The thigh aching pain of Torres del Paine

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Arrived in Puerto Natales with 2 objectives - 1) board the Navimag ferry and 2) see Torres del Paine national park. After booking some expensive ferry tickets we got on with planning for the national park.

Torres del Paine is a Chilean national park in Patagonia filled with mountains, glaciers, lakes. Trekking though this park is a tough challenge. We were feeling rather underprepared as Puerto Natales appeared to be filled with gore-tex clad travellers carrying unessarily large backpacks containing tents, gas stoves and probably even a small donkey in case of emergencies...

Undeterred we gathered info on the park and grudgingly realised that we would need to join this camping brigade. (A bunk bed in a refugio was ridiculously overpriced and wouldn't even include a bed sheet - rip off!). So feeling brave and like real hardcore trekkers who are prepared to camp in Patagonia despite the tough winds, sudden snow storms and other climatic challenges we set off.

We were a little worried as every trek we have attempted without a guide as ended up with us being lost, dehydrated or both. Also the last bit of camping we did in Peru we also had a cook with us so we didn't need to carry any of our own food. Now we were self sufficient how would we cope? Did we have enough food? What if there was a freak snowstorm - did we have the appropriate clothing? How would we manage not to get lost? What of the trails were too tough for us?

Well all that worrying was unecessary as we survived the "W" trek and campsites. It was tough, but do-able. Its called the "W" trek as thats the shape of the trail. The first leg of the trail led us to the Torres (huge rocky spires that the park is named after - pretty famous, you see them on the covers of Chile travel guides). The last hour going up to the mirador was a pretty tough, thigh aching scramble up rocks but worth it. We had the best weather and a very clear day so views were perfect. The second day was easiest - along the side of Lago Pehoe, very pretty, very hot but not too hilly. Magnus was hunter gatherer (well, collected glacier freshwater from waterfalls). Day 3 was the longest and toughest. I think it was about 30km in total that day, all uphill then downhill and never just a nice flat walk. Knackering. There may have been a teeny bit of grumping from Mrs Dimming "stupid bloody pointy rock". 12 hours later we arrived at camp. The last day leads to Glacier grey and then a catamaran crossing across the lake before heading back. We were feeling very tired and muddy but pretty smug about surviving the "W" despite our lack of gore-tex...

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Comments

[elsa]

well done
congratulations for making it through the W treck! I loved the mention of Magnus hunter gathered :) take care you 2 xx