The W
Last week I decided to hike the W in Torres del Paine. I knew it was tough, and popular, and since it’s the high season here things are a bit crowded. The Torres are known for inconsistent and unpredictable weather (snow, rain, heat, who knows) and beautiful views. Mountains, glaciers, rivers you can fill your water bottle from… And people flock to it. They have a lot of infrastructure within the park, specific camping sites (with bathrooms) so as to localize impact from the thousands of visitors, and refugios (hostels, basically, but these are pretty nice) along the way where you can get hot meals. Because of this, hiking in it was sort of weird. It wasn’t really going into the woods in the way you expect… Or the way I hoped for, to be honest. But it’s high season and I shouldve known.
Okay moving on.
Joost, Iva, and I arrived in Puerto Natales on 30-12-08 late in the evening, talked to some other people in our hostel, and Joost and I decided the 2 of us would try to get the 2pm bus the following day into the Torres.
So, on new years eve day, Joost and I ran around Puerto Natales renting gear and trying to figure out the route. We got the 2 pm bus, took a boat across Lake Pehoe, put up our tent in a huge community of tents (omg there were like 60+ tents, and the refugio, and like 75% of the tents were the same orange one we rented) and off for a quick hike of leg 1, to see glacier grey. We started late, so we only got to the viewing point and then had to turn around so we could get back before dark (10ish pm) and make dinner. The refugio/lodge there had a NYE party which was surreal and ridiculous, a live band and all. It was weird.
Day two was brutal. 24 km, 15 miles, 9.5 hours. Half without our packs hiking up the middle part, Valle del Frances. The best part, definitely, with views of another glacier, a rushing river, towering mountains and spires and pillars on all sides.
Day 3 was not too bad, except I was so sore from the day before. The wind was so strong though in some stretches I had to drop to the ground- at one point I was knocked over. 70 km was the forecast, but I think in some parts of that valley towards the Cerro Torres it was worse.
Day 4 we woke up at 4 am to see the sun rise over the Torres and glacier torres: first, a 50 minute scramble up the mountain, over boulders and rocks. It was now me, joost, two Dutch girls, and 3 boys from georgetown. We brought our sleeping bags so it was nice and warm while we waited and it rained and was too cloudy for the sunrise.
Anyway, now I’m out and back in Puerto Natales, I rode bikes and went on a hike with an Australian guy today and now I’m chilling waiting to see if I can get on the navimag ferry at the end of the week.
Omg this is way too long. Sorry. There’s a vegetarian restaurant in town and I am sooooo excited to eat there tonight. Also the hostel I’m at is really environmentally conscious which I like. Ummm also! Hiking the Torres is a little like Disneyland for people who like to hike. It was beautiful, but there were so many people at night in the campground. I didn’t like that.
