Torres del Paine

A domestic flight south from Santiago brought us to the town of Punta Arenas in the southern tip of Chile and officially into the region of Patagonia. Similar to Borneo and Mongolia, Patagonia is one of those places you hear quite a bit about but you are not really sure what to expect when you arrive. We landed surrounded by barren hills and grasslands, wind and rain. We learned quickly that what makes Patagonia so extreme is not the landscape (which is amazing) but the climate (which is the most unpredictable weather I have ever seen).

The skies cleared and the scenery was beautiful as we hopped a 3 hour bus northward to the village of Puerto Natales. We had set aside our first days in Patagonia to prepare for and hike the ‘W’ trail in Torres del Paine National Park. After referencing our guidebooks and talking to a guide company, we settled on our route. The ‘W ’ route is named for the shape the trail takes through the park as it winds up and back down three valleys taking in the dramatic lakes, glaciers, towers, spires and jagged cliffs that are iconic Patagonia. The route classically takes 5 days but we opted to customize our own route and lengthen the hike to 6 days.

We loaded our tent, sleeping bags and gear into our backpacks along with a stove and pot we rented for the week. We headed out to the park via a two hour shuttle bus and arrived around noon on our first day. There are three options for accessing the ’W’ and the sights of the park. Most popularly, you can take a second shuttle down the only road that touches the trail to begin your hike. Secondly, you can opt for a crowded catamaran that makes a 30 minute dash across a lake for a $23 fee. Lastly, you can hike in what is referred to as the ’tail’ of the route, a 18 kilometer side trail that allows you to take in all of the scenic views from far off prior to seeing them close up on the ‘W’. Of course we opted for hiking in, thus lengthening our stay and giving us panoramic views of the landscape that most others never get to take in.


The Torres del Paine are quite unique. They are a small mountain system completely independent from the Patagonian Andes Range. They were formed when magma (yep magma!) penetrated through a crack in the earthen basin pushing sedimentary rock upward. The surrounding landscape is comprised of grasslands and granite hills and the Torres del Paine appears almost as some sort of addition to the landscape. They are stunning and quite remarkable. You can actually just sit and stare at them in appreciation for quite some time.

The large shuttle bus made it’s first two stops dropping off passengers at the park entrance and the catamaran and then drove the remaining 6 of us to the far end of the park for the hike in. We exited the bus, opened up our map and headed down trail with the entire park laid out before us. We had a stunningly beautiful day to hike. Bright blue skies and endless sunshine. We completed the ‘tail’ and set up camp for the first night at one of the park refugios. Camping in the park has two options, there are free backcountry sites as well as refugios which cost around $8 a person. The refugios offer toilets, showers, and hot water for washing and cooking. We felt it was best to spend our first night camping in the relative comfort of the refugio testing our equipment before heading into the backcountry.

We awoke to our second day (the sun rises at 5:30am and sets at 10:30am so the days are LONG!) and broke camp to head up valley, and thus uphill, on what would turn out to be the most difficult day of our hike. Our packs were at their heaviest point of the hike (30+ lbs each but luckily they would get lighter as we went through our food and fuel). Our destination was the massive Glacier Grey, part of the Patagonian Ice Field which is the third largest ice field on earth (behind Antarctica and Greenland). We made it over a small mountain pass and the glacier came into sight, quite amazing as it barrels for kilometers down the valley in the distance only to fragment into three separate arms all depositing into a bright blue lake in front us. The mountain pass brought the wind along with the beautiful views so we took a moment to rest and then began the second half of our hike. The trail initially descended down the backside of the pass only to head further uphill making the last few windy kilometers of the hike more difficult than the first dozen. A 30 lb pack in the Patagonian wind (up to 60 km/h gusts the week we were there) acts like a sail and on uneven trail can be quite difficult to manage. You spend a good portion of the time walking bent over, trying to counterbalance the winds. Then they stop for absolutely no reason and you frantically try to right yourself before you topple over. We made it to our backcountry campsite that night, our most remote spot of the hike, and enjoyed some solidarity as we slept alongside the glacier as it let out occasional ’booms’ or calving as ice sheared off its face and into the lake below.

Our third day found us hiking much more comfortably down the valley we had ascended the day before and toward the Valle de Frances. It would be our longest day of the trip, covering 23 kilometers of trail, but favorable winds and blue skies made the hike enjoyable. We set up camp again in the backcountry and woke early the next morning to hike up the Valle de Frances. The valley comprises the middle line of the ‘W’ and offers views of towers and spires to either side. Unfortunately we awoke to thick fog and a light drizzle which eventually turned to snow, a theme that would continue during the remainder of our hike, and were unable to see the valley in all of it’s entirety. Some patches of blue skies gave us small beautiful glimpses of the scenery but we were forced to return to camp in spitting rain where we grabbed our bags and headed several hours further back down trail to a refugio campground for the night. Luckily by this time our packs were beginning to lighten a little as we alternated through either soup or pasta each night for dinner and oatmeal each day for breakfast (we did ‘one armed’ lunches of granola as we hiked). We had a shower that night for the first time in days and headed out the following morning for our final destination and the parks namesake, the ‘Torres’ or ‘Towers’.

The rain was taking a liking to us so it decided to welcome us to the trail the next morning as we ascended nearly 2500 ft over the 17 kilometers leading us to our final backcountry camping site. We took it in good stride and we were rewarded for our efforts as some clear skies opened up over camp. We hurriedly set up our tent and as somewhat of an ‘insurance’ decided to head up trail to the Torres for a sunset in case they were not viewable the next morning. The final push to the Torres is the steepest trail segment of the ‘W’ taking nearly 40 minutes to cover a single kilometer. We caught fleeting glimpses of the Towers as we dodged across streams (There are many, many streams on the trail. I think we ended up jumping over about 50 by the end of the week.) and behind groves of forest as we headed up valley and then nearly all at once they came into spectacular view. The trail sits to the east of the formation so the colors on the rock were not what we hoped to see the following morning but the site was none the less rewarding. As with the glacier, we had a bit of solidarity as we sat quietly staring at the beautiful formations. We headed down quite happy with our decision to make the extra journey and crawled into our tent with great anticipation of the next morning.


We awoke at 4:30am the following morning, along with nearly everyone else in our camp, and headed up the trail in the dark with headlamps. It appeared somewhat cloudy but it was difficult to tell as there was no sun in sight. As the sun gradually rose and we approached the end of the trail it immediately became apparent that there would not be the famous show of blues and reds of sunlight on the rocks that morning. The clouds were not only thick and covering but somewhat threatening. We decided to cut our losses and turned around to head back to camp. We hurriedly made oatmeal and coffee (Colleen still does not drink the stuff) and packed up camp. It was our final day on the trail and our destination was the only road that touches a part of the trail, a few hours down valley. About midway down the rains caught us and they caught us good. A solid downpour onto us and our belongings ensued for the next couple hours and we arrived to the refugio cold and soaked to the bone a full 4 hours prior to our scheduled shuttle. We found a couple heaters in the lobby to warm up by and ordered a cup of hot chocolate and had a good laugh. We were cold and tired but pretty damn happy at what we had just seen and accomplished over the past 6 days on our 103 kilometer hike.

We made it back to Puerto Natales that night and enjoyed a hot shower and some dry clothes. We tended to our blisters and worn bodies as the storm raged on, but luckily this time we were indoors. After not having a drink in 10 days I must admit that $2.50 Chilean boxed wine by a fire place never tasted so good!