W Trek, Torres del Paine National Park

Both days we were in Puerto Natales, it rained the entire time. Strong rain, all day. In Torres Del Paine park it was worse. 4-6 cm of rain, historic amounts, so bad that they closed the entire eastern part of the park (we were booked to start on the eastern side and hike west). This never happens. The only other times the park has ever closed were for wildfire (admittedly these fires were pretty severe, so bad that now if you're caught breaking the strict "no fires" policy, park rangers will kick you OUT OF CHILE).

We tried to find out the situation in the park before we left, but information was scarce. No one in town knew what was happening except that the park wasn't fully closed: all we could do was take our bus as planned and see what happened.

On our way to the park, our bus caravan finds the main road to the park completely flooded, so backtracked to a much longer secondary road. Arrive and the rangers confirm the whole eastern part of the park is closed, our only option is to reverse our trip, start in the west and hope that everything reopens.

Ok, no more build-up, the hike was great, everything worked out fine, and we had perfect weather!

We hiked 60+ kilometers in 4 days of hiking. We were traveling light because we were staying in the refugios which also provided all of our meals. Luckily it's the very very end of the season, and there are so few hikers that the refugios were nearly empty anyway.

Patagonian weather is notoriously changeable. We were briefed to expect rain at any time, and that we would be wet the whole time. No rain gear would survive the wind, so double-bag everything in your pack in trash bags and hope for the best. It rained lightly our first day on the trail, and then no rain (and mostly clear skies) for 3 days!

The terrain was magical. Desolate arctic barrens near Glacier Grey, transition to forests and scrublands as we worked our way east, all the foliage in brilliant fall colors. Shockingly tall mountains everywhere, some so steep that snow can't cling to the sides. It's so pristine here that you can drink the water from any moving stream completely unfiltered. Wildlife we saw included falcons, condors, woodpeckers, hares, horses, and mice- and from the bus we saw guanacos (llama relative), rheas, and flamingos.

I'm very happy coming at the end of the season- the trails almost to ourselves, bright fall leaves. The weather isn't even that cold (relatively). Only issue is the amount of daylight: sunrise at 9am, completely dark by 7:30pm, so headlamps were essential.

Trekking poles are also essential for navigating the steep slopes and watery/muddy trails. The trail is often literally a stream or goes through huge pool of standing water. Here are some typical trail shots:

All in all a great trek! No bears, water is drinkable, temperatures are milder than you'd think, and you don't even need to camp or cook if you don't want to. What luxury! I hope we're not spoiled for real backpacking now.

Peter