The biggest pre-planned activity in Chile was the Patagonia W Trek – a 50+ mile multiday hike through the famous Torres del Paine Chilean national park. We started the trip from Santiago where we met up with Rahul, Jonathan and Ferrona – friends who flew in from Boston and San Francisco respectively to hike the W with us as well! A few hours after our 4am departure from Santiago, we arrived in the small town of Puerto Natales which is itself another few hours away from the actual park. Since our itinerary required us to stay in Puerto Natales overnight, we took this opportunity to carbo-load and check out various restaurants in the town. Including the post-hike dinner, here are the places we visited that we would definitely recommend to anyone on a similar itinerary:

• Gemas – Great breakfast, and more importantly open before noon…
• Last Hope Distillery – Fantastic gin distillery owned by an Aussie couple who make some of the best cocktails in all of Chile!
• Pizzeria Napoli – Good pizza, with interesting game meats like guanaco
• El Brisket – Probably one of the best restaurants we went to while in Chile… it’s not what Americans would think of as brisket, but everything on the menu was phenomenal. We would absolutely eat here again next time we’re in the area!

As we finally arrived in the park on Day 1, we checked in to make sure the rangers knew about the most recent gringos to enter Patagonia and to make sure that we were back in our tents that night. The first day is all about Mirador del Torres – a stunning look at the base of ‘The Towers’, granite monoliths which give the park it’s namesake. It’s a roughly 6mi, 3000ft elevation gain hike from Refugio Central where we started the day. Overall I would say this is one of the more challenging single hikes of the entire trip, and luckily we started this challenge with fresh legs.

The most surprising aspect of this day was the sheer amount of people that we encountered on the hike – from mile 1 where we cross the open plains of Sector Central to the very last few hundred feet where we basically scramble up boulders to the viewpoint, the entire trip was quite crowded (and mostly with other Americans like us). To add insult to perceived injury, the view of the Towers themselves was also… less than stellar. We had a significant cloud coverage that day – which was actually a light snow storm at the top of the hike – and this meant that even with only a few hundred feet between us and the granite slabs, we could really only see the bottom of the mountain. Not quite the magnificent view that we were ready for, but an overall great first hike in the park!

The hike back was uneventful, minus the scores of 20-yr olds with much too much confidence in their own immortality – these speedsters would at points run past us on 45 degree inclines straight down. I don’t envy the meniscus that will have to be replaced some day soon… Once back at camp, we checked in and found ourselves with a phenomenal ‘camping’ experience. I use quotes here because I don’t think I could dream up a more bougie tent situation – elevated platform, tents + sleeping bags already setup and space to fit at least 6 people (we opted for only 2 per…) Add a well deserved first beer of the trip and a hearty dinner to the mix, and we were not long for consciousness that first night… we fell asleep around 9 and blissfully ended day 1.

On Day 2, we had a relatively slow start since we didn’t have too much hiking ahead of us – roughly 8mi total from Refugio Central to Refugio Cuernos, closer to the ‘middle’ of the park. This was a fantastic ‘rest day’ since a few of us were still a bit beat up from the first ~13mi the day before, and we could really use a flat section. Unfortunately this flat section is only flat by Patagonia standards… we still had more than 1000ft of elevation gain ahead of us as it turns out. Minor complaints aside, this was a very pretty hike to the Refugio Cuernos – a camp right under the “Horns” of the park. The majority of the time we hiked close to one of the bluest glacial lakes we’ve ever seen: Lake Nordenskjold. Gorgeous views aside, this was an overall pleasant hike to our tents at Cuernos.

Since the day was relatively short, we arrived in camp around 2-3pm and had quite a leisurely afternoon in the refugio – beers, cards and an overall relaxing end to day 2. It’s at this point that I want to emphasize how quickly we were humbled by the fellow hikers on the similar itinerary… a wonderful family of four from Colorado, with two young boys 8 and 11, was on the van in the first day with us. As we learned on day 2, they were also unhappy with the view they saw the previous day at the Towers – so unhappy in fact that they DID THE HIKE AGAIN on day 2… and then added the one way trip to Cuernos. After their 20+ mile day, we all realized we were playing a whole different game than the rest of the hikers around us…

The next day was the longest we had on the trail – a ~8mi trip from Cuernos to Paine Grande, with a 7mi detour to the Frances Valley where we could observe the eastern face of the Paine Grande Mountain and the countless avalanches that trigger throughout the day. This detour not only adds a significant length to the hike, but also a huge elevation gain of ~3300ft over the course of the day. Thankfully the trekking poles make the load a lot lighter!

Hiking to the French and British viewpoints along the way was quite a surreal experience – whenever we had the chance to look away from our feet as we scrambled on top of loose granite blocks, we’d marvel at the massive snow-covered slopes seemingly a few hundred feet away. Every now and again, a massive boom would ring out and we’d see a small (relative to the entire snow-covered area) amount of snow falling off a small edge of Paine Grande Mountain. This hike, while exhausting, was a fantastic experience that has us end in a small forest at the base of a mountain range encompassing almost the entire panoramic view.

Going back down was an adventure in and of itself, with yet more daredevils speeding past us on yet steeper slopes than ones we climbed on our first day… good luck! The rest of the day had us walk to Refugio Paine Grande through the site of a portion of burned forest from the 2011 Torres del Paine Fire. It’s tragic to see the devastation caused by an inattentive tourist from more than a decade ago, and serves as quite the stark reminder that we need to be extremely careful with the beauty that we have left lest future visitors have a completely devastated experience…

Our third day in the park came to a close almost instantly once we arrived at the refugio – we checked in to (significantly downgraded compared to nights prior) tents and quickly ate about a thousand calories, before passing out for the night. Day 4 was another ‘short’ day with only a ~6mi hike from Paine Grande to Refugio Grey – an outpost right outside of the famous Grey Glacier in the northwest of the park. Unfortunately the weather was not in our favor, and we had a significant amount of rain throughout the entire hike. Nevertheless, we still had some great views of the glacier as we made our way along Lago Grey on our west.

The hike left us all a little cold and wet, so by the time we made our way to camp we were all ready for a bit of R&R. We had quite a few beers at the refugio and met a wonderful couple from Japan, currently living in Buenos Aires – as it turns out, we were chatting with a professional football player from the world renowned Boca Juniors women’s football team!

We woke up on day 5 a little less rested than the prior nights, but I’m sure the guy snoring loud enough to wake up all 40 tents got his good night’s sleep! Thankfully overnight the weather decided to improve a good bit and we were no longer going to be soaked the entire hike. Our first stop was the hanging bridges on the way to Grey Glacier – these are wooden bridges (with reinforced steel cables to be fair…) that span some of the rivers that drain into Lago Grey and to say that crossing them is a bit daunting is… quite an understatement. But maybe that’s just my fear of heights kicking in…

After crossing one of these bridges, we decided we were going to head back and not be rushed for time before our evening ferry – not because I was scared of crossing even longer hanging bridges or anything. Our hike back was a repeat of the previous day’s hike, but this time with a significantly enhanced view of the surrounding areas. We even saw a Caracara doing a little lunching on our way back to Paine Grande!

We left Paine Grande on a ferry out with a spectacular panorama of the the Paine Massif range, as seen in the last image above. Our Patagonia adventure came to end almost as soon as it started, but the five days we spent in the park were truly unforgettable – amazing hikes to some of the most breathtaking views of the Paine Massif, long hikes through 100km/h windstorms, rainy treks to massive glaciers, and much more. Our adventure didn’t immediately end – our bus back to Puerto Natales almost left us behind – but, after 50+ miles of hiking you learn to shrug off minor inconveniences!