Hiking in Patagonia was my number one bucket-list adventure heading into this 7-month trip, and doing so in peak weather conditions was the motivation for making Patagonia the centrepiece of this trip. The problem with living out my dream of hiking in Torres del Paine National Park is that we own really good quality hiking and camping gear, but it simply would not fit in our bags for 7 months of travelling, especially as we have to carry clothes for all 4 seasons. Therefore, we paid a ridiculous amount of money to reserve gear from a place in Puerto Natales to complete the W Trek which was much heavier and lower quality than what we own. Nevertheless, we completed the W Trek between February 12-16 over four nights, with Rachel’s friend Michelle, and it absolutely lived up to my expectations.
Day One:
We took a bus to the national park and then a ferry to our first stop, Paine Grande, which is the base for most W Trekkers to start their journey (and the point at which the O Trekkers who have already walked 40km meet the people like us who could not commit to the full journey of over 110km over 6/7 days). We hiked north to Glacier Grey which would be our first night’s camping spot but were battered by the typical Patagonian wind the entire way, which slowed our pace significantly, and made us wonder if it would continue for the whole hike (it did not, thankfully). We were all exhausted after that first day, carrying too much weight, being blasted by wind, and not being hardened to backpacking (the last time for us was NZ in 2022). I think we slept 11 hours that first night.
Day Two:
For me this was the best day of the hike. We backtracked to Paine Grande but had amazing views the entire way of the mountains that make the park famous, and the campsite was a 50m walk from a glacial lake. I spent a few hours alone marvelling at the views and really took in how lucky I was to have finally made it to a legitimate ‘must-see-before-you-die’ location that I’d been dreaming about for years.
Day Three:
I think in terms of distance, this was the longest day, but the distances are very manageable on the W Trek, especially considering the shower/toilet amenities that await you at the campsites. Amazing views of mountains, forests and lakes became the norm on this day, and Michelle and I did the extra 6km hike up and down to see the views of the glacier at the top of Francis Valley. For most people this is the most enjoyable day of the hike because it is mostly flat and the views continue to be unobstructed the entire way, and you camp next to a beach.
Day Four:
This was probably the hardest day of the hike as we were all slowing down our pace a little and most of the day was spent walking uphill. This was our final night camping, and I got lucky and snagged three of the five available ‘camping platforms’ (a 3x3m platform amongst the trees to peg down your tent on). The vast majority of people ‘camping’ in this site book pre-made tents with sleeping pads that look like the sort of thing you’d put on top of your 4-wheel drive (which looked nice, but cost about $200 USD per night, and were therefore out of our budget). This campsite afforded us the ability to wake up early to make it up to see the ‘torres’ that the national park is named for the following morning at 4am. That night we had a dinner cooked for us by the campsite kitchen which can only be described as salmon parmigiana (definitely not something I would ever order). We would have self-catered, which we did for the three other nights, but everywhere said there was no possibility of using gas stoves at this site, so $100 salmon parmigiana it was!
Day Five:
The final day was a rude wake up at 4am to disassemble our campsite, leave our bags, and hike up to the torres. Unfortunately, about 2/3 of the way up we followed a path of headlamps that led us off-trail and up the side of the mountain on the sketchiest scree scramble I’ve ever seen. I 100% would not recommend that almost deadly detour. Next time, stop, reassess, figure out earlier that there aren’t any trail markers, people ahead of you have gone the wrong way, backtrack, be safe. Anyway. We made it to the top just in time for sunrise, it was beautiful, but a little hard to enjoy it initially after our traumatic detour. Once we calmed down it was absolutely worth the struggle, and a memory I’ll never forget. After countless photos at the top, we hiked down, grabbed our bags and made the 2-hour hike back down to the bottom, spent heaps of money at the cafeteria gift shop, caught two buses, and made it back to Puerto Natales in time for dinner.
Overall, this will absolutely rank in my top 5 things we do on this 7 month trip and will also rank really highly in my favourite travel related activities of the last 10 years.
Travel Bugs 