October 15-20, 2013

Ahh, proper Patagonia. When Holly and I caught the bus down to Punta Arenas from Puerto Varas, we were surprised by how flat and barren everything was. I think we both had images of death mountains and aggresive looking crag everywhere, but Punta Arenas (which situates itself right on the Straight of Magellan) was very tame. As we moved further north to Puerto Natales (PN) as base for our hike, we started getting into the Andean foothills and its tempermental weather. We rented some equipment from Erratic Rock, ate a final meal at the hostel, and got to bed early to catch some Z’s before our early meeting with a bus full of adventure seeking gringos. A quick three hour bus ride from the bus station towards the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine and our ideas for Southern Patagonia manifested themselves into the canvas for our six day/ five night tour of unbridled gnarliness. We checked into the park, got back on the bus for another 45 minute drive deeper into the park, and after orienting ourselves were on the tail end of the W trail heading towards our first camp site. As we got onto the trail, we were immediately blown away by the view. The tail section of the trail hooks north from the southern end of the W and leads into the western arm of the W so we had an awesome view of where we would be for the next couple of days.

We blasted through the first section and got to camp sooner than we thought we would, but we decided to stick to the plan and stay the night. This turned out to be a good idea because the trail was not as plushy as we were expecting. It was a well groomed trail, but it still had some sketchy sections and plenty of length. The second day, which turned out to be our longest day, we covered 21km in about 10 hours, were heading into consistent 60 Km/h winds and were hurting pretty bad as we hobbled into camp two alongside Glacier Gray.

The next morning we woke up to a relatively still day, had our camp breakfast of oatmeal and coffee and hit the trail by 0900. We hiked the 11km out of the left arm of the W and continued another 2 hours to our next site at the base of Valley Frances. So now, I suppose, is a good time to comment that the W trail is called such because it is shaped like a W. Imagine that the W was really V V, where each V is a part of the Paine Massif and between the two is the valley.  We camped early and slept well after another pretty long day.

On day 4 we woke up early as usual, had breakfast and left our stuff at camp for a lighter hike up the valley to experience life between to two monster ridges that comprise the W. To the west is just a massive ridge of earth with small areas of higher altitude glaciation which had plenty of ruggedness. To the east are the torres, or towers, from the reverse side. It made for a pretty spectacular panorama and was accented by crumbling glaciers and that insane patagonian wind. Day 4, a short day, ended us at our next site which was along Lago Nordenskjol with a calm breeze and sunny skies, so naturally we went and sat on the stone beach and I took a glacial dip.

The next day we woke up to easy 60 Km/h winds with gusts higher around 100. Our tent was pretty sheltered but the refugios there were not. The refugios are like hostels on the trail where people can stay if they don’t feel like camping every night which is pretty plush but also very expensive. Anyways, while the winds were making the owners nervous, Holly and I made breakfast and watched as the walls were bowed around and decided to move out as soon as possible. Conditions were no better on the trail and I think both of us got blown to the ground at least twice. The wind picked up huge amounts of water off the lake and deposited them on us and on the other side of the eastern ridge, giving us a morning of huge winds and light rain and a night of wet coldness and snow. Day 5 was also a long one made no easier by the wind but also gave us some spectacular views of the Cuernos del Paine and the area around the park. As we pushed up the last section towards our final campsite below the famed towers, the aforementioned snow began to drop on us and the temperature plummeted. Again we set up camp, had dinner early, and went to bed as soon as our minds settled down.

Day 6, our last day, we woke up at 0430 for a morning hike up to the famed Torres del Paine to try our luck and see if we could catch a clear sunrise to get the all too familiar picture of the towers lit up in the brilliant red of the patagonian mornings. We packed our bags light with our sleeping bags, a sleeping pad, and a nalgene filled with hot coffee and headed up the 1km trail with headlamps as our only light source for the first 30 minutes. as the sun began to peak above the horizon, the mountains around lit up and gave us something nice to look at as we froze our butts off getting to the lookout. We found a good spot about 10 minutes before the sun came up, wrapped ourselves in the sleeping bags, and waited. The weather was pretty usual, clouds and a little wind, but it still made for a pretty good show. The towers never cleared completely of clouds, but the added moisture in the air did produce some pretty cool effects with the available light and made the experience feel more intimate. After about 30 minutes of being the only people there, some french folk we had been hiking with made it up. We lingered a little longer to see if the clouds would break, but it never happened and we hiked back down to our our camp to break it down and start our final section.

The hike out was relatively easy, but both of us were dog tired. After five days, we had covered around 80km, and that would be closer to 100km by the time we got onto the bus out of the park. The weather was sunny and calm, but the snow from the night before had turned the trail to mud which was not the most pleasant. We hiked out to the trailhead and took some victory pictures which involved a 10 second camera delay and a bit of awkward running around. We finished early and didn’t want to wait for the bus so we figured we would walk to the park entrance instead. By the time we arrived, we were going a little loony, but we kept it together long enough to dry out our tent and bags while we waited for the bus back to the hostel. All and all, an incredible trip and probably our favorite things we have done so far. We were absolutely inspired and are planning on changing our travel kit to accommodate more multi-day hikes. I have been drooling over gear ever since.