Torres del Paine: Trekking as never before!

Welcome to the Chile’s most famous national park! Named as Torres del Paine, it is nestled in southern Patagonia and is loaded with snowy mountains, granite rocky peaks, waterfalls, rivers, glacier-fed lakes, meadows, thick Magellanic forests, and abundant of wildlife rendering each corner captivatingly scenic! However, a visit to such an iconic park cannot be enjoyed completely without being a bit adventurous on its exciting treks for they are going to surely take your breaths away. Although you can get indulge in other activities like camping, riding, hiking, and mountain climbing; nothing is as comprehensive as trekking the Torres del Paine circuits. By comprehensive I mean the far-reaching vistas as well as highlights and all-inclusive fun, thrill, memories, and satisfaction.

The term is composed of two main words: Paine meaning Blue and Torres meaning Towers preferably pointing to the high mountains as well as the shimmering blue water bodies. By the way, you are about to explore something that is already a World Heritage Site. The park offers several trekking routes but among all, the Torres del Paine circuit for 4- to 5- or 7-days is the most famous one, which is also recognized as the Chile’s most exciting one internationally. This one is also known as the ‘W’ circuit as one goes from the base of Lago Nordenskljöld up to the ice fields and then coming down to the base followed by an ascend again, which is repeated three times. Via this one, you explore the three top highlights: the Torres as the towers, Grey lake and glacier, and the Cuernos del Paine. Although it is a small route, you can continue your walk for 10 days without any charge.

As you hike along the Torres del Paine, you get a chance to closely discover the diverse ecosystems of the park such as plunging waterfalls, meandering rivers, snowy mountains, big glaciers, green meadows, arid Pampas, transparent alpine lakes, and wildlife including the gray foxes, pink flamingos, guanaco, Andean condor, rhea’s purnas, American ostrich, and cara cara. I was quite lucky to have clear skies due to which no mist obstructed for the far-reaching vistas of the mind-blowing peaks: Los Cuernos at right, Paine Grande at left, and Torres del Paine at the heart along with Ice Cap.

At the start, you might first spot the bright brown guanacos and then the reserved campsite from where you trek. This might be at Refugio Grey where beach is good for swimming provided you are a real penguin. After this, hiking starts by the side of Rio Ascencio taking one via the beech forests and its ending point from where you enjoy the clean vistas of the three towers below which resides a glacial lake. Doing these activities will take up some 2 days of yours.

The next day you reach the ideal campsite of the park called Lago Paine where the ambiance is cool, the feeling of remoteness strikes, and tents are perched behind the hill purposely for safety against the wind that can really take away your tents if it is very powerful. But despite these winds, I was not scared to go far from my site to enjoy the bliss of the colorful scenes – blue lakes, green foliage, blue sky, yellow flora, and white mountains. If you have time, I would recommend to hike on a horse in the jungle for discovering the misty Indian Head Peak.

On the last day (5th), trekking on the longest track right from 6:00 am was the most memorable for me. This sojourn took me to the Paine Pass as well as stony trail for a vertical climb to enjoy the Patagonia Ice Cap view and Glaciar Grey of 25 miles in width.

Alternatives for enjoying the circuit

Horse trekking

7 to 14 days trip instead of 5 days

Camping at the different sites as well as the teahouses

Altitude level

Moderate – 3000 and 4000 m

Best time to visit

Summer months of late December to late February as the weather is very welcoming and that the daylight hours are quite lengthy. Otherwise, the weather is quite extreme here with daylight getting restricted to only handful of hours daily.

Camping sites with snack facilities

• Pehoé Lake

• Serrano River featuring 28 sites
• Blue Lagoon with 15 sites

Entrances

From the east: Laguna Amarga from Puerto Natales, Lago Sarmiento, and Laguna Azul (ranger stations and guarderias)

Reaching here

• Fly Punta Arenas from Santiago after which you can easily get a bus to Puerto Natales followed by a  drive of 150 km
• Alternatively, take a ferry from Puerto Montt passing via the fjords until Punta Arenas