Hiking Torres del Paine: Pre-Trip and Day 1

This week, we're posting every day about our trek through the Torres del Paine National Park in Southern Chile. Spoiler alert: We lived through it.

The Torres del Paine National Park was a "must-see" for us. Located at the tail end of Chile, the park's scenery is legendary and the 242,242-hectare park is a hiker's paradise. One of the most popular hikes in the park is affectionately referred to as "The W" due to its shape (see the map below). As we traveled throughout Argentina, nearly every traveler we met told us the trek was amazing, terrible, gorgeous, challenging--all at the same time--and yet still definitely worth doing.

Our route the first day was described as fairly easy. We'd start at Lago Pehoe, and walk for about 4-5 hours to the first campsite, following the purple route below. Over the next four days, we'd hike sections of the orange trail.

Day 1 is in purple. The remainder of the "W" is in orange.

Now, I'm not what you'd call an awesome trekker. I like the outdoors when the weather is sunny and warm. I like the cold when I'm bundled up in front of a fireplace, watching the snow fall. My idea of physical activity is a ten-minute jog or an easy dance class. I trip a lot. I have a bum knee. But for some reason, I thought it was a good idea to tackle this 5-day trek at the end of the world in unpredictable (and often cold and wet) weather. Thankfully, we made our way down to Puerto Natales, Chile (the nearest town to the park) so quickly that I didn't even have time to freak out and change my mind until after we already purchased park tickets and rental equipment.

We took the advice of some bloggers and made a menu for our trek. Some of us (ahem... Tom) get cranky when we don't eat every hour, so we wanted to make sure we had more than enough food. But, we realized that we'd have to cart all of this on our backs, so we didn't want to pack so much stuff that we could barely walk.

Rows and rows of soup, trail mix, and oatmeal. And wine.

We stayed up late that night, packing and re-packing our bags, trying to make our packs as light as possible. It seemed like everyone else in the hostel was doing the same thing as we were. You could feel the excitement and little bits of anxiety in the air. 

We woke up before dawn and hopped on a 2 1/2 hour bus into the park. In the distance, we could see the famous peaks and less-famous llamas running around the pampas. Once we got into the park, we had to take a 45-minute ferry ride to get to the start of the trail. 

Eating our last big meal as we wait for the ferry

View from the ferry ride

Enjoying the sunny day

The ferry ride over the turquoise glacial lake was gorgeous. The sun was hot and the sky was clear, and we had perfect views of the Torres. As the warm sun beat down on my face, I thought "People are crazy. This weather is amazing."

That, of course, was our downfall.

The moment we hit the shore, the wind and rain started. This wasn't a drizzle and a calm breeze; this was an attack. I'm positive that the rain and the wind and the clouds were conspiring to send us back on the boat and away from the park... forever.

This picture doesn't quite capture the amount of wind in the air, spraying up dirt and rocks and water all around us

This smile was not sincere.

Somehow, we managed to tough it out-- even after we saw a gust of wind nearly fly a petite woman back into the lake. The first hour of our trek was a less-than-pleasant hiking experience. My bag was heavy. The rain was splattering all over my face and I could barely see the trail. I'd never used trekking poles before, and I couldn't figure out the right rhythm. It was like learning to walk all over again. It seemed everyone was passing us, and I worried that I wasn't adventurous or tough enough for such a long trek. I'll admit, I was tempted turn around and run back to the boat. (As if I could run with that bag on my back!)

But then something shifted, and the sky cleared and I was able to look around and enjoy the awesome views  and chat with other trekkers. 

Lago Grey

This is the point where the glacier turns into a lake

Broken-down bridge on the trail

Max 1 person. Not at all terrifying.

We arrived at the first refugio/campsite in the early evening and were met with strong gusts of wind that threatened to whip our tent into the valley below. We teamed up with a few other trekkers and helped each other properly stake in our tents and fill them with a few big rocks to keep them from blowing away.

Tents surrounded by peaks

Our rented tent.

Cozy and exhausted!

We spent the evening sipping our hot chocolate, sharing stories and playing cards with some people we met along the trail. Though it was cold and windy outside, we were cozy and warm in our rented tent. 

-R