Travel Bugs

Before heading on our travels for the year, I was a bit nervous about this hike. We had done multi-day hikes before, and I sort of knew what to expect: long days, sore feet, less than desirable showering situations. But I was doubly nervous because it would be the longest hike I’d done, we’d be carrying a lot more weight than usual, and we’d have to set up and take down a tent every day.

What made my nerves dissipate a little bit was knowing I’d have a friend with me. It was wonderful to have Michelle join us for this trek, and to make some memories with someone I’ve been friends with for nearly 30 years.

The W Circuit is part of a world-famous trail in the middle of Chilean Patagonia. This hike requires a lot of forward planning, with Callum booking our tent sites about eight months in advance. The circuit we chose to do is part of the larger O circuit which makes its way all around the park. The W is the lower half of this O and makes up about 76kms of trail. How much you do in one day is up to you, but, you are forced to commit to whatever length each day based on what campsites you can book. Some people do the hike by staying in the lodges and buying their meals each day, which is a lot easier physically, but costs more.

Day 1 – 12kms – Paine Grande to Refugio Grey

We were in the town of Puerto Natales and had organized our gear and food supplies the day before we caught a 7am bus. This took us to the Torres Del Paine National Park and dropped us near the dock at Lago Pehoe where we caught a ferry.  We had elected to do the hike west to east with shorter days at the beginning when our packs would be the heaviest. The ferry took us to Paine Grande. Some people set up their tent here, then hike to Refugio Grey and back. That is a very long 22km-27kms day after a lot of travel already. We chose to stay our first night at Refugio Grey.

Though the hike was only 11kms that first day, we had a late start and were absolutely battered by gale-force winds as we trudged up the loose rubbly path, carrying our heavy bags. I was wondering what the heck I had got myself into.

We took our time and got into camp at dinner time. I sulkily ate my celebratory Snickers bar alone, while the others signed us in and pitched tents. My feet, knees and back were absolutely killing me and I had a real serious think about whether I would continue beyond the next day when we would finish at Paine Grande. Refugio Grey was protected from wind in the trees but being one of the last groups to trickle in, we had the worst spots in the back, meaning our walk to amenities was long and encumbered by many a twisty tree root. Finding a spot to boil our water was also challenging as everyone was cooking and eating their freeze-dried meals at the same time.

We made our dinner, had showers, and Callum convinced me to walk 500m more to see the icebergs. He expressed disappointment in not being able to do the additional 5km to see a suspension bridge. The idea of doing more that day was so unfathomable to me that I ignored this. We went to bed not long after and slept solid for ELEVEN HOURS.

Day 2 – 11 kms – Refugio Grey to Paine Grande

We had an earlier start after packing down and having breakfast. I thought I would hate every moment of the day since I knew all the tough spots coming up, but, for some reason, the walk was a lot easier. The wind blew with us instead of against us, we had a great sleep, and the sun was shining. We finished the same 11kms one hour less than the day before and had a slightly better choice of spots at camp. This spot was windier as it was at the base of mountains. We tried to find places nestled among bushes and other tents.

We met another hiker, a solo girl also from Canada and befriended her. We made friends easily and she joined our group for the rest of the hike, taking over from our fourth friend who didn’t end up coming but who we had booked everything for.

Day 3 – 13.5 kms – Paine Grande to Los Cuernos

This was my favourite day. It was mostly flat and we got to see a lot of beautiful views. It was about 8kms until our lunch spot at Camp Italiano, which nobody can camp at anymore, but is an ideal break spot. This is also where hikers leave their packs to hike up to the Frances and Britanico viewpoints which make up the middle part of the W. The three of us took an extended break to recharge our batteries before I repacked my bag with the tent and cooking supplies so that I could go ahead to set up our campsite while Callum and Michelle did the middle section of the W without me. I wasn’t keen to do the side quests; I needed to save my feet.

I walked another 5.5kms on my own and really marveled at the solitude in nature that I had—something that is very uncommon for me. This was the first time I was truly alone in nature, only seeing a few other people walking the opposite direction. I relished the alone time and setting my own pace.

I got to Los Cuernos and was able to take pick of all the platforms they had nestled into the mountain. I had never set up a tent on a wooden platform before and it took me some time to figure it out. I borrowed the camp drill and bucket of mismatched screws to anchor our tent perfectly, allowing privacy from the public path and a good view over the hills. I felt accomplished after doing this on my own. I then had a glorious shower in a very nice facility—private rooms with actual doors, a place to sit and hooks to hang things—it’s the simple things. I awaited the arrival of my friends for about an hour before they started showing up.

We had an easier time “cooking” dinner that night—the camp kitchen came with a machine dispensing boiling water. All we did was open our freeze-dried meals and pour in the water. Easy! Our new friend Cass thanked us for our generosity of sharing our fourth camp spot with her by purchasing a bottle of wine. I don’t usually imbibe so freely but I felt very happy and probably had too much.

Day 4 – 13 kms – Los Cuernos to El Chileno

This set of kms was hard—firstly because I felt a bit pickled from the wine the night before, secondly because the wind was very noisy in the night, and thirdly because it was a much harder climb than previous days. The incline was steady and persistent the whole way with many downhill sections feeding false hope time after time. I liked the grassland section where we came upon a large herd of wild horses, but that was also all uphill and the wind took my breath away. The final descent into El Chileno was rocky, windy, and with an unforgiving sun beating down on us. A final ascent nearly broke me, and I felt unable to speak to anyone when we finally arrived, six hours after leaving Los Cuernos. We arrived just before 3pm.

The strong desire to see “the towers” – only another 5kms up – was very strong for my companions, so they dropped their bags on their respective tent platforms, and I stayed back to once again set up mine and Callum’s home for the night by myself. The platforms, I should mention, are high up the steep mountainside, requiring me to use my hiking poles to get up and down. The pathways to our platforms were uneven and sloped making it difficult and dangerous to traverse.

Callum returned not long after I had my shower, much earlier than I anticipated. It turns out they were encouraged to turn back several times by others descending and were turned back by rangers before they were half-way. The rangers at this location close the gate at about 3pm to ensure nobody gets stuck doing the hike after dark. We didn’t understand this since it doesn’t get dark until about 8pm, but I suppose they have their reasons.

We had a restaurant dinner as all of Callum’s research revealed that you weren’t allowed to use camp stoves at this site. Therefore, we were forced to pre-book four dinners months in advance, which cost a lot of money. They were about $50 USD each. I must admit it was very nice to be served three courses and to not worry about cleaning dishes, but we witnessed many people cooking their own meals and saving that money would have been nice. Also, the meal we had was memorable because though it tasted nice, it was bizarre. Has anyone ever had salmon parmigiana with a beetroot sauce? It felt very much like the chef had to use up ingredients left over in the kitchen and just threw this strange meal together.

Day 5 – 15.5kms

This day was crazy. Our alarm went off at 315am and I got up immediately to start the pack-down procedures. We somehow packed everything including our tent by 4am and left the steep side of the mountain once and for all. We took a few minutes for a pit stop before getting our headlamps and hiking poles readjusted. It was at this point I realized my headlamp battery was dead—I had used it all up while packing down our tent! We were very stupid and forgot to make sure our headlamps were fully charged.

We then set off on our 5kms ascent up with one working headlamp to see the final ultimate view of this trek: Mirador Las Torres. The first 4kms are not too bad during waking hours, but at 4am and after only a few hours of sleep, it was tough going as the ups were matched evenly by the downs and the constant change was tiring. It was nice not to have a backpack though. Callum carried a light pack with snacks and water and our warmer clothes.

We made it to the ranger station area and knew there was only one more km to go. This was the toughest part of the hike for us because we quickly missed the trail markers and followed the dots of light straight up the boulder field, wondering why the hike was difficult and scary. Another hiker joined us and kept insisting it wasn’t the path, as she had done it yesterday. She was very annoying and kept following us up, since she didn’t want to be alone in the dark. It was at this point our second headlamp died. There we were, on the side of a boulder and scree incline, cold, dark, with the wind starting to blow. I suddenly became terrified. I don’t think I have ever been so scared in my life, to be honest. I had a hyperventilating episode but eventually found it deep within myself to overcome my situation. We looked up and saw far above us an orange post—a trail marker—which was our beacon of hope as we continued to carefully and bravely scramble up the loose rocks. With the sunrise approaching we had more light to work with, but the whole point of starting at 4am is to get to the base for the sunrise: to see the towers light up in the glow of morning sun. I was worried we were rapidly running out of time to see it. Once we rejoined the actual path, we found a flat surface to sit and have a little weep of relief, and to catch our breath. We could now see where we were meant to have walked, and it was infuriating seeing how easy a path it should have been. Instead, we did a very difficult climb under very unfavorable conditions.

We caught our breath and walked up another hundred meters or so to join the crowd of people who had all booked it up the mountain quickly, only to arrive in the dark and needing to huddle and dance around to keep warm. We, however, arrived with about five minutes to spare to see the sunrise. We only shivered for a short time before we were rewarded with the sunrise bathing the towers in a pink glow. It was glorious.

I readjusted my mood and took in the beauty. I ignored the stinging in my hands and set up a timelapse. We took several photos. I made sure Callum got to fully appreciate where we were—it has been on his bucket list to see and do what we had just done (maybe not the tough scary hike in the last km, but still).

We then made our descent, all the while marveling at what we had climbed up and trying to pick the exact spot where we had gone wrong.

I overheard some dude-bros hiking down behind us, talking about how ‘everyone was pissed, dude’ and ‘the path was right there!’ and I figured out that it was probably one of them who had led so many people astray. Everyone just followed each other’s headlamps, and it led to our own demise as we were also following blindly rather than taking a minute to look around and realize we missed the trail.

We got back to Camp Chileno where we made ourselves some coffee and warmed our hands and rested our sore toes. We had to prep mentally as well for the 6km we would have to walk first up up up then down, down, down, down, down to the visitor’s centre, constantly moving out of the way of the day-trippers hiking their way up. A conveyor belt of hikers, all with varying degrees of fitness and preparedness. There were some people I saw and thought, ‘Oh, honey, what are you wearing? Do you even know what you’re getting into?’ or ‘that is very clearly NOT enough water for what you’re about to do.’

It was a long day. Besides the getting up early, hiking, almost dying, and hiking down, there was a lot of waiting for transport and being transported, finding our Airbnb back in Puerto Natales, getting laundry done, returning our rental gear, and having dinner. I lived it but can barely fathom all that was accomplished on this day.

Final thoughts:

This is a tough hike for a gal like me who doesn’t particularly love hiking. I hike because I have a partner who loves it and we each get involved in each other’s hobbies. I did not train for this hike, but I certainly did a lot of mental preparation. I tried to be conservative with what I packed in terms of clothes, toiletries, and snacks. I also made the difficult and heart-wrenching decision to leave my big camera behind, using only my phone to capture the experience.

This hike is hugely enjoyable and awe inspiring for people who do love to hike. It’s certainly something hikers put on their own bucket lists to see and do.

I did enjoy myself, but I was very burnt out after the fourth day. Then, the fifth day was incredibly difficult. I did make sure to stretch after each day, and, to take it easy once at camp. I walked at my own pace which meant sometimes we were the last ones to camp. Overall, I am proud of myself for having achieved such a hard thing and I feel lucky that I was there, and that I got to do it.