Day 4
Our preparations to keep warm the night before had backfired on us, it turned out to be a much warmer night and the hot water bottles had us sweating, that combined with the very strong winds that was collapsing the tent from the sides meant for a night of broken sleep, but we were up and packed away by 7am (with the help of a gorgeous sunrise next to us) and ready for our breakfast, which thankfully we didn’t have to cook today and after our slap up meal the night before, plus the price we had to pay for the privilege of full board we were hoping for a big meal to start us off on our longest walk of the trek.
A spoonful of scrambled eggs on toast was not really enough, but that’s all they had to offer, so after a tea and a coffee, we headed for the hills on another perfect day of sunshine.
Within a couple of kilometres, we had stripped down to t-shirts, slapped on the sun cream and were regretting the decision of wearing long johns and ski trousers. But with a long day ahead with plenty of uphill, we had to keep on keeping on.
It wasn’t too much hard walk for the first 7km or so, nice and flat with gorgeous views of the lake and mountains, the terrain once again changed and made for a different experience as we took the turnoff toward our next camping spot ‘El Chileno’.
We were soon navigating our way through boggy marshland, trying to find a safe passage by prodding the ground ahead with our poles, I mistook one area for dry land and ended up ankle deep in mud, luckily my boots are still waterproof, unlike Carolina who we had caught up with and had just made the same mistake but with less waterproof shoes.
From this point it was uphill, passing a much darker lake, resembling a small Scottish Loch in contrast to the turquoise waters we had just left behind us. The climb kicked up pretty steep and we passed a few people coming downhill encouraging Evie to ‘be strong’, which told us that it wasn’t going to get easier anytime soon.
We eventually crossed the gap to the main trail from the Eastern end of the W trek coming from the Hotel Las Torres at the bottom of the hill, all the way up to the Torres lookout at the very top of the hill, at this point we were about 10km into our walk with a couple more to go before we reached our camping spot.
The trail had gotten much busier, with lots of walkers going up to the Towers and back in a day, so there were a lot more ‘Holas’ going on. We were also passed by 4 horses who were being led up to our campsite carrying bottles of gas on their backs. If only we could have thrown our backpacks on too!
As we rounded a corner which uncovered a huge valley below with a fast flowing river at the bottom we saw our campsite 1km away.
We were there in no time and had actually arrived too quickly. It was noon at this point, we had given ourselves 5 hours to arrive but had made it there in 4 and the campsite wouldn’t let us set up our tent until 12:30.
So we had our lunch with Clement who had beaten us there, a huge chicken and cheese roll which had been prepared for us this morning.
After lunch we pitched our tents on another platform, this time sheltered amongst the trees but also on a very steep hill, meaning that if we rolled over too far in our sleep, we would have about a 3 metre drop before we landed, it also meant no room for tripping over our ropes either.
We pitched our tent as quickly as we could as we still had 5km of steep uphill to go as well as the inevitable 5 back down. We were on the trail again, this time with a lot less weight to carry, Evie just had to take her poles and I carried the backpack with just extra clothing and a few snacks and water.
4km of gentle climbing through the forest, over the rivers and streams lulled us into a false sense that this would be really easy, we only had 1km to go but still had 350 metres of altitude to cover. This meant a very steep and slow 40 minutes of, at times, scrambling our way over rocks and snow. Most of which had clearly melted in the last day or so, as we had been warned that it was deep snow and ice near the top, but we only came across some light snow covering.
We rounded the top of the hill, what would be the last real uphill of our weeks trek and the Towers of Paine showed themselves in all their glory with the milky blue lake in the foreground and snow below its vertical face.
It was another amazing view and the reason why so many people made the hard hike up there to see them. It was around 3pm by this point and the sun was starting to go over the top of the Towers, a lot of the tourists were already on their way back down the mountain so there were only a few people left at the top.
We spent some time taking in the awesome view, taking photos, listening to the glacier cracking above the lake, nothing moved but the sound of it echoed off the walls and made it sound as though the towers were about to collapse.
We had made it the top in t-shirts, but it didn’t take long to get cold at the top, we rugged up pretty quickly and set off back down to our campsite before we got too cold.
I had leant one of my poles to Carolina to help her with the steep descent and the days uphill walking had taken its toll, we were both slowly trudging down the steep rocky slopes, stopping to fill our bottles from the streams and have a quick snack to keep us going. The plan was to have some beer with the people we had met over dinner, so that’s all we had on our mind.
We were back to our little tent in about the same time it took to go up the hill, which shows how tired our legs were at this point. Nothing a decent shower couldn’t fix though and we were soon by the fire ready for a well earned beer!
No beer!!!!! Apparently it was coming though, so the whole of the bar sat patiently waiting for the beer to arrive, after an hour about 10 horses pulled up carrying supplies, finally some beer we thought. But as we watched all the different boxes unloaded, it soon became apparent that there was no beer onboard.
We ate our dinner, which was a meagre meal of cheap pasta Bolognese, not worth the $96 USD per person that we had no option but to fork out for the privilege of staying at this particular campsite, ready to retire for the evening, when suddenly, from the loft we saw boxes of beer being passed down to the lady behind the bar. We all jumped up eagerly, ready to pay £6 each for a small bottle, but for some reason we had to wait another 5 minutes. By this time, most of the diners had gone to bed and what seemed like a huge opportunity to make a load of money had been missed, just because they didn’t get the beer down from the loft.
Finally we were allowed a bottle and it tasted very good as we sat around the fire toasting our near completion of the W, convincing ourselves that it wasn’t worth waking up early to climb back to the top and watch the sunrise, which is apparently spectacular, but the weather forecast was supposed to be bad and none of us seemed too bothered as it would have meant a 4am start and a long climb in the dark.
We didn’t bother with the hot water bottles this time and were asleep in no time whilst the wind started to pick up again in the valley around us.
Day 5
I had happened to wake up at 4am, stuck my head out of the tent to see if it would be really worthwhile to go up to the Towers for sunrise (though really I knew this would never happen). I could see stars but it wasn’t overly clear and the wind was already picking up – both valid reasons to put my head back in the tent and go back to sleep.
We packed up our tents, had breakfast and slowly thought about heading down the mountain. The wind really was picking up by this point and some friends had already left, so it was time to go for it, so that we wouldn’t be too windswept after our journey.
It was HARD and walking on the edge of the hill down to the river, was a little scary. Wind was coming from every direction, so our bags acted like sails and threw us around bit, I clung on to our poles digging them in to the ground and we ventured on trying to get through the windiest part of the walk.
We came across the windiest and most dangerous point at the top corner of the hill – wind whipping round and you just had to wait for the right moment to turn the corner, trying not to be blown around too much. Myself and another girl dug our poles in and waited for the wind to pass, whilst Ryan got the Go Pro out and filmed us, not worrying at all!
Many people were heading up the hill by now in hope of viewing the Towers – we didn’t have the heart to tell them that their definitely wouldn’t be any towers in view today! There would be way to much cloud cover and a pretty dangerous trek to the top and with the weather worsening, who knew if the trek up to the Torres would be open this afternoon.
We passed the worst part of the weather and headed downhill to the end, saying hola and smiling to everyone we saw – them not reciprocating so much, and I did wonder why for a while, and then turned round to see the dark clouds and the hidden valley and then understood. I think I would have hated me if I were them, all happy and smiley!
We reached the Torres Del Paine hotel (very posh) and stopped for a hot chocolate to warm ourselves up. It was a gorgeous hotel, so nice and warm with comfy sofas – what a treat! We hung out there before heading to the welcome centre where everyone would be waiting for the bus.
This was the only real work our waterproofs had to do – as it was pouring by this point (damn us stopping for a hot choc!) We got completely soaked on the last kilometre and dripped in to the welcome centre to a happy welcome from Clement and Carolina – who were just pleased we had survived! They had wondered where we had been as we hadn’t set off long after them and also wondered when was appropriate to drink the beer they brought for us if we didn’t arrive. Luckily we were just in time!
We waited for the bus, had more beers with the boys running to the hotel next door as our bar had run out (what was it with the lack of beer) and all chatted about our plans post W Trek!
I was sad that it was over – we had met so many lovely people along the way and what an incredible experience we had. The weather was unbelievable which definitely made for a happier trip, with gorgeous views and something different around every corner. It was a challenge for me and because we had been so busy prior to our trip, it was something I hadn’t put too much thought in to, but I am so glad we did it and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone!
Torres Del Paine was just spectacular and a place absolutely like no other – it is probably the best and most amazing place I ever have visited and I cannot wait to come back to explore Patagonia some more.
E & R x
Ryan and Evie 
Lovely memories to keep and what amazing trip for you both xxx
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