How to Plan Your “W Hike” in Torres Del Paine National Park

There is A LOT of information to cover when talking about hiking the W at the Torres Del Paine National Park! I am going to organize this post into a few sections for you:

1)      Logistics of the Torres Del Paine National Park

• Camping vs. Refugios
• What Campsites/Refugio’s Should I Reserve for the W?
• Camping and Refugio Reservation Websites (YOU NEED RESERVATIONS TO STAY IN THE PARK OVERNIGHT!)
• Transportation To and From the Park as Well as Within the Park

2)      Rental Equipment

3)      Packing Your Bag – What to Bring and How to Pack

4)      Food to Bring

5)      General Tips

**Logistics of the Park – Camping vs. Refugios**

You need to decide if you are going to splurge on the Refugios each night or if you are going to camp in the park. Refugios are basically little lodges within the park that will have showers, hostel like rooms with beds, and you can buy meals there as well.

Camp sites at the park are going to be either free (yay!) or run you between $6 to $10 a night depending on the camp site. This means that you will be carrying your tent, food, sleeping bag, etc. on your back. If you are not a fan of this, you can either book the Refugio’s and carry just snacks, water, etc. in a day pack for your hike. Your third option is to rent camping equipment at the camp site itself. This means you would rent and return the camping equipment at each site and again only carry a day pack for your hike.

To be honest, I don’t know what the prices are for renting camp equipment but I know it’s available. You would have to research renting camp equipment at the camp or Refugio sites.

If you are all about the bottom line and want to do this as cheaply as possible, then camping and carrying a pack is your cheapest option especially if you already own the equipment! If you would rather be as comfortable as possible and you don’t mind paying more, then book the Refugio’s and just carry a day pack. If you are somewhere in the middle, you can research renting camp equipment at the camp sites and camping outside. The nice thing with this last option is you can camp but don’t need to carry all your equipment with you which reduces the weight on your back.

–WARNING: Some Refugio’s are Full Board Only–

Another important point about the Refugio’s is some are full board only. This means you pay for not only your bed or camp site but also you need to buy all the meals at the Refugio. So yes, even if you are pitching a tent at Cuernos or Chileno, you need to pay full board price! This will add to your cost. In one of the Refugio’s we passed through it was $50 for all three meals the one day!

Not all the Refugio’s are full board though so be sure to know what you are paying for before you reserve them! I know for sure the Cuernos & Chileno Refugio/Camp Sites are full board. There are other free or non-full board camp sites near both of these though but if they are sold out you will pay full board price. Another incentive to book your reservations early!

**Logistics of the Park – What Campsites/Refugio’s Should I Reserve?**

Good question.

I am only speaking for the W since that is what I hiked. If you are interested in doing the O or the Q (the same trail as the “O” just adding the Valle Frances lookout) take a look at the Torres Del Paine Park Map and decide which direction you want to start, and then book your camp sites/Refugio’s. I think most people start the O/Q at Hotel Las Torres and head towards the Torres Mirador first and continue in a counter-clockwise direction.

Some other disclaimers: This is a general overview. Some people do the hike in less or more time. I’d say the most popular length of time is 5 days and 4 nights. If you are looking to go faster or slower than this schedule would change for you. Review the park map and decide what will be the best route for your trip!

So, for the W trail, if you decide to save the Torres Mirador for the last day then you are going to start by hiking to Camp Grey your first day.

Here is the order of camp sites or Refugios for a 5 Day, 4 Night W Hike starting at Grey and ending at Torres:

• Night 1 – Camp Grey/Refugio Grey
• Night 2 – Camp Paine Grande/Refugio Paine Grande
• Night 3 (Option 1) – Camp Italiano/Camp Frances/Refugio Frances (0.5 hour difference between Italiano and Frances)
• Night 3 (Option 2) – Camp Cuernos/Refugio Cuernos (This is another 2 hours from Camp Frances which would make your Day 4 hike a bit shorter but your Day 3 hike a bit longer. Again, this is a full board only location even if you are camping!)
• Night 4 – Camp Chileno/Refugio Chileno/Torres Camp Site (Most people try and get to the Torres Camp Site because you’re then only an hour hike from the Base. If you get there early enough on Day 4 you can even hike up that evening to try and get a view at night. If you are really ambitious, you can even go up again in the morning for the sunrise view. Or do one or the other! Chileno is about an hour and a half from the Torres Camp Site. If you decide to stay there it’ll make your Day 4 hike shorter but your Day 5 hike longer.)

If you decide to start with the Torres Mirador first, then you would reverse the order of these camp sites/Refugio’s.

**Logistics of the Park – Camping and Refugio Reservation Websites**

Due to the popularity of the park increasing over the years, there is now an online reservation system you can use to book the camp sites or the Refugio’s. This just launched in September 2016 so it’s brand new! This is very helpful but you need to book in advance. As soon as you know your travel dates, book your camp sites and Refugio’s. You’ll save money this way and ensure you have a spot to sleep when you’re in the park.

Another callout is that the camping/Refugio sites are not owned by the same people. There are two private companies running some of the locations and two free camp sites which are managed by the park itself. Click here for a nice overview of who owns which Camp Sites and Refugios in the park.

1)      Book the Following FREE Park Managed Camp Sites HERE

CAMPING

• Camping Paso (for the O or Q; AKA the Circuit)
• Camping Italiano
• Camping Torres Base (1 hr from Torres Del Paine Mirador – NOT the Las Torres Camping owned by Fantastico Sur which is close to the Torres Hotel)

2)      Book the Following Fantastico Sur Owned Refugios/Camp Sites HERE

REFUGIOS

• Refugio Torre Central
• Refugio Torre Norte
• Refugio Los Cuernos
• Refugio El Chileno

CAMPING

• Camping Serón
• Camping Los Cuernos
• Camping El Chileno
• Camping Central
• Camping Francés

3)      Book the Following Vertice Owned Refugios/Camp Sites HERE

REFUGIOS

• Refugio Grey
• Refugio Paine Grande
• Refugio Dickson

CAMPING

• Camping Grey
• Camping Paine Grande
• Camping Dickson
• Camping Los Perros

 

**Logistics of the Park – Transportation To and From the Park as well as Within the Park**

This is my one gripe about the Torres Del Paine National Park, it’s a bit confusing to get to the park and around it once you’re there. We ended up having a bridge between Paine Grande and Italiano go under repair a day before we got to the park which added to our transportation/lodging expenses unfortunately. But here is what you can expect on a “normal W” hike.

First you need a bus from Puerto Natales into the Torres Del Paine National Park. This cost us about $26 USD for a roundtrip ticket. The bus ride is about 2 hours long and this gets you to Laguna Pehoe where the main entrance to the park is and where you pay your entrance fee. The entrance fee was 21,000 CLP for foreigners or about $31 USD at the time of this blog post.

If you are starting on the Grey side, you will stay on this bus and it will drive you over to the Catamaran. The Catamaran costs about $28 USD and you pay for this on the boat itself, cash only. If you are starting on the Torres Del Paine side, you will get off the bus at this point and board a shuttle over to Hotel Las Torres which costs about $5 USD.

Transportation Summary – Starting at Grey:

• Day 1 – Bus from Puerto Natales into the Park (stay on bus to get to Catamaran ride)
• Day 1 – Catamaran ride to Camp Paine Grande which is the start of the “W” trail for you
• Day 5 – Shuttle from Hotel Las Torres to Park Entrance
• Day 5 – Bus from Park Entrance back to Puerto Natales

Transportation Summary – Starting at Torres:

• Day 1 – Bus from Puerto Natales to Park Entrance (get off the bus to grab the shuttle)
• Day 1 – Shuttle from Park Entrance to Hotel Las Torres which is the start of the “W” trail for you
• Day 5 – Catamaran ride from Camp Paine Grande to Laguna Pehoe
• Day 5 – Bus from Laguna Pehoe (near the Park Entrance) back to Puerto Natales

**Rental Equipment (If you are bringing your own equipment then you can skip over this section!)**

For me, I didn’t own any of the camping equipment I needed for my hike so I knew I would have to rent some equipment in town. In the town of Puerto Natales I passed by a few businesses that advertised renting equipment to hikers. You could easily walk around if you had an extra day or two in order to reserve your equipment. If you have the option to rent ahead then that’s even better but I did it once I arrived in town.

I ended up choosing to rent from a company called Erratic Rock. They have a free talk at 3 pm every day to discuss hiking the W (which I also recommend going to!) and so I decided to rent from them after hearing the talk.

Rental equipment from Erratic Rock ran me about $20 USD a day so it cost me $120 USD total. I rented a backpack, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, walking sticks, gloves, cooking pack which included a stove, bowls, spoons and cups and we bought gas and a lighter there as well. I rented everything for 6 days in order to have a day to set up my backpack before leaving for the park in the morning. My equipment was good quality and they even gave me a few things for free when I was renting the equipment. I had no issues with anything being faulty, smelly or not functional.

I would recommend using Erratic Rock for anyone who is looking to rent their camping equipment in Puerto Natales and take it on the trail with them! Heads up, they ONLY take cash!

So… where does the rest of my stuff go?

Another good question! I booked the same hostel for two nights before my hike and one night after my hike in Puerto Natales. They let me store my other belongings I wasn’t taking on the trail with me there while I was in the park. It also helped that I was coming back there for a night so it wasn’t just storage per say, I would be staying there again a few days later.

So if you are renting equipment, call ahead to your hostel/hotel before booking and make sure you can store your stuff there while you’re out on the trail. Most places seemed flexible with this because most of the people passing through town are doing the hike.

**Packing Your Bag – What to Bring and How to Pack**

I got this info straight from the Erratic Rock free talk! This is what I had packed in my bag:

–          1 pair of “wet clothes”

• These are clothes you will hike in each day.
• I had a long sleeve shirt, water resistant pants, merino wool hiking socks, sports bra and my hiking boots. I also had my water proof jacket with a hood, the fleece liner, a hat and gloves.
• Tips: Aim for water resistant clothing and layers you can take on or off easily. I personally got too hot with my water proof jacket, fleece liner, and long sleeve shirt after a few minutes of hiking so I usually just hiked in my long sleeve shirt. I will say whenever we would take a break I quickly got cold! Especially if it was windy. You will be layering and un-layering a lot especially if you are carrying a pack!

–          1 pair of “dry clothes”

• These are clothes you will do everything else in except hike (i.e. cooking, sleeping, etc.)
• I had a long sleeve shirt, Under Armour cold compression leggings, merino wool hiking socks, sports bra and tennis shoes. I also used the same water proof jacket with a hood, the fleece liner, a hat and gloves.
• Tips: My tennis shoes were comfy but took up a decent amount of space in my pack. I saw a lot of people in flip flops with socks on or a more durable pair of sandals like Teva’s, Chaco’s, or Birkenstock’s. I’d recommend packing those instead as your dry pair of shoes.

–          5 pairs of underwear (I didn’t shower for 5 days but I at least had clean underwear on every day!)

–          1 Sleeping Bag

–          1 Sleeping Pad (roll up and place on the outside of your pack)

–          Walking Sticks (attach to the outside of your pack)

–          1 Water Bottle (aim for a 2 L bottle, you’ll need it!)

–          My Food

–          1 – 2 Person Tent (my friend and I divided up the tent between our bags to even out the weight)

–          Cooking Equipment (stove, gas, lighter, dishes and utensils)

–          Toiletries including Toilet Paper and some baby wipes for a somewhat clean feeling!

 

This is how we were taught to pack our bag. Since Patagonia is known for its crazy weather (i.e. rain, hail, wind, sunshine can all happen in 1 day!) we were told to pack our backpacks like this (mainly to keep things dry and in a logical order):

1)      Put one garbage bag into your bag as a liner

2)      Wrap your sleeping bag in another garbage bag and pack that first

3)      Wrap your dry clothes in another garbage bag and pack that second

4)      Wrap your food and cooking equipment in another garbage bag and pack that third (I ended up packing some of my food in other spots like around the sleeping bag for the sake of space so be flexible if your pack is going to be too tall or the weight isn’t evenly distributed)

5)      Wrap your tent in another garbage bag and pack that last

The idea is that when you get to your campsite you’ll most likely start setting up your tent first. Then proceed to cooking and/or changing out of your wet clothes. Then putting your sleeping bag in the tent will most likely be last. Again, this was how Erratic Rock suggested we pack our bags. I ended up doing it this way with some modifications along the way to balance out my pack and have it work for me.

Also for those of you with a rain cover for your pack, the staff at Erratic Rock did not suggest having a rain cover. They said it would act like a parachute on your back and that’s why they recommended packing with the garbage bags as our rain protection. The wind can pick up quickly in Patagonia so we took their word for it. We still saw plenty of people with the rain covers on their packs so it just depends on how you’d like to pack!

**Food to Bring**

Here is all the food I packed on my hike:

–          5 Snickers/Milky Way bars (believe me you’ll burn it off and the sugar is a great burst of energy!)

–          5 pre-made sandwich bags full of trail mix that I made myself

–          5 high fiber cookies I found in the grocery store

–          2 bags of couscous

–          5 individual soup packets to flavor the couscous

–          Sausage/salami that’s plastic wrapped, something like this (I bought the kind that was already sliced but you can also just buy the whole sausage and slice it yourself each night)

–          1 packet of crackers to pair with the sausage/salami

–          4 pre-portioned bags of oatmeal with brown sugar/cinnamon mixed in already

–          1 jar of peanut butter to add into our oatmeal in the mornings and to have a scoop of as a snack (I scooped out some before going on the trail to save some weight and if you’re backpacking with a few people you could easily share 1 jar between 3 or 4 people!)

–          Tea packets for breakfast/dinner

In general, you should be packing food that’s light weight and cooks quickly. Pasta is lightweight but you’ll be boiling noodles for several minutes which eats up your gas. Couscous on the other hand, you boil the water until it’s boiling, turn off the heat, add the couscous and in 5 minutes you have dinner. Vermicelli is also a good option. To make it more flavorful you can add dried veggies, spices, or the individual soup packets. Get wild and crazy!

Avoid anything canned like tuna or veggies. These contain water which adds weight quickly to your pack. Once you’re on the trail for an hour you’ll regret it believe me!

Most of our protein came from the peanuts in our trail mixes, our peanut butter in the oatmeal for breakfast and the sausage. I thought I might be hungrier on the trail with snacking on my candy bars, trail mix and high fiber cookies but I wasn’t! Some days I even had some leftover food for the next day.

**General Tips**

1)      Have cash readily available in Puerto Natales. We had to pay for our rental equipment AND our hostel in cash! That was a surprise for us. The foreign transaction fees can add up quickly at the ATM’s so make sure you take out enough cash to cover these types of costs.

2)      Another point on cash, bring more than you think you’ll need into the park. When the bridge went down, I ended up having to pay an extra $45 USD between the extra Catamaran ride back across the lake and the different camp site we used. You also need cash to pay the park entrance fee. Don’t expect to be able to use your credit card in the park or in Puerto Natales for that matter.

3)      Give yourself a day or two in Puerto Natales before and after your hike if you have the time. Before would be to pick up any food you might need, rent equipment, go to the Erratic Rock talk at 3 pm, etc. A day or two afterwards to return rental equipment, get a good night’s sleep before continuing your travels and to relax a little! You will have earned it!

4)      Try and cut down the weight of your pack as much as possible. Only carry what you’ll need.

5)      I would highly recommend using walking sticks. I couldn’t imagine doing the

A map of the park showing who owns which Camp Sites & Refugio’s

Map of the W, O & Q trails

Me and my friends after finishing the W!

hike without them!

6) Enjoy the beautiful scenery! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and probably ever will see so enjoy the journey!