“W” Circuit

This was my first multi-day trek with camping and I was really apprehensive about the “camping” part of it. I’m not much of a camper, but I’m trying to learn to enjoy it more. Wayne promised me we wouldn’t have to prepare our own meals as we could get them from the refugios daily. Before the trip, I probably would have refused to go if I had to camp and cook! In hindsight, I would have cooked too because the weather was so nice. If there had been rain, it would have been a totally different story.

The “W” Circuit in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile has been the best part of our entire trip. We spent one night in Puerto Natales, Chile prior to catching the bus to the Laguna Amarga park entrance. We stayed at Hostel Lili Patagonico´s and were very pleased with the place. You can go directly to Torres Del Paine from El Calafate with a tour company and only pay for the transportation. We wish we had known that in advance. We woke up on Sunday morning for our bus and realized the clocks in Chile had gone back on hour – very cool – an extra hour of sleep! Well, never trust an iPhone time in a foreign country because Chile doesn’t recognize what they have declared as their daylight savings time! The time change is “sometime” in April…no one knows for sure!

Wayne had done the research for our trek and made all the refugio campsite and food bookings in advance. We had read this was necessary as they can be heavily booked from December through March. We were camping so this wasn’t such a necessity, but I didn’t want to miss out on my cooked food! Once there we realized that there was plenty of space and plenty of food. I think the middle of March is not so crowded. At the last moment we tried to change a few of our bookings to go from West to East since the weather forecasters had predicted the first couple of days were going to be miserable. This was not possible and ended up being a blessing because the weather was perfect. Our itinerary, camping at both FantasticoSur and Vertice refugios, was:

• Day 1 – Arrive at Refugio Las Torres Central & Norte, hike to Refugio Chileno, continue on to base of Los Torres mirador, camp at Refugio Chileno
• Day 2 – Return trip to base of Los Torres mirador for sunrise, hike to Refugio Las Torres Central & Norte, camp
• Day 3 – Hike to Refugio Cuernos, continue on to farthest Valle Frances mirador, camp at Refugio Cuernos
• Day 4 – Hike to Refugio Paine Grande, camp
• Day 5 – Hike to Refugio Grey, continue on to Glacier Grey mirador, continue on past campsite Paso, camp at Refugio Grey
• Day 6 – Hike to Refugio Paine Grande, depart on catamaran across Lago Pehoe

The W Circuit is so spectacular because around every corner is a new and different viewpoint. The views in such a small area of Patagonia are truly the best we’ve seen anywhere in the world, the Torres towers the French valley and Glacier Grey are simply amazing!

We met an Australian couple at the top of the Torres mirador. There were putting together a camera shot that they had seen on a poster in Puerto Natales. I ended up taking the picture for them and thinking it looked really cool. We asked them to do the same for us with their fancy camera. They later emailed it to us – we still think it looks pretty cool!

The second day we hiked to the Los Torres mirador for a second time hoping for a beautiful sunrise (which didn’t happen!). We then retraced our previous days route back to our start of the “W” and Fantasticosur’s Las Torres Central & Norte refugio. The best part of staying at the this campsite was that we were able to hang out in the refugio. It was a beautiful place and it was WARM! They had a few rooms with wood burning stoves and bean bags. We both crashed out for a few hours on those.

We had decided that if the weather was good the following day we would hike to Los Cuernos, erect the tent and then head straight out to the Valle Frances mirador, reputedly the best part of the circuit with its 360º views of the surrounding peaks. This would add a further 22km to the day, but fortunately this would make the next day considerably shorter and I needed a short day. Weather permitting!

Mission accomplished and 22 miles later with very sore feet we were done for the day and tomorrow will be a ‘simple’ hike from refugio to refugio – happiness!! Today we had the clearest blue sky so far, and we totally envied the hikers at the Los Torres mirador and in the Valle Frances. However, we still had had great weather so I should never complain – it could have been much worse.

After the previous days 38km hike we were ready for an easier day, including a repeat of the 5.5km already covered. We passed the free Camp Italiano for the second time and continued to have the most amazing views all the way to our first Vertice campsite at refugio Paine Grande. We even managed to fall asleep on a huge rock for almost an hour midway through the day revitalizing us both. The meals and facilities were much better at this refugio because it was owned by a different company, Vertice, and also that it is easily accessed by catamaran for fresh supplies. The same catamaran was due to ferry us across Lago Pehoe in 2 days ready for the bus journey with Always Glaciers back across the Argentinian border to El Calafate.

The sign for Lago Grey was the start of a different kind of dramatic scenery, where icebergs were commonplace after carving off the huge glacier Grey. They didn’t look so big until a tourist boat carrying 50 plus passengers motored across the lake. There were also kayaks floating around them and they looked tiny next to the iceburgs. We arrived at the Grey campsite before midday and found all the tents still covered in frost – the sun was hidden here all morning not giving us much hope for having everything dry when we leave early the following morning.

We quickly erected the tent and walked the easy hour to the signposted glacier mirador. This provided great views of the glacier at the point it ends and carves into the lake. I decided to continue on to try and get to John Garner pass as I’d heard the views were of a more entire glacier. This proved too far for the final full day, and after passing camp Paso I reluctantly turned back. To go this far was not really necessary as after a couple of bridges and metal ladder climbs I was high enough up to see the vista that our friend, Josh, had spoken about.

Day 6 was an easy three hour hike to get back for the catamaran at midday, although it was not fun getting up and taking down a tent covered in frost with no sun in the sky! We didn’t leave the tent, or even the sleeping bags until we were bundled up. We always started ours hikes with 4-5 layers of clothing on the upper body and we always had to stop frequently to remove layers. Once we reached the ending point the sun was out and we both decided on a well deserved beer before our short 30 minute lake crossing.

The “W” circuit is usually completed in 4 nights but we chose to do it in 5, giving us the extra day for bad weather. This was a very good decision as we never had to rush and even managed to get in two hikes to the Los Torres mirador. Overall, this was definitely the best multiday hike we’ve done, at least until we get to Nepal…

What we would have done differently

1. We would have carried our own food for cooking. The weather was perfect so I didn’t mind to cook and clean pots. If it had been freezing and raining all the time, that would have been different. We could have saved a TON of money by providing our own food, and would have been able to pitch our tent at the free campsites.

2. I wouldn’t have walked 22 miles on our 2nd day to the French Valley. We headed to the French Valley after setting up camp at Los Cuenos. The weather was good and you never know in Patagonia what tomorrow will bring. Since we arrived to camp early we walked the extra 12 miles to the farther point in the French Valley, but my body didn’t recover from the extra miles and my feet were killing me for the rest of our trek.

3. We would have skipped staying the 2nd night at Torre Central & Norte refugio and gone straight to Los Cuenos. Wayne had read some blogs and a few people recommended this option so we took it. Hindsight, we would have done the trek in 4 nights instead of 5.

March 10th – March 15th 2013