Day 3 On The W: Resting at Camping Torres

Since we made it to the Torres mirador on Day 2, and had reservations for two nights at Camping Torres, we took a day of rest and reorganization. The weather had cleared over-night.

You can see much of the Torres from the refugio next to the
campground

Among many empty rental units at the campground; we
conjecture the first year of the reservation system has really
inhibited travel here; maybe that's what the national park
wants...there were some serious human-caused fires recently

More of the campground; they really should remove the ugly/
uninteresting mountain that hides the Torres

The bathroom block, as our British friends would say

For amusement, I walked the several hundred meters down the
road to the Hotel Los Tores

And its older adjunct

Bar/reception at the Hotel Los Torres; certainly the nicest
facilities in the park; if only they opened the gift shoppe
occasionally

A whole hall of national park displays

Helpful topo models showing most of our route

What will be days 5-6-7 of our trek

More displays

And in English too

Giant sloth...3 meters high...a major part of the paleo diet
until it was hunted to extinction 

Archaic horse with elephant-like snouts; this is the part of
evolution about random mutation

Modern-day horses

Hotel employees wear these snappy gaucho-
esque uniforms

Restaurant

Spa

Day 2 On The W: Los Torres!

Day 2 dawned bright and blue. After a quick breakfast, we stored our packs and headed on up the trail to see the Torres del Paine, the main attraction of our trek. Up, up, and more up, probably 1,200 feet or more from the Refugio. On the moraine, the trail was not as difficult as some had described...a boulder field, yes, but a good trail skirting it and then crossing it at the very top. A "no hands" route, but everybody in this part of the world uses trekking poles.

Bright and blue; from the Refugio

Waterfall en route

In this land of glaciers, snow and ice, there are numerous
creeks, waterfalls, lakes...and bridges

Rarely any relief from the monotony of the climax southern
beech forest

In a world of granite and basalt, huge boulders of conglomerate,
often sheered off smooth by the passing glacier

Low-bid bridge

Often, these helpful signs, telling you you still have a thousand
feet to ascend

Beginning of the moraine

Looking up, a single tower peeks out

Across the canyon, a waterfall suddenly appears

Oh no, they're clouding up

Near the top of the moraine

And there they are

As we descend, scores more are ascending, many on a long
day hike off of buses from Puerto Natales

Rock art

Returning to Refugio Chileno, some of the tent platforms there

Hiking back down to the valley and our next night's camping
there I was about to record the greatest condor-in-a-rainbow
sight ever seen...but then my hat flew off in the gale force wind;
and the condor got away (my hat was retrieved by a young
compatriot)

Our site at Camping Torres

Clouds and rain are moving in for the night

Day 1 On The W: To Refugio Chilno

One can hike the W west to east or east to west. Most common, it seems, is the former. Last year, Chile began a reservation system whereby one cannot undertake multi-day treks without reservations at either hotel, refuges, or campgrounds. We might have preferred the west to east option (but, in retrospect, not), but we simply couldn't get reservations and had to go with the east to west option. As it happened, we would not have seen the Torres had we done the west to east, since the weather closed down the last couple days we were in the park. Vicki wanted to maximize our chances of seeing the Torres, so she scheduled us for three nights in the area, at the beginning of the trek, one at Refugio Chileno and the second and third at Camping Torres, down in the valley. It worked out quite well.

On the bus ride from Puerto Natales, scanning the horizon for towers...

The Torres in sight...but not very encouraging weather

A herd of guanaco on the way

The line for buying the admission ticket into the park, declaring your intentions,
watching the dos and don'ts video

And so we hoist our packs and begin the march up to Refugio Chileno

The view still not encouraging (you can see the summits of the Torres from the
valley at the east end)

Signage in the park, though battered by the elements, was generally fine

A bit of the trail

Rio Torres

Weather improving a bit as we marched

And so we arrived at the Refugio Chileno (someone else's photo); enjoyable place;
best food we saw on the trip

Our "suite" was pretty much like this; we arrived early enough to claim 1st and
2nd level bunks; our room had a 4th level bunk, perhaps 10 feet off the ground,
originally assigned to a late-arriving codger like me; a gallant young Chilean
lass gave him her lower level bunk

So You Have Chosen The Way of Paine

We are back off the W, out of Patagonia, in a hotel in warm, dry Santiago, pleased with having done the thing, a few pounds lighter, a few considerations wiser, and, with 500-600 pix to sort through, edit, etc., way behind on the blog again.

We have done several multi-day treks...Mont Blanc, Everest, Routeburn, Milford, Kepler, Abel Tasman...but had never heard of the W until the daughter and her husband of college friends Ken and Susan did it last year. Vicki, the trekker among us, was smitten, and I certainly knew of the Torres del Paine, one of the world's great alpine scenes. So we hauled all of our backapacka gear with us to South America and did the W in a leisurely 7 days and 6 nights. We enjoyed fair weather most of the days we hiked, chilly (!), but dry and with little of the legendary Patagonian wind. It rained two of our nights in the national park and then throughout our final day's hike-out to the catamaran and bus back to Puerto Natales. Very lucky. There is much literature in print and on the web about the W, but perhaps the best source of information is the daily 90 minute talk given at Erratic Rock (a hostel/cafe/gear rental shop in Puerto Natales). The young German woman who does this is excellent on all aspects of the trek, transportation, weather, gear, food, the reservations system, etc. And very entertaining too.

It's called the W because of the trail's shape; alas, it's not a loop,
and there is much back-tracking

At the Torres del Paine mirador

What if John Goodman had played Saruman?