Torres del Paine pt 1

We left Santiago and took a night bus for the southern Lake District town of Puerto Montt. The next day, we flew from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas in the southern Chilean Patagonia. From here, we took a three hour bus to the hiking mecca of Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine National Park. Here's the deal: Torres del Paine is a hiking wonderland that sees around 150,000 visitors a year, 60% of which are foreigners. We had this park in our sights since Colombia, and it was time to conquer it. There are several ways of going about it. You can do a day hike from Puerto Natales, take a two day excursion, do the 5 day 'W', or do the entire loop in 10 days. The bottom line is that it's all up to you; you go at your own pace, without a group or a guide, and simply follow the path. Since we were new to carrying all of our supplies on our backs, we settled on spending 5 days on the 'W' hike.

The 'W' Loop

The idea is that you rent all of your gear: tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, stove, gas, and pots. You bring food for five days including instant soup, pasta, peanut butter, honey, bread, jam, trail mix, nuts, chocolate, water, and medicine. The weather for November is supposed to be good, but in Patagonia, 'good' can turn to miserable in a matter of seconds. The journey began on the left side of the park where we were dropped off by our bus from Puerto Natales. We paid our entrance fee of $38 USD per person and we were off. Instead of starting at the base of the 'W', we decided to do an extra five hour hike to reach the start of the trail.

Here we go

The mountains ahead

Starting the 5 hour connpoint 

Great day to start on

We have to climb those?

Still not at the 'W' 

Interesting color, probably not edible

Trucking along

Almost at the 'W'

Amazing views

Feeding

On the 'W' with ice broken off of Glacier Grey

Glacier Grey

Camp 1

Since we decided to hike the 5 hours to the 'W' then an additional 3.5 hours to the first camp, we were wiped once we arrived. We set up our tent and had shivering spasms from the sheer amount of walking that day. We went to sleep at 9pm and woke up around 8am to start the day again. This time we would backtrack the left leg of the 'W' and continue to the right to the middle point of the trek. It would be 3.5 hours to the start of the leg and an additional 2.5 to the mid point.

More ice from Glacier Grey

Easy hiking

We filled our bottle at each stream, all clean water

Many of the trees on the left side of the W burned in a 2012 fire

Keeping up 

Moving into the forest

Lakes with all shades of blue

Here it is

Refill at a stream

Almost at camp 2

About to swim across

Obligatory couple picture

Our humble abode

The hawk that kept watch over our camp 

Day 2 ended with a considerable amount of soreness and the weather was starting to get colder as well. The sights more than made up for it though.