"W"onderful Torres Del Paine, Patagonia, Chile (by Karen)

After sitting through an evening of listening to trekkers recounting their tales of wonder and adversities, we were very keen to get out there and experience it for ourselves. The 'W' circuit can be done either east to west, or west to east. The most popular is east to west, and is the way that we're about to follow. However that first evening seemed to be filled with lots of people having gone west to east, and who only had their final day of the trek left - our first day. The one advantage of this of course is that we did get TONS of handy tips about the trek, especially where the hard bits were and where we'd be blessed with some easier terrain.

Chilean and Patagonian flags

What was made clear is that day 3 is by far the toughest, by sheer volume - 28km! And this day has to be done with full backpacks (some days you can leave some of your gear at a refugio along the way). It's not too bad on the meters-climbed scale, but it's a solid 10-12 hour day which is a long time to be on your feet.

The next toughest day is apparently our day 1, which at 20km is no distance to be shrugged off, but it's the altitude climbed that gives it this rating.

We had rather over confidently assumed that we would be able to shave a couple of hours off the given map estimates, assuredly thinking that we're pretty fit and athletic women. However we soon realised after chatting with the other trekkers that the time estimates are quite hard core, and to meet them you really need to keep up a good pace and not stop for too long.

View on the way back down from the Torres (day 1)

There are two ways you can do the W circuit - as a camping nutter or by staying in refugios. Since our traveling backpacks are already 24kg due to schlepping around our climbing gear, sleeping bags and therma rests, we most definitely did not want to add camping gear too. Besides that, it's pretty chilly for camping and my dodgy back wouldn't cope with such a heavy backpack over this kind of terrain. 

Rone with Torres spires in the background

So yip, we've gone with staying in the refugios with full board. You can mix things up by staying in the refugio but cooking your own food, or camping but paying for refugio meals. But we didn't know this beforehand and so have gone the full cushy option :)

Horse-trekking is also very popular!

However, full cushy comes at quite a price ... £100 each a day! Considering this got us bunk rooms and the meals totally lacking in variety or creativity (consisting of things like packet soup for starters, omlette for mains, and tinned fruit for dessert!) we would definitely advise any future trekkers to consider a mix of options. But for now, for this time, cushy is good :)


DAY 1 : Los Torres refugio to Torres Mirador (lookout)

Distance: 20km
Walking time: 6.5hrs
Total time: 8hrs
Total altitude climbed: 900m

Karen soaking up the ambience

What a stunning day! It's impossible to describe with words so I'm hoping the photos will do it justice. What is so mind boggling is how incredible a single day can be. It was a day where all my senses were awakened and vitalised, where I smelt and heard and tasted and felt so much.  Everywhere I looked was spectacular, every sip of water was sweet and delicious, and the air that filled my lungs was crisp and clean. It was magical.

Today was a there-and-back again trek up to Los Torres Mirador (lookout). We headed off at 8:30am with fairly cloudy skies but no rain. The temperature was also fairly mild (I'd say about 8 degrees) and since from the 2km point the path headed steeply uphill for another 4km it was not long before quite a few layers came off.

Strapping up the ankle

My "poles"

I had, rather stupidly, faffed around with making a decision regarding hiring trekking poles in Puerto Natalas (nearest main town to the national park) and in the end didn't get any. On the bus ride to the park I realised what an idiot I was - with a history of back and knee surgery, plus having sprained some ligaments in my ankle taking a heels-over-head tumble down a steep path in New Zealand, I'm the very specimen that poles were originally invented for! :)  Luckily not long after heading off we came across some discarded "poles" - perhaps a bit better described as tree trunks - they were a bit heavy but perfect length, and so I had my poles and a good upper body workout too :)

Lunch spot at the Torres

With fresh legs we attacked the steep incline with vigour and made good progress up to the Mirador in just over 3 hours (10km, 7.5km of which were up!). By then the clouds had mostly gone and the sun shone warmly, so we lay by the lake and gobbled our box lunch and nuts. The 3 spires of the Torres were slightly obscured by thin clouds at the very tops, but since we had a totally clear blue sky yesterday we were had witnessed them in their full splendour and weren't too worried about the whispy clouds that lingered today.

Forest we walked through on day 1

I was however a bit worried about the looong down hill that we were now faced with, but it actually went pretty smoothly. There were a few up bits that the calves complained quite a bit about, but otherwise no problems. The last 1km was on dirt road and was by far the hardest, because of course by then my mind was thinking of a hot shower and cup of tea and my feet were thinking of a relaxing footy massage from Rone :)

Day 2 : Los Torres to Los Cuernos refugio

Distance: 13km
Walking time: 3.5hrs
Total time: 4hrs
Total altitude climbed: 400m

Today was hard because everyone had said it would be easy.  So I set forth with the mindset of a chilled, flat terrain, day. As we hit the first hill and my calves were burning I thought "what the f*ck"! For sure it's a lighter day in comparison to other W circuit days, but in no way would I categorise it as easy.

Rainy day

However I think 3 main factors came into play to make the day that little bit harder 1) there was a light steady drizzle all day, which luckily let up for about 30 minutes and we were blessed with a rainbow over the lake, 2) we had to carry our full trek backpacks, and 3) our legs were on day 2, which if you've ever done any multi-day event you'll know is the toughest day for the body. It's not fresh anymore, but it also hasn't yet adjusted to the activity and got into a groove. Well, I'm certainly hoping this is the case because tomorrow is the big day 3!

A brief break from the rain :)

It wasn't all bad of course :) We had breath-taking views of the lake and mountains and gazed into an infinite horizon. We both felt that this is one of the most beautiful places, and possibly even the top spot, that we have ever been.








DAY 3 : Los Cuernos to Paine Grande, via Valle De Francais

Distance: 28km
Walking time: 8.75hrs
Total time: 10hrs
Total altitude climbed: 800m

Sunrise while walking next to the lake

Our rain jackets were zipped up tightly. The newly bought gaiters were strapped on. The backpack rain covers were out, and all our gear was stuffed into waterproof bags or plastic bags, or otherwise tucked somewhere we hoped would be fairly protected. We stepped outside and were 'jinxed' with clear skies and stars!

The refugio from Day 1 had a black-board up with the next 4 days weather prediction. For day 2 it had 3mm rain and for day 3 it was 7mm. So since day 2 consisted of a steady drizzle all day, with patches of harder rain and one half hour respite, we had mentally (and physically) prepared ourselves for a tuff day 3. That morning I didn't even bother to check if it was raining, I was so sure that it would be!

Sunrise hitting the mountain tops

By 8am we were fed, dollied up and out the door, just as the first rays of light illuminated the sky. Day 1 and day 3 are the key days for clear weather, otherwise there is almost no point as you won't see the spectacular views. Since we had such superb weather on day 1, and such a shoddy forecast for day 3, I was literally jumping up and down in joy at seeing the clear skies :)

Since I found day 2 so hard mentally I wasn't too sure how to go about tackling this day, which covered more than double the distance and altitude. It broke down logically into 4 stages - getting to Camp Italiano (5.5km), then up the French Valley to the lookout (7.5km), then back down to Camp Italiano (7.5km), and finally from Italiano to Paine Grande refugio (7.5km). Having these smaller goals definitely made it more do-able.

About half way up the French Valley

We set off at a good pace, and despite a few stops to get photos of the sun rise glowing on the mountains, we arrived at Camp Italiano at 10am. Here we got to leave our heavy bags behind and just take a light day pack for the walk up to the lookout. After a quick snack of nuts and granola bar we set off again. Not long after leaving the camp we hit a loooong steep section that went on for about 45 minutes, but after that it was a gentle steady up through forest which was very pleasant.

The view from the lookout

The trail went steep again for about 20 minutes which we attacked with vigour. At the top we passed a bunch of fellow trekkers who had stopped for a rest and lunch, but Rone's GPS watch said there was still 2km to go so we determinedly cruised on past them. Suddenly the trail petered out and there was a little sign saying "End". What the??  We scouted around but couldn't see where the trail went, so we headed back to the other guys and asked them if they knew. Oh no, this IS the lookout, they told us. We were very confused but sure enough there was a sign saying "Mirador" (lookout) so we figured they must have got the distances wrong on the map. It was such a pleasant surprise though, and quite funny how we were all gungho passing the other guys and not stopping :)

Lunch spot at the Mirador

On the way back down we figured out what had happened - in the forest the watch kept loosing GPS signal, so it hadn't been tracking all the time and hence gave the wrong distance.

A quick bite to eat by the river

The journey back down to Italiano was very pleasant, arriving there at 3pm. We stopped for a few more bites of sandwich and nuts and choccie, shouldered our heavy packs once more and set off on the last stage of the day. Luckily the terrain was easy going, with no big gruelling hills, and fuelled by the chocolate we ticked it off in just over 2 hours, arriving at the refugio with just enough time to get showered and changed and ready for dinner at 7 :)

Mesmerized by the flow

DAY 4 : Paine Grande to Glacier Grey

Distance: 24km
Walking time: 7hrs
Total time: 8hrs
Total altitude climbed: 600m

Dead tree from a massive fire caused by a camp fire

There was such a hype about the "big day 3" that we didn't really pay day 4 much attention. When we did finally look at the map we realised it put up a pretty good fight against day 3, clocking in with a there-and-back-again 24kms. The terrain however was not at gruelling as the previous day, but thank goodness for that because by now I had definitely developed some creaks, aches and pains.

Sebastiaan, Magriet, Me and Rone

Back in Los Cuernos we teamed up with a Dutch couple who we had been bumping into a lot on the way, and we always ended up sharing bunk rooms with. This worked out quite well since we were all on the same schedule and hence went to bed around the same time (very early!) and got up together (also very early :).

However somehow this morning we all managed to sleep through the alarm and woke up with a start at 7:35am. We quickly donned our rather stinky hiking clothes and rushed downstairs for our breakfast and lunch packs.

Fog hovering on the lake

Today the weather was playing at being mysterious. There were thin wisps of clouds forming streaks across the mountains and clinging to their tops, and fog floated and glided gently over the lakes. But everything was constantly changing - what was at first totally covered in fog would suddenly become clearly visible, only to be shrouded in fog again. The whole day was like this, and in this way we caught glimpses of everything there was to see, but never for too long :)

Glacier Grey

It was chilly close to the glacier!

Glacier Grey was really amazing to see. It covers 270km-squared and comes down into Lake Grey at two points. We walked up to a lookout point about 300m from the base of the glacier, and from there we sat and had our lunch and listened to the glacier groaning as it inched its way down the valley. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any pieces calve off, although we did hear one as we were walking up, but we did see the hundreds of huge blocks of ice floating on the lake.

Pisco Sours

That evening in Paine Grande refugio we treated ourselves to a Pisco Sours (pisco is a local Chilean liquor) and even some red wine. Big cheers went up when we realised it was past 9pm and we were still up!  But as we finished off the last of our wine our eyes were drooping closed, our bodies demanding some well-earned sleep :)







THE END

Sunrise from Paine Grande refugio

And thus ended our trekking in Patagonia :( The next day at midday we had the catamaran ride back to the park entrance, so we were looking forward to a sleep in and lazy breakfast for a change. However I woke up at 7:30 and couldn't sleep anymore, so snuck out the dorm and went outside to watch the sunrise, which turned out to be the best sunrise of the trip.

Admittedly my body was feeling pretty tired, but not as bad as I expected, and I was itching to get outside again. So after breakfast and doing some stretches, I went for a short walk by myself, heading south on one of the trails we hadn't followed yet.

Majestic mountains

I sat overlooking the lake and marvelled at its turquoise blue colour. I closed my eyes and all I could hear was the faint rush of two distant rivers and the gentle tweeting of some nearby birds. The rest was silence.  I stayed for a long time just drinking in the view - mountains, glaciers, lakes, streams and hills.

Catamaran ride back to base

It was extremely hard to leave this beauty and head back to roads and cars and shops and computers. Once you remove yourself from all that and get immersed in such magnificence and solitude, it is hard imagine going back.  But now I have these cherished memories and photos, and a hunger for more trekking :)

So hard to say goodbye!