Puerto Natales - Torres Del Paine

---

Hola!

We have crossed into Chile and are starting from the south and working our way up to the north of Chile. Our first stop is Puerto Natales, a small town on the coast that is the jumping off point for the main attraction...Torres Del Paine National Park. Considered South America´s premier National park, and one of the best trekking parks in the world, Torres Del Paine NP draws people from all over the world. There are 2 popular treks for this park: The Circuit and the W. We decided to do the W. As you´ll see from the picture of the map, the route forms the shape of a W, hence the name. The Circuit includes both the complete W route plus an additional 3 days trekking the backside of the moutains you see during the W. The additional days on the circuit are not as sheltered and therefore much more exposed to the wind. The trails are also not as worn, it´s more wet, and just in general a long slog of a trek. So, considered we have never done a camping trip of more than 1 night, we decided the W would be a great challenge for us, but at the same time, within our abilities as far as the experience we have.

All that being said, here is how our 5 days went down. Keep in mind, as you´ll see from the map and the description at the beginning of each day, a large part of our trip was spent back tracking in order to hit all 5 points of the W. This was both frustrating at times as well as rewarding. With how unpreditable the weather is, your views going up might be awful, but 2 hours later coming down, they might have been amazing.

Day 1: Refugio Paine Grande to Refugio Grey
10.8km, 3.5hrs
We took a morning bus and then ferry across Lago Pehoe (beautiful turquoise lake) to get to the start of our trek. This day in retrospect, was pretty good weather wise. We trekked up with mountains on one side of us and a lake on the other. On the map it shows that one area is supposed to be particularly windy, but on this day, the wind was no more than what we would get at home. Just a few light spring showers and cloud and sun...pretty decent weather for Patagonia! About half way you come to a look out that overlooks Glacier Grey and on a clear day you can get one of the greatest views of the Patagonian ice field which happens to be the 3rd largest in the world behind Antarctica and Greenland. It was not particularly clear this day, but you still got a good look of the glacier with the adjoining lake below with big and small icebergs bobbing around. Our camp was right on the shores of the lake and fairly sheltered. We set up camp and made our dinner (not sure if this was just our experience, but EVERYTHING tastes way better when you´re camping). We made noodles and it tasted like a gourmet meal! We were also smart and packed dessert for every night...hot chocolate and cookies! Overall, we were pretty happy with this day, we saw some great scenery and set up camp without a hitch AND our muscle soreness had not set in quite yet at this point...something to look forward to in the days to come!



Day 2: Refugio Grey to Refugio Paine Grande to Campamento Italiano
10.8km + 7.7km, 6hrs
This morning, we got up, packed up camp and headed out for a longer day back down to the Refugio where we started, and then to the next camp site. Remember that windy area that I told you about on the map that we were meant to hit on the way up to glacier grey? Yah... well we got a really good taste of it on the way down. You seem to come around a bend in the mountain and all the sudden the wind is attacking you and literally was pushing us up a really steep section (we´ve never gone up a hill that fast!). The trick is you either need to have your back or your front to the wind at all times, if you try and turn around or go sideways, the wind will spin you around and throw you down. We got to a flat sections with tons of rocks and the wind was so strong that it was making us sprint over boulders, the whole time you´re just waiting to break something! The wind pushed Greg off a small grass ledge and he fell while laura was getting carried by the wind and her pack straps slapping her in the face. We eventually got into a more sheltered area, but wow, what an adrenaline rush! The wind turns a normal leisurely hike into an extreme sport. I should also mention one of the essential pieces of equipment needed to hike in TDP...treking poles. I know what you´re thinking (you wouldn´t be caught dead with treking poles) but actually, most people trekking here have them and we honestly don´t know what we would have done without them! It provides balance when jumping from rock to rock on the streams, extra leverage when struggling up the hills, two more points of support for your knees when you´re climbing back down and most importantly, an extra 2 points to anchor yourself to the ground when the wind starts. I feel the need to give you a few more examples of the wind, so you might get a better idea of what we´re talking about here. We went to a great free seminar in Puerto Natales on TDP before going into the park to get a better idea of what to expect and the speaker told us a few stories about the wind. First about a guide (a fairly petite woman) who was putting up her tent and holding onto the fly, the wind caught the fly and she got picked up off the ground and ended up breaking two ribs. Another story he told us was of this Irish guy who climbed up to see a view of the towers (one of the parks highlight views). The wind was so strong that it blew him off a rock face and he broke his back. He wasn´t found for a day and a half and had died. Luckily the wind is supposed to be much stronger on the backside of the mountains, so we didn´t even get a full glimpse of the wind´s power! Anyways, we pushed on past Refugio Paine Grande to Campemento Italiano. By this time our joints were starting to feel the effect of hiking for hours, Greg´s knees were starting to give and Laura started developing wonderful blisters on her feet. We got to Campemento Italiano, set up and then went to take a closer look at the absolutely stunning views of one of peaks with a large powerful river running at the base. This was one of the best views of the whole 5 days. We had another gourmet noodle meal and dessert and hit the sack, we were exhausted!


Day 3: Campamento Italiano to Valle del Frances Lookout to Campamento Italiano to Refugio Los Cuernos
6.3km + 6.3km + 4.7km, 7hrs
This part of the trip (hiking Valle del Frances) was the highlight of the trip for both of us. We got up early and headed up the Valle del Frances path (without packs...thank god!). The trail takes you along a beautiful river that orginates from glacier melt off and up to get a closer view of the spectacular mountain range. The trail had some very steep and rough sections, but the views were definetely a reward when you got up higher. We were very glad we got up early to do this, the trail was basically all ours and it was very peaceful. This ended up being a good and a bad thing...good for the peacefullness...bad if you get lost. We were temporarily disoriented at one point in the trail for about 20 minutes, thankfully Laura spotted more trail markers on the other side of a river, there was no one around and we were getting a bit worried! We hiked right up to the Mirador (lookout) and you literally are surrounded by mountains, lakes, rivers, trees, everything. It was really incredible. The landscapes were quite diverse as well: heavy forests to open areas with rock terrain and bare trees. The way down was not quite as fun, especially for Greg with his knees but it didn´t take away from this trip. If only we had a bit more sun, you could truely appreciate it for all its beauty!

We got back to camp, packed up, had lunch and then headed out on the second leg for the day. The skies started getting murky and dark and we knew we were in for more rain. Almost the entire way to Refugio Los Cuernos we had rain but it was still a beautiful trail along a turquoise calm lake. We were soaked from head to toe by the time we got the camp, and then so was our tent as we had to set up the rain. There was very few camping spots left, and so we had to set up in a very unsheltered area, but hey, our tent is waterproof, and there doesn´t seem to be much wind, we should be fine. We went to have dinner in the refugio with many many other wet campers and all was good until we started hearing the wind pick up. We had to fix our pegs multiple times and reinforce them with rocks so our tent would stay put. The wind in this area was really crazy, you could hear it building power and then a few seconds later it would hit your tent with so much power. That was the worst part because you could hear that it was going to be a big gust and then you´re holding your breath waiting for it to hit and hoping that your tent doesn´t collapse. We did make it through the night but it was rough with the wind. Our tent poles were bent from the wind in the morning when we packed up, a nice souvenir from TDP! It also was still raining from the day before, so this made for even greater moods to start day 4! If you search Los Cuernos (the horns) on google you'll see that not only is this section of mountain beautiful, it's also one of the top 3 attractions in the park. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a good look at them from the campsite (a soon to be reoccurring problem for us) but we had a great view of the backside of them hiking into camp so I guess you can't ask for too much.



Day 4: Refugio Los Cuernos to Refugio Chileno to Campamento Las Torres
16kms, 7hrs
Ah day 4.....Well this day to sum it up was a heads down, put one foot in front of the other day. The rainy windy weather had affected our moods and neither of us were thinking it was very fun at this point. We packed up and set out early for the next leg. These trails were through rolling valleys of green grass with the lake below. It was a beautiful trail and different from what we had previously gone through (dense forests and wooded areas). But given our night and morning, we didn´t truely appreciate its beauty at the time, and didn´t take any pictures (partly because it was still raining and partly because of our moods). The second half of the trek to Refugio Chileno was quite steep and Greg thankfully suggested that it was time for the iPods...Jayz pulled Laura through it and Tragically Hip for Greg. We took a break at Chileno and decided we needed just a bit more motivation to get us the next hour to our final destination...and an $8 chocolate bar is what did it. Sahne Nuggs chocolate with almonds.....soooooo good and sooo expensive (mostly because at the refugios they can charge the higher prices knowing that vulnerable and exhausted trekkers like us will give in to it!). We pressed on the extra hour and made it to our campsite just a 45 minute trek from Los Torres in a sheltered forest on the side of a mountain. We hung out in the shelter with other trekkers for the night and went to bed early planning to get up at just before 4am so we could get to Los Torres for sun rise when the sun reflects off the three spires and makes them turn a beautiful red colour. This is the highlight of the trip for many and we were just praying for good enough weather to actually even see the towers.


Day 5: Campamento Las Torres to Base Las Torres to Campamento Las Torres to Refugio Chileno to Refugio Las Torres
10kms, 4hrs
Its 3:55 in the morning and Greg has been up off and on since 1am when....the rain started. And its pouring. Awesome. We waited until 6;30 knowing that the sun was not going to rise on the spires this morning, but it kept raining. Officially, the trek is not complete without going up a very steep boulder trail for 45 minutes to Los Torres, so although we knew we would see nothing but white, we trekked it anyway so that we could say we officially did the W. We made it up (Laura just barely - mentally the rain was slowly killing her) and we saw....white. Haha the sign marked the spot, and all we saw was a small pristine lake at the base and just envisioning that straight ahead we should be seeing the best view of the trip but all we could see was cloud. A bit anticlimatic and obviously not as planned, but you can´t do much to control the weather. This being said, it was still a great feeling of accomplishment that we had made it 5 days on the W circuit, through the wind, rain, sweat and blisters in stinky damp dirty clothes and shoes. Besides, we can just buy the poster of Los Torres and pretend what it would have been like to see it in person. We hiked back down and then grabbed our gear and continued on to our final destination, Refugio Las Torres. It was all down hill, another great reminder that Greg´s knees would be better suited in an 80 year olds body. Now we were done, completely done! We were tired and very ready for hot showers and pizza when we got back to the hostel.

All in all, Torres Del Paine W Circuit in 5 days was the highlight of our trip thus far. It was challenging and rewarding and absolutely stunning. We recommend it to the nature lovers and the people who like a good challenge. Our recommendations would be bring a good tent, rain gear and if its nice on the day you arrive, no matter what, go straight to Los Torres and get your peak, because you never know what the weather will bring for the remainder of the trip.

After returning back to our hostel in Puerto Natales Wednesday night, we found out the next logical long-distance bus for us to take would not be leaving until Monday. This left us basically 4 full days to chill out in what ended up being actually a pretty cool little town. Our days basically consisted of the following: wake up at 9:30, breakfast at the hostel, walk 10mins into town to go on the internet and buy lunch food for the day, come back to the hostel, watch English movies on the one English channel (we had a TV in our room at this hostel which was luxury!) or nap, go out for dinner (this town had surprisingly a lot of great restaurants), come back to the hostel, watch another movie, go to bed around 11. Fortunately this stretch of down time actually came at a good point in our trip. We had wanted to do some more outdoor activities in and around Puerto Natales but everything was just outside our budget (i.e. kayak, 1 day at the base of a glacier- super cool, $500 US- not cool). Come Monday we hoped on a 25hr bus to Coyhaique (heading straight north now) slowly making our way towards Santiago to meet the family but with still 2 or 3 places we wanted to visit along the way.


This was a long blog so if you made it through, thanks for reading! As you can probably tell, we absolutly loved this part of our trip.

Keep the comments coming.

Ciao for now!

---