Patagonia, Torres Del Paine, W-Trek (Part 1)

Introduction

In this post, I would like to give an overview of trekking in Torres Del Paine in Autumn, while also covering day 1 of the trek.

Lets start with a question. What is or where is Patagonia? For the many trekkers out there, you would probably have this on your bucket list. Failing that, you would probably find this name familiar, after all, a massive outdoor & adventure apparel brand is named after it.

Patagonia, is to South America, what the Himalayas is to Asia, what Mount Blanc circuit is to Europe, so on and so forth. One of the most sparely populated regions in the world, filled with the southern Andes mountains. Massive areas of wild, unspoiled and varied nature reigns in this region. Found between Argentina and Chile, near the bottom of the world, travelers visit Patagonia for its breadth taking sights.

The main attraction of the trek - Base of the Towers

Introduction to Torres Del Paine

The Torres Del Paine national park is located in southern Patagonia, slightly north of Punta Arenas, Chile. Often described as the crown jewel of the region, it boasts rugged mountain peaks, icy blue glaciers, turquoise lakes and plenty of raw beauty. Several day trips, cruises and treks are available in the park depending on what you wish to see and do.

The most popular time to visit the park, is during its summer which lasts between December and March. While Patagonia is famous for having 4 seasons within a day, or even within a couple of hours, less snowfall and rain is found during the summer, thus leading to clear sky days. However, the region’s infamous rip-roaring wind tends to be stronger in summer. Additionally, visiting the park at other times of the year (which I did) tends to yield different spectacular sights.

2 main treks are available, the O-trek (which is like an entire circuit of the area) and the W-trek (covers the main highlights without having to walk on the tougher routes). However, many variations exist, including day trips to the base of the towers and the 'I-trek’ which further shortens the W-trek.

Looking back at the entrance of the park

Torres Del Paine in May

I arrived in Torres Del Paine, via Puerto Natales in May, which is considered off season for the park. Approximately 80-90% of all visitors do their treks during summer, leaving the remaining lot spread out over 9 months in the year. Deep winter (June to August) boasts famed winter wonderland landscapes and dry river beds (hooray for not having to do a river crossing every hour or so).

Meanwhile, May is generally avoided due to higher chance for rain (boy did it pour) and mist in the area. Nonetheless, doing the trek in fall as I did results in win big or lose big situations each day. When the midst and rain decide to take a break, you get surreal views of red and orange leaves against the background of snow capped mountains. Additionally, as I arrived in late autumn, certain areas were already in winter mode. Thus, giving me two main landscapes to marvel at.

Additionally, it is important to note that for multi-day treks outside of summer, to my knowledge, the park does not allow you to do the treks without a guide. This is due to the increased chances of heavy snowfall, and general increase in risks. Hence, while there are an abundant of blogs out there advising on how one can do the trek without a guide, to save money and enjoy more freedom, I believe they are only applicable for in summer (I think the latest to do so is in April). However, I did see people who were on single day trip, doing so without a guide.

Unfortunately the ferry that normally would you out of the park at Paine Grande does not operate regularly in the off-season. I think it only works twice a month during this period. As such, you either face a long walk out of the park on the last day or you pay a lot of money to take a tourist boat, that to be fair does come with pisco sour and glacier ice (WOO!!, make it rain!!).

Note that sunrise treks to the base of the towers is highly risky at this time, as straggling across the rocks covered with ice in the dark is a recipe for disaster.

The flavor of fall

Challenges of Trekking Off-Season

Several challenges emerge when trekking in Torres Del Paine in autumn. I will briefly list and explain each of them here:

1. Shorter days - as the region moves into winter, the number of daylight hours drastically drops. This means that you will be forced to move faster during the day. Some trekkers tend to underestimate this effect, and find themselves having to forfeit the trek as their pace is not quite quick enough.

2. Rain - out of my 5 days in the park, it rained on 3 of them. As such, rainproof gear is absolutely crucial here. This also makes layer management a bit more tricky too.

3. River crossings - with insufficient time for the riverbeds to dry up and the increased chance of rainfall, expect to do many river crossings on this trip. While none that I encountered were dangerous or deep, but expect to find your balance challenged as you hop from rock to rock.

4. Mud - with rain and insufficient time to dry, expect plenty of mud. But on the bright side, if there is mud, then it is probably a flat route, cheers!

5. Thin ice - especially in higher routes, ice starts to form on the path, which makes walking really difficult. Additionally, as ice is newly formed, they may break easily, letting your shoes plunge into mud and water.

Additionally, you should know that the O-trek is closed outside of summer as certain routes on it become too dangerous. As such, the longest trek you can do would be the W-trek.

Winter is coming

Perks of Trekking in the Off-season (Autumn)

While there are several downsides to visiting the park in Autumn, it does reward you with several perks:

1. Colours - the colors of autumn can be almost surreal, and form an excellent composition against the backdrop of snow capped mountains.

2. Empty - the park is pretty empty during this time of the year. Apart from the day trek to the base of the towers and the day trip to the gray glacier, I only encountered about 4 other groups in other parts of the trek. A truly refreshing experience.

3. Balance - in autumn you get the best of both worlds in several cases. You get the color of autumn along with the darker landscapes of winter. You also get avalanches due to warmer temperatures from summer coupled with larger glaciers.

Day 1

From here, I will be blogging about each individual day. Day 1 in this post, while the remaining days in subsequent posts.

Day 1 of the W-trek features a trip to the base of the towers, which is what the park is named after. Hence, to many, this is the main highlight of the trip. For the typical W-trek (excluding off-season treks like the one I was on or the alternative reverse-W-trek), this is the hardest day. Its route involves entry on the east side of the park, before preceding to ascend for half of the day to the base, returning all the way back down before dark.

The Start

Given that we had shorter days, this meant that we had to move even faster. Unfortunately, not all of our team would be able to make it to the base of the towers as there was simply not enough time for them. The hike starts on simple terrain, with pretty decent dirt paths and a gentle ascent. During which, you get great views of the surrounding low lands and warm up.

Valley

The next section is a long sprawling valley within a mountain range. The wind picked up a fair bit here, howling fiercely at us. But, the valley did offer an excellent sneak peak of the mountains ahead of the path, which we would be trekking past later in the day.

Crossing a river and traversing through the forest

At the end of the valley, you will reach a bridge to a camping area. In summer, many trekkers camp here in order to make a sunrise trek up to the base of the towers. However in winter, all facilities here are closed. Meanwhile, the forest section is also fairly easy, while containing a variety of color in autumn.

Pushing to the Base of the Towers

After two fairly easy sections, the difficulty rams up after you clear the forest. Steep ascents, as well as rock paths (which is like no paths) quickly kill your breadth. Furthermore, at this point, if you had started late or got off to a slow start, you will be forced to quicken your pace in order to make it to the top.

Ice also begins to form at this part of the trek, especially over rock paths. This exponentially increases the difficulty as you have to traverse over ice covered rocks while making your way to the next marker. I found myself constantly having to choose which rocks to go over and whether to deviate from a straight-line route which had more ice in favor of less ventured ‘paths’ that had less ice.(Could not photograph this section as I was too scared to whip out my camera)

At this part, expect to experience some fear, and for some amount of self-doubt and mental curses to fly, or just think happy thoughts…like happy feet hehe. In any case, the view here was absolutely gorgeous, with the range of snow capped mountains now towering directly over me. Moreover, at this point, you would nearly be at the base! So don’t give up!

Base of the Towers

I arrived at the base of the towers slightly after noon, with a ton of clouds hanging around the towers. Additionally, it was raining while the wind continued to bitch-slap my face with vengeance. Not the best arrival situation to the highlight of the trek. However, persistence pays off, and after shoving my lunch down while taking shelter behind a large rock, the wind shifted the clouds sufficiently to allow me to take pictures! Additionally, several rock slides occurred, which produced an absolute racket, great!

After this, we traversed back down the exact same route. The clouds and rain also returned, making me thankful to have had that small period of fairly nice weather. I guess welcome to nature?

Up Next

Day 1 was an absolute thriller and left me hungering for more.

I will be blogging about the remaining 4 days of the trek in other blog posts.

Stay tuned!