind was only slightly above normal speeds and there was no rain. We arrived at Los Cuernos around mid-day, where we just hung out, enjoyed a couple Austral cervezas and watched the large group of Asian travelers get mid-day drunk on wine. :)
A view of one of the burned areas of the park.
Steeeep.
We're all having fun now...
Filling our water bottles straight from the river... crystal clear delicious drinking water.
Cuernos Campsite
View from Los Cuernos Refugio
The actual "Cuernos"
Day Three: The French Valley, aka, the day that would not end.
We knew this day would be long, so we started super early. I am a self proclaimed "slow trekker". I don't walk very fast normally to begin with, but I also tend to stop to snap pictures, or just get lost in my surroundings, so I knew that if the map said it would take 11-12 hours, it definitely would. The French Valley was a pretty tough day of hiking, but the payoff was worth it. At the Mirador Frances, you can see Ice Falls, and watch avalanches. At the top, the view from Mirador Britanico is equally gorgeous in every direction. Unfortunately, about hour 9 on our way down, my knees decided they'd had enough. I'm not sure if it was one specific misstep, or just a culmination of the past few days, but from that moment to our arrival at Paine Grande, every step was (not to be super dramatic, but for real) a bit of a struggle. The last leg of the trail was the one portion of the entire W that was described as easy, because it was mainly a gradual downhill jaunt... which unfortunately was what hurt my knees. (Up fine... down miserable). Michael was super patient as we were passed by pretty much everyone as I moved at a sloth's pace for this portion of the trail. Just about the time I started to feel as if I had been born and raised on that stupid trail, I saw a lake in the distance that I mistook for the lodge. You can imagine my excitement and disappointment that occurred all within about 20 seconds. About 20 minutes later, we actually spotted the lodge/campsite in the distance, and we finally made it. That night, we paid the money to eat dinner at the lodge, and although I don't even really remember what they served us, after eating avocado sandwiches and trail mix for 3 days, it was freaking delicious as was the beer which we had definitely earned. Ibuprofen induced sleep followed.
View from Britannico
\
another...
another..
another..
yeah another...
Hiking up river rocks
Ice falls
Resting at the top
We made a "W"
The last leg...
Day Four: "#$%^%$ Glacier!!!!!"
Here was our plan for day 4. Hike to the glacier, then catch the overpriced, but still seemed cool, Grey II back down in time to catch the bus back to Puerto Natales. Here is what happened.
I woke up still in so much stupid pain... but by god I wanted to see the Glacier, so we packed up, and headed out on our hike. We were greeted by a rainbow over the campsite that morning, promising a great end to our adventure. I admit this part of the story is difficult to tell in language that is appropriate for the internet :).
We took about 20 steps this time before the Patagonian wind re-introduced itself with even more gusto than day one and it never stopped. At this point, we really should have just cashed it in, but I wanted to see the Glacier, so, hoping that the Ibuprofen would please kick in, we pushed on.
It didn't take long before we had our first downhill portion of the trail, and the rain started, and we had to add more layers, and I contemplated quitting again, because ouch, but yeah... the glacier.
We finally reached a forest-y section where we had a minor reprieve from the wind and rain. It was short lived, and as we neared the lake, it seemed to be raining more, but it turned out the wind was just trying to start a water fight by PICKING UP THE WATER AND FLINGING IT IN MY FACE. Not fair... because you had the lake, guy... not fair. Then it really did begin to rain sideways both water and rocks (which I suspect was the wind just being plain mean). Then, even though I know it probably isn't accurate, I swear we were being pegged in the face with hunks of glacier. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
We kept going, because again, i wanted to see the !@!#$(%$ glacier!! Eventually, we stopped to yell "THIS SUCKS!!" really loud and ask a person coming from the other direction if 1. The weather got any better, and 2. if you could see anything at all... No and NO. We then made the tough decision to turn back. Here was the problem... I was hiking on old-person arthritic knees (no offense to old people... that really isn't fair... there were plenty of older people doing a better job hiking than myself), and we had been told that if the weather was bad, it was probable that the boat wouldn't run, so we would need to hike back and catch the other catamaran to get us out of there. Timing wise, it was crunch time, because I was going to be super slow going back DOWN the trail. We reached the first mirador where we pretended to "see" the stupid glacier and then we headed back, occasionally just spontaneously busting out in laughter over how bad it sucked (sorry... no better way to put that). At the end of the day, we were able to look back on the experience and enjoy it, but in the moment.... yeah, not that much fun. (Honesty folks... honesty.) We ended up taking the catamaran across yet another ridiculously blue lake after just chilling in the refugio for a couple of hours, where obviously the sun came out... but the wind continued to rock everyone's world. Not the exclamation point I was expecting for the end of hike, but just a different one :).
You're tricky rainbow... tricky fellow
Almost looks like the weather is going to be awesome...
Icebergs!
Drenched and thinking... "YOU ARE KIDDING ME" as we stand behind the first bush/windblocker we've seen.
Somewhere... look closely... a Glacier
Not entertained.
Here the wind is picking up water from the lake and hurling it at the windows of the refugio.
Sunshine and extreme wind back at the refugio. We watched some people try to put up their tent in this. It was a cruel cruel game they had no interest in playing, but didn't have a choice. They were literally diving on it to hold it to the ground and even though there were 6 of them... they were never successful. Gross. That is why renting the already set up tent kind of rocked.
Things are really pretty from inside.
Overall, it was fun! We triumphed, and we crossed off my stipulations for a good trip... as in we 1. Marveled at something (a lot of somethings). 2. Got out of our comfort zone. and 3. It didn't all go exactly according to plan, because where is the story in that? Part of what was so awesome was meeting fellow travelers along the way. Everyone greeted eachother with a cheerful "Hola" no matter their country of origen on the trail. Also, no one seems to feel self conscious in the least, which is refreshing. Windblown, dirty and not worried about it. That last night we headed back to Puerto Natales exhausted and thrilled to have a bed to sleep in. We continued our trip the next morning with a bus ride back to Punta Arenas where our activities would be much more "chill" than in Torres del Paine.
