travel guide: our experiences on the w trek
part two! day by day reflections and experiences from the torres del paine w trek
originally published January 2020.
In December of 2019, Mark and I did the full “W Trek” in the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. It was absolutely one of the coolest things I have ever done, with incredible views, challenging hikes, and such an amazing adventure. This post is actually part 2-- our actual experience on the hike and in the park. For tips on planning, budget and logistics, check out part one:
If you’re interested in skipping all the details and just getting to the part where I reflect on the experience as a whole go ahead and scroll aaaaaaallll the way down. This is a long one!
GETTING ORIENTED:
There are only two entry points to the park: Las Torres (East) and Pudeto (West). Starting the W at Las Torres typically means that you would to the hike to base of Torres Del Paine on day 1, and starting at Pudeto means that it would be on your last day. For a lot of reasons, we chose to end our hike with the TDP hike, completing the W from west to east. Helpful orientation for understanding where we are!
DAY 1 : PUERTO NATALES TO REFUGIO GREY
We left Puerto Natales at 7 am, drove to the park, completed our entry paperwork, checked our “non-hike clothes” at Refugio Central, and then made our way to Pudeto to catch the Catamaran Helios Patagonias to Paine Grande. We took the 11 am boat ($3000 CHP/person in cash) which took about 35 minutes, and then ate lunch outside at Paine Grande. Because there are so many people on the catamaran, it was nice to let them get out ahead of us and have some of the trail to ourselves.
From Paine Grande, we did the 11km/6 mile hike to Grey Glacier, which took about 3.5 hours. It’s an interesting up and down hike with great views of Lago Grey, a stunning ice-blue lake, and some slightly technical sections where you need to semi-scramble down some small sections with waterfalls. Wind can be really intense at the top of the “up” section, so be prepared and ensure that everything is properly secured before it (or you!) blows away.
Once we arrived at Refugio Grey, we had a few hours before dinner, so we decided to try to do the hike up to see the hanging bridges and the glacier view. We ended up making it about 8km/ 5 miles and up to the second bridge-- an absolutely stunning view I would definitely recommend, although maybe not quite at the breakneck speed that we did!
We had dinner at the refugio (8 pm dinner slot), and made friends with some fellow hikers from the PNW who were on their last day of the W-- it was great to hear about their experiences and grab recommendations for other great PNW hikes we hadn’t made yet. Showers at Refugio Grey are open limited hours (and we missed them), so I made do with a face wash in the bathroom and then hit the hay. Because we were so far south, and it was right around the summer solstice, the sun was still out when we went to sleep around 9:45 pm!
Total mileage for the day (including a quick hike to see a waterfall before catching the catamaran): 14 miles
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