My dos and don’ts for hiking the world famous ‘W’ trek in Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine is undoubtedly the most famous national park for hiking in Patagonia and probably the whole of South America. Don’t feel embarrassed if you’ve never heard of it, I hadn’t before I started researching for this trip. What I didn’t know is that Torres del Paine is probably one of the most expensive national parks in South America, if not the most expensive. It’s not just the entry fees and transport, but you also have to decide between camping or staying in refugios (kind of like mountain lodges with dorm rooms). Food is expensive too unless you’re willing to carry five days worth of meals on your back for the whole trip. With all these different things to think about as well as route variations – you can go east-west or west-east and you can spend four or five days hiking – there’s a lot of preparation and planning that needs to go into doing this trek, even at the very start of the season in October.

I’m going share my experience of the ‘W’ from preparation to advice, including my favourite parts of the hike and some adventures along the way. As a spoiler now I’ll let you know it didn’t all go to plan but I did manage the whole route without getting lost once. However this blog could not be more aptly named for this post as throughout the five days hiking I lost more things than I think I have lost in my whole trip!

So, here are my dos and don’ts for successfully hiking the ‘W’ in Torres del Paine:

Do book your refugios or camping spots more than two weeks in advance. I only started booking 10 days in advance and this caused me a few issues. The companies that own all the accommodation, Vertice and Fantastico Sur, can be very slow to respond to emails so it’s best to give them as much time as possible.

Don’t pay extra at the refugios for bedding (or other equipment unless you only need it for one night). You can rent a sleeping bag in Puerto Natales, the closest town to the park, for $3,000 pesos a day (£3.60). It might add weight to your bag but it saves a fair amount of money. The same goes for tents, hiking poles and any other equipment you might need.

Do the route in four days instead of five. Most guides will tell you that the route takes five days and should go left to right. But unless you are extremely unfit, have a serious injury or have time to waste, then it wont take you five days. Save yourself one night of accommodation and do it in four. The park map has estimates for the time it takes to do the route so this can help with planning your stops.

Don’t pack more things than you need. Before you reach the park you should know if you are eating in the refugios or bringing your own food. The same goes for clothes, you’ll know how many days of hiking clothes you need. Any thing extra in your bag just adds weight to your pack and more weight means less fun. It also means more things to lose. Also, keep any miscellaneous items in bags within your pack as it’s easy to drop things along the way without noticing (headphones, padlocks etc…).

Do bring your passport. The refugios and campsites will ask to see and take a photocopy of your passport and travel card for tax purposes so make sure you bring it with you. Put it in a safe part of your pack, inside a zip-lock bag if you have one. Also you can get a free passport stamp at the ranger office when you pay your park entry fees and as there’s not much for free here, take it when you can.

Don’t arrive in Puerto Natales on the weekend. This small town is ghostly most of the time but especially during the weekends. If you arrive during the week you can visit the offices for Vertice and Fantastico Sur to complete your accommodation bookings or ask any questions in person. The supermarket also gets very empty on a Sunday so the selection of snacks is very low.

Do go to the Erratic Rock briefing in town before the hike. A hostel and hiking rental shop called Erratic Rock in Puerto Natales give free briefings daily at 3pm in their hostel. These guys are experts and they gave me loads of great advice. They’ll answer all your questions. So highly recommend this!

Don’t lose your bus ticket before you’ve even left the town. This is just one for me probably but if you’re buying a bus ticket to Torres del Paine in advance from your hostel (recommended) then don’t lose it. Or panic and think you’ve lost it, run all the way back to hostel when it was in your bag all along. Put it in a safe place that you’ll remember (not inside your passport).

Do make friends with the people on your route. On your first night, find out who is going in the same direction through the park as you and which campsites or refugios they are staying at. You’ll see them everyday for the next four or five so it’s much nicer if you get to know them.

Don’t forget to pack a day bag. There will be at least three times when you can drop off your big bag at a refugio or ranger lodge and hike with a smaller pack for the day. I forgot to pack a smaller bag so I had to carry my packed lunch in a plastic bag. Hiking hands free is much easier and I was already carrying a huge water bottle around with me. One lady even asked me if I was hiking because I seemed so relaxed with my equipment (none of the gear but some idea).

Don’t go crazy and eat a whole box of powdered potatoes if your reservations don’t work out. Because I arrived in Puerto Natales on a Sunday and didn’t managed to finalise my booking with Vertice – their refugios weren’t aware of my reservations. This meant on my second night of accommodation, where I had intended to have dinner, there wasn’t enough food for me. So instead of acting rationally, I bought a box of powered potatoes with a packet of cheese and salami from the mini market and ate the whole box as their only ‘hot’ option.

Do set off early on your Frances Valley day. Depending on what route your doing this could be your second or third day, but whatever direction, it will be a long day. For most people the views of the Frances valley and from the Britanico viewpoint (in the middle of the W-shape) are the best. If you set off early then you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the views and rather than rushing to make it to you next camp before sunset.

Don’t miss any opportunity to climb up to the Torres base. I know that regrets are futile when you’re travelling but I regret not going up to the Torres base twice. It’s meant to be the hardest part of the whole route to hike but it’s also the hardest part to see clearly as it’s notorious for changeable weather. If you have time, go up twice to see the Torres because you never know when it will be clear enough to see the mountain tops. We rested when we arrived to the camp, ready to go up the next morning but in the morning there was a snow storm and we couldn’t see much more than an outline. Annoyingly it completely cleared up in the afternoon as we were leaving the park.

Do wear hiking boots. This sounds like obvious advice but I did actually see two people hiking up to the Torres in the snow with slipper-style pumps on. Just crazy.

Don’t fall into the mud. At some points the route is very muddy and boggy, especially if you take the Chilenos shortcut. I managed to get a little stuck in middle of a bog and while jumping with my big bag, fell flat into the mud. Thankfully I had my coat and water-cover on my bag otherwise I would have been very wet and muddy. Also don’t try to dry your muddy alpaca gloves by the fire and burn them so that you have to throw them away.

Do make time to really enjoy in the views and take as many pictures as possible. While you’re hiking to a schedule and you want to have enough time to get to all the sights each day, make sure you leave time to just sit and enjoy the views. There’s no point paying all that money to rush around the park and not enjoy the amazing landscape. Even if you don’t need the break physically, you’ll appreciate the time just to relax and stop as often as you like to take as many pictures as you want.

El Calafate and El Chalten: the frozen heart of Patagonia

Geographically central between the Lake District and Ushuaia, El Calafate is a very popular stop for travellers and has always been part of my itinerary from the beginning of my planning back in 2016. When I first saw a picture of the Perito Moreno glacier in my LP bible (Lonely Planet guidebook) I knew I had to make time in my trip to see it. If I’m honest I didn’t even know it was in Patagonia at the start, it’s famous in it’s own right and travellers come from around the world just to see it, but combined with the nearby town of El Chalten, it’s actually the frozen heart of Patagonia.

Perito Moreno glacier

The famous Perito Moreno glacier sits within Parque National Los Glaciares – a large area of glaciers, mountains and woodlands. In total there are 47 glaciers and it’s the biggest area of ice outside of Antarctica – that’s pretty impressive. The only downside about these amazing glaciers is they are very expensive to visit. Even just an unguided bus journey there and back costs £19.40 plus a park fee of £21.55. There are all kinds of activities you can do like trekking on the glacier and kayaking in the icy lake but seeing as my budget wasn’t able to stretch that far, I went with the regular bus.

You also get the longest amount time to see the glacier if you choose the bus option and after some pretty crappy guides so far on this trip, I decided a quick visit to the Glaciarium (glacier museum) the day before would give me all the information I would need. It even had a cool 3D cinema where you get to see real footage of lots of different glaciers in the national park as well as learning how they’re formed.

Perito Moreno is the most famous glacier in the national park and one of the few glaciers in the world that isn’t shirking due to climate change (it has a cyclical movement instead). The museum has a great time-lapse video of the glacier breaking off and reforming through winter to summer that explains this really well. This movement cycle has allowed a great network of viewing platforms to be built around the glacier’s peninsula, so that you can take in it’s colossal size and shape from all angles year in, year out.

I had five hours to wander around these platforms and take nearly 200 pictures of the impressive blue-looking glacier and it didn’t disappoint. It is just as spectacular in real life as it is in the pictures and even without blue skies it’s still stunning. I even managed to see a few chunks of ice break off – you can hear them crack and crash into the lake from most parts of the platform area. It’s a bit a strange to think I spent five hours watching a big ice sheet but unless you see it for yourself, you won’t understand its magnificence.

(I also got to see the condors that I had missed in Colca Canyon, Peru.)

Upsala & Spegazzini glaciers boat trip

Although I couldn’t afford to do the ice trekking, I could just about afford the boat trip Rios de Hielos (rivers of ice) where you get to see two other glaciers only accessible by boat (£86.22 + £21.55 park fees). It’s still pricey but there’s not much point in flying to El Calafate, paying to stay in hostels and not see what you’ve come to see.

I booked the boat trip through my hostel (America del Sur – hugely recommend them) and although no one else had signed but for this trip, I was excited to see something a bit extra to the Perito Moreno glacier. The trip includes a five hour boat ride through the Lago Argentina (Argentina’s largest lake) up to the Upsala and Spegazzini glaciers.

The Upsala glacier is a very large glacier that frequently breaks off so you can’t get very close to its face. It does have the advantage of producing lots of icebergs which float towards the lake. Our boat stopped by one huge iceberg (remember you only see about 10% of its surface area above the water) which looked so blue. It was quite an amusing tussle to get past other tourists to take pictures but anyone who is used to commuting in London can handle it. With the glaciers and snowcapped mountains reflecting the light from all angles, it can be quite hard to get good quality pictures but with just an iPhone 6, I did the best I could and almost dropped the phone into the water multiple times.

Next the boat goes to see the Spegazzini glacier (named after an Italian botanist, I think) which it’s safe to get very close to. The boat was so close it was actually a bit nerve-wracking but it was amazing to see the glacier’s pathway from the top of the mountain range curve down the mountainside to join the river. At this point it started to rain or snow but I tried my best to get to decent pictures. In the end I settled on a video panorama as the best way to really capture its immense size.

The boat trip was worth the high cost to see these amazing glaciers which are otherwise inaccessible. It was definitely worth the hostel-cooked pasta diet I’ve been on for the last two weeks to afford it.

El Chalten: Hiking to Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torre

Near to El Calafate is a small town called El Chalten in the northern sector of Parque National Los Glaciares. It has loads of great hiking trails and thankfully you don’t have to pay the expensive park fees to hike there. It’s also home to the world-famous Mount Fitz Roy which stars on the American Patagonia clothing company’s logo.

I only had two days set side for El Chalten so I knew I would have to make the most of my time there. I had already researched the routes and planned out which hikes I wanted to do – I decided on Laguna de los Tres to the base of Mount Fitz Roy and Laguna Torre to base of the Torre mountains. The first is the most popular and supposedly the most challenging so I planned to tackle this on my first day, leaving the slightly less challenging for second when I would be a bit more tired and stiff. It turned out the weather was much better on my first day so I’m really glad I did do the routes this way around.

I set off early on the first day, reaching the start of the trail around 8:20am and having already joined forces with a couple from the hostel. They were a really nice American couple who had already been to my next stops in Patagonia so we spent a lot of time talking about those destinations. We chatted most of the way and before we knew it we’d reached 9km out of 10km without much difficulty. But this is where it started to get steeper and snowy. Except some of the snow was melting so it was quite slippy. I tried to find climbing routes through the rocks instead of the snow but this did make me quite tired. It was another hour before we reached the top but it was so worth all the hard work.

The views were amazing, even with misty clouds hugging to the peak of Fitz Roy. In front of us was a big white bowl of snow which we later decided must be one of the lakes. We enjoyed our packed lunches and rested for a bit after four hours of walking without any real breaks. At this point a few other travellers reached the top, including one Brit who said there was another lagoon just the otherwise of a rocky mound in front of us. We had decided we’d skip this lagoon and started back down the way we’d come before changing our minds. I cannot describe how glad I am we did change our minds. The lagoon was so picturesque – a clear, turquoise pool that stood out beautifully against the white and brown surroundings. It just enhanced the beauty of mountains and it’s certainly a gem that shouldn’t be missed if you walk all that way.

On the way down three more people joined our group and so we were quite a chatty hiking party on the way back, despite tired legs. It was really nice to walk with company instead of on my own and I really enjoyed the 20km without thinking about the distance for most of the day.

The next day the weather really wasn’t as good and although I felt really tired, I still went out to hike to the Laguna Torre. I’d seen some pictures of the lagoon before but they were clearly on a sunny day in the middle of summer because when I did reach it, it couldn’t have looked more different. I met two German girls I knew after the first 2km and joined their group for the rest of the way. We were quite upbeat but it was hard to shake my disappointment about the weather – I was definitely grateful I’d had a sunny day previously to see Fitz Roy.

On the way to the lagoon there is a tree graveyard of burnt trees from a recent fire that devastated parts of the woodland – caused by a careless trekker who didn’t put out a cigarette properly. It was eerie and sad to walk through and the thought that someone could be so thoughtless only makes my personal hate of smoking stronger.

The lagoon itself has a glacier feeding into it and when we reached it there were large chunks of ice floating in it. The water was dark and murky, and clouds covered the Cerro Torres which was supposed to be the main attraction of the hike. Despondent, our lunch was eaten in the rain and after taking all our pictures we quickly walked back to town. The 18km were definitely felt more keenly on the second day and I was very glad to reach the hostel at the end.

One good day out of two is pretty good weather-wise so I’m happy. El Chalten is a great warm-up for Torres del Paine, my next stop on my trip and Patagonia’s most famous (and expensive) hiking area.

Pucón and Bariloche: the Patagonia hiking adventure begins

This is the start of my Patagonia hiking adventure. Until this point I’ve felt like an authentic backpacker travelling around South America: getting an impression of the local culture, tasting the traditional food and learning about the history of each country. For the next month in Patagonia I feel like my trip will be more of a hiking adventure than a cultural one. Patagonia is very highly influenced by European settlers and in the ‘Lake District’ (where I am now) I feel like I’m staying in alpine resort – they cost almost as much too.

To continue a logical path for my trip, I’m travelling through Patagonia from north to south, exploring both the Chilean and Argentinean sides. Three weeks isn’t a ton of time to spend here and thankfully I’ve managed to find some competitively priced flights as days can be lost here catching buses between destinations. Still, I’ll be missing out a lot of really nice places to visit and go hiking. The best way to see Patagonia, I think, is to hire a car. It’s not cheap but you have the freedom to see a lot more of the area than you do if you are constricted to public transport. Hopefully at some point in the future I’ll be able to come back to do just that. But for now, I’ll just be doing a highlights of Patagonia or you could call it a best bits trip.

Pucón: luxury hot springs and solo hiking

Pucón was the first stop on my Patagonia adventure and, despite the difficulty of getting a bus ticket there before the Chilean Independence Day holiday, it was worth the wait. It’s a small to medium sized mountain town in the north of the Lake District which sits by the Villarrica lake and the spectacular snowcapped Villarrica volcano. The Lake District area in Patagonia is nothing like the Lake District of Cumbria in England. The rugged mountainous and volcanic countryside covered with a blanket of snow is so peaceful and natural; it looks like it aught to be taken from a remote ski holiday catalogue. People do come to ski and snowboard in Patagonia but much of the quality snow is back country skiing and a very difficult level.

One of the main attractions for adventure-seekers in Pucón is climbing the Villarrica volcano. But once again penalised by the national holiday, the hike wasn’t taking place during the two days while I was in town (just my luck). This was mostly a safety precaution to ensure drunk guides weren’t taking people up an active and potentially dangerous volcano but it was disappointing all the same.

On my first day, after a 12 hour night bus, I decided I would take the day to relax in the luxury hot springs situated an hour from the town. I know I’ve been to a lot of different hot springs on this trip but I’d been assured by the hostel staff that these were really worth it and I was keen to do something with the half day.

The Termas Geometricas are the nicest hot springs I have ever seen or could even imagine. The trip costed £37 (entry and transport included) and although this is a hefty price tag, especially for a backpacker budget, I am so glad it did it. The beautiful setting of the hot springs is a mountain crevice surrounded by a misty forest with lot of different waterfalls. There are 20 man-made steaming pools heated between 35 and 43 degrees centigrade, lined with slate tiles and cute little changing huts. There is also a cosy, modern lodge with an open fire and restaurant where I got a quick cheese and ham toastie. We had three hours to relax here and I made the most of this time by trying out five of the pools. I had planned to try out more but I got talking with a girl from the hostel and so ended up just relaxing.

After a lot of discussion with other travellers at the hostel the night before, I set off the next day to visit El Cañi Reserve and hike the trail. This would be my first solo hiking adventure and I was quite nervous of getting lost or being attacked by a puma. The park ranger at the entrance gave me a map and explained the route. Unfortunately it would be too cloudy to go up to the mirador (viewpoint) but I could go the rest of the way.

It’s meant to be a three to four hike to the top and it was certainly a steep walk for the first two hours. I was going slow and steady but listening to a travel podcast the whole way up (The World Wanderers – highly recommended) made time pass without me noticing. The views were good on the way up but I had a feeling without the clouds they would have been much more impressive.

After about two and a half hours I reached the snow and from this point on it was hard to tell where I was going or where I had come from. The white has a magical way of making everything else disappear; each of the trees looked so similar and I wasn’t even sure if I was walking uphill or down anymore. At three hours I saw my first other hiker, a 60-something American I later found out was called Kevin. He was on his way back from the furtherest point and told me there wasn’t far to go. It was kind of nice to know I wasn’t entirely alone – just in case I did get lost.

I continued to follow the path to the frozen lake and up to the bottom of the mirador where the footprints ended. By this point fog was setting in and I decided it wasn’t worth hanging about. I quickly ate the empanada I had brought in my backpack for lunch and started the return journey.

Not paying close attention to where I was walking, I managed to stumble onto a side trail at one point. It wasn’t until my boot fell through the snow leaving me with one leg buried to the hip and the other bent crouching above the snow that I realised I had gone the wrong way. Luckily this has happened a couple of times snowing before so I wasn’t scared, I just knew it would be wise to climb out of the whole as soon as possible.

Back on the main trail, I started to speed up my decent as it was starting to rain and I didn’t want to get stuck at the top of the mountain if the weather turned. Once I lost the snow, I started jogging my way down through the mud, now very damp and slippy. I caught up with Kevin and walked the rest of the way back with him. We were even lucky enough to catch a return bus after only 10 minutes of waiting. In total it took me six hours: four up and two down, so I was quite happy with that. The walk was challenging and peaceful – a great introduction to Patagonia.

This tree is as old as the dinosaurs and only survives in the snow

Bariloche: a waterfall, chocolate and hiking El Parque Municipal Llao Llao

My next day was spent catching two buses across to San Carlos de Bariloche in the Argentinean Lake District. Bariloche is a well-known stop on the Patagonia traveller route and a great starting place to hike from. It’s a medium sized city and loses some of the alpine charm in its bustling centre but I stayed in a wooden lodge-style hostel (41 Below) so it still felt outdoorsy and relaxing. In fact without realising it I had selected a vegan hostel. I don’t particularly believe in the idea of being a vegan but it was nice to stay somewhere that was at least trying to be eco-friendly and the other travellers were really friendly.

On my first day I joined a group from the hostel doing a short walk to some waterfalls nearby. This gave me a chance to experience the local buses system that uses contactless ‘sube’ cards which are very similar to Oyster cards in London. The walk wasn’t challenging but it was nice to chat to some new people and enjoy the countryside.

I spent the next day trying out the famous Bariloche chocolate in Rupa Nui, a chocolate shop version of Harrods. It had a very nice cafe which served delicious raspberry hot chocolates and they let me sit there for a few hours typing away to update this blog. This doesn’t sound like much for a whole day’s work but with the quality of the WiFi in Patagonia and a fair amount of travel planning to do, it took up most of my day.

Finally a full day of hiking came after this. I asked around the hostel about nice hikes and decided that the route in El Parque Municipal Llao Llao (pronounced like Jao Jao) would be a good circuit that is well-signposted and had the added bonus of no park fees. Well lucky it was well-signposted because I brought the wrong map and had no clue where I was going. I took a picture of the map in the window of the closed tourist office and used this as my guide for the whole route.

To be honest I’m not sure how long the route was in total and I wasn’t walking very fast, but it took me about five hours. It was a shame I’d forgotten to take lunch because there were loads of great picnic spots. Instead I ate the rest of my packet of biscuits and thought of the sandwich I would get from the bakery once back in town.

I started by walking through the forest to a clearing with some Arrayan trees which were sandy yellow colour that waved and wound in strange directions. These are special in Argentina and you can see why because they are quite unusual. After this the path continues on to the beach of the lake with a number of different viewpoints. The beautiful snowcapped mountains surrounding the lakes have a real sense of calm and the route for this hike brought you close to lots of the different peaks.

Towards the end of the circuit, the path leads off steeply to climb the Cerrito Llao Llao. It’s not a difficult path to climb and I was surprised that it was so quiet (I only saw two ladies on the hill) because the views were truly spectacular. You could see a long way across the Nahuel Huapl National Park and little islands were dotted across the lake like a sprinkling of floating trees. The green of the surrounding forests against the dark blue of the lake and the white of the snowy mountains was mesmerising and I’m not sure there is a better view of the area. Even without the sunshine, I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect sight.

From Bariloche I’m skipping out a chunk of Patagonia to fly to El Calafate and visit the world famous Los Glaciares National Park. Expect ice, ice and more ice for the next post!