Hiking the W in Torres del Pain National Park

The W is a well known hike in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The hike is in the shape of a W and contours granite spires, namely Torres del Paine (2800m), Paine Grande (3050m) and Los Cuernos (2200 to 2600m). Here is a link to a map of the hike we did http://www.cascada-expediciones.com/images/mapas/mapatorres.jpg. You can actually do the hike without camping. There are Refugio´s all along the hike where you can sleep and eat. We saw a lot of people along the way with tiny little backpacks. We decided to camp along the way because we knew we´d have more fun and it was much much less expensive. If you stay in refugios, the entire hike can cost up to $400. I´m glad we camped, we had a great time. On a few occasions we took advantage of the hot water and washrooms that the refugios had to offer. I really wanted to post pictures, since it was so spectacular, but internet is just too slow. I will post some as soon as I can get to a good connection.


Day 1:
From: Refugio Paine Grande and Campamento Los Guardas
Distance: 15km
Time hiking: 5 hours

After having gotten off the catamaran in the early afternoon we still had 5 hours of hiking ahead of us before reaching our campsite for the night. The weather was gorgeous on the first day and we quickly took off a few layers that had kept us warm on the catamaran. The hike was beautiful and led us into a valley and then onto the shore of Lago Grey. We hiked along the shore most of the day. As we got farther along the shore we started seeing icebergs floating in the lake. We knew they were from Glacier Grey that was at the end of the lake. Finally we got to see the glacier and it was pretty impressive. The last hour of the hike on the first day was very steep uphill and we were tired, hungry and impatient to arrive to camp. We finally arrived to camp, much quicker than expected since the map said it would take us 2 hours after Refugio Grey and it only took us 1. We set up camp, made dinner and then headed out to the mirador(a viewpoint) to watch the glacier and the sunset. It was an impressive view once again. We then headed to bed. Since there is no wildlife to worry about (other than mice) we put our food in the tent. We weren´t 100% sure this was a good decision but didn´t feel like hanging it anywhere. It was a pretty cold night, and neither of us slept very well. First of all our mattresses, whose price ($12) reflected their quality, were very very hard. Secondly there was a lot of commotion outside. The were birds sounds, then there was squawking and then there was a lot of hissing. After the hissing, was a lot of tarp/tent movement. It sounded like someone was packing up camp, meanwhile it was the middle of the night and we heard no voices or footsteps. Both of us were afraid whatever was making the noise outside was coming for our food in our tent. We woke up to find out garbage dragged up a hill, and someone´s trail mix added to our garbage.

Day 2:
From: Campamento Los Guardas to Campamento Italiano
Distance: 22.6km
Time hiking: 8 hours

It was cold in the morning so we started the hike with ALL of our clothes on; we quickly had to stop to take off a few layers. The first half of the day was retracing our steps from the previous. We checked out the Refugio that was an hour away from our camp and saw more icebergs floating around. After the Refugio there was a lot of up and down and we had a lot of dressing/undressing breaks depending on sun and shade. We had lunch with our last view of the glacier. We stopped at Refugio Paine Grande for water and a break in the sun. The last 2 hours of the hike were very pretty. The lakes reminded me of lakes in Yellowknife, with their rocky, glacier carved shores. We finally arrived to the campsite. It is a very popular campsite and was very busy. It was once again cold in the forest. It was so cold our dinner took for ever to cook because we did have a shield/wind protector for our stove. We went to bed early (we did every night) and heard thunder as we were lying in bed. We made sure that nothing was touching the sides of our tent so that when the rain arrived we wouldn´t get soaked. It thundered all night long, but we never got rain.

Day 3:
From: Campamento Italiano to Campamento Los Cuernos
Distance: 13km
Time: 8.5 hours

This day was supposed to be our easy day. When we got up, we left our tent set up and headed up Valley Frances with just our lunch and some warm clothes. The terrain ended up being very difficult and we were very happy we didn´t have our big packs with us. It wasn´t necessarily steep but there were times where we were scrambling up boulders and there was a lot of up and down. We kept hearing thunder but couldn´t see a cloud in the sky. It turns out the thundering sound was coming from the pieces of glacier falling off the mountain side. It was really neat and we saw a really big one. Even the smallest ice fall would echo off the rock wall and sound like thunder. It was mesmerizing to watch and a few times we just sat down and watched the show. We got to the last mirador in time for lunch and sat and watched more ice fall. We had a great 360 degree view. The way down was very hard and painful. I had a few blisters forming and they grew tenfold thanks to the terrain on the way down. We both felt like our bodies were falling apart. We finally arrived back to the campsite and packed up our stuff, it was just another 2 hours to the next campsite. It was another pretty walk along a few lakes. We arrived to the campsite that was on the edge of the lake. It was more vulnerable to wind but much warmer. Both very tired from our supposedly easiest day (in retrospect, it was our hardest day) we went to bed early and has our warmest sleep. We woke up to the wind howling in the morning.

Day 4:
From: Campamento Los Cuernos to Campamento Torres
Distance: 16km
Time: 7 hours

This day was supposed to be our longest day and hardest so we got up earlier than normal to get a head start on the day. We made breakfast in the shelter of Refugio Los Cuernos because it was so windy. This day was our first day of cloudy skies and wind. We couldn´t complain, things had been so great for the past 3 days. We walked really fast in the morning, barely taking any breaks because of the cold and wind. We had lunch behind a tree, which is all we could find for shelter and the barren trail. After lunch it started raining, fortunately not too hard. As the day went on it just got windier and rain threatened the entire morning. We had been warned about the strong winds in Torres del Paine but hadn´t experienced them yet. When we arrived at the edge of the 3rd part of the ¨W¨, Valle Ascensio, the wind just got stronger. Gusts would push us into the mountain and would force us to crouch over. We were both glad we had the weight of our bags to keep us grounded. We arrived to Campamento Chileno (1 hour away from our campsite) where we discovered the boiling hot water that comes out of their taps. We made hot chocolate and had a small break inside, away from the wind. The map said it would take us 2 hours to get to our campsite but it only took us 1. We got into camp the earliest yet at 3:30 in the afternoon and didn´t know what to do with ourselves. So much for our longest and hardest day. In the evening we cooked dinner and then went to bed early.

Day 5:
From: Campamento Torres to Hosteria Las Torres (where we caught the shuttle out of the park)
Distance: 10km
Time: 5 hours

We woke up at 6:30 to hike up to a mirador to watch sunrise (at 7:38am). We hiked in the dark with our headlamps. We had trouble finding the start of the trail but once we found it, it was well marked with reflectors. It took us about 45 mins to get to the mirador, where we could see the Torres del Paine mountains. We decided to hike a bit higher to see the sunrise. We didn´t get very far due to the wind that was forcing us to cling to boulders. We hid behind a rock and were slightly protected to watch sunrise. The sunrise was ok, nothing spectacular. We decided to head back down and fought our way through the wind down to the forest where we were more sheltered. We turned around to have our last glimpse of Torres del Paine, only to see if beautifully lit up by the sunrise. I guess that’s what everyone gets up at sunrise to see. We got to our campsite and packed up and headed out without eating breakfast. We decided we´d take advantage of the boiling hot tap water at the refugio. We stopped there for breakfast and then had about a 3 hour hike out. We knew we needed to be there by 2 to catch our shuttle. The hike out was windy again and we had fun playing in the wind. We could lean into it and it would support us. We ended up getting to the Hosteria 2 hours before the shuttle. We started eating lunch but a huge gust of wind came and actually blew our big backpacks away. The wind was so strong we were crouched on the ground clutching our bags. We moved to the side of hosteria, where we were better protected from the wind. We caught our shuttle and then bus back to Puerto Natales. It was a great hike with some amazing views. I highly recommend it!!