Torres del Paine National Park is in the southern Chilean Andes encompassing mountains, glaciers, lakes, and rivers. The two most popular treks in this region are the W and the Circuit. Most people do the W trek as it is only 4 or 5 days long and you can stay in Refugios (small hostels serving meals) along the way instead of carrying a tent and food. Since time was not an issue, we decided to do the whole circuit using the campsites along the way.

So we caught a bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales, a small town two hours away from the park, where we had an afternoon to shop for food and last minute supplies for the trek.
Day 1 – Puesto Seron – 4 hrs, 16.5km
We stayed the night in Puerto Natales at a home stay with an adorable little old Chilean woman and her daughter. In the morning, as we were having breakfast, we met a German guy who had just finished the W. We started chatting and it turns out that he works for the same company as me in London and he is in the office across the road from me. It’s a small world.
So we left on a bus after breakfast to the entrance of the park. After reading the Lonely Planet Trekking in Patagonia book, we decided that we would start our trek straight away from Los Torres. We took a while repacking our bags when we got out of the bus so by the time we started trekking, we were all all alone. It was strange to be the only ones on the trail.
It was four hours to the campsite but this being the first day and with 10 days worth of food on our backs, progress was hard and slow. The weather held out for us and and it only started to rain a bit at the end so we were dry but tired when we finally arrived. The campsite was in the middle of a field of daisies and we had nice views of the mountains.
As more and more people arrived at the campsite, we started to notice that a lot of them were young Chileans. Apparently, summer break just started and they were all university students from Santiago.
This was their first time trekking and some of them were carrying family sized tents which looked pretty heavy and did not fare well in the windy valley.
Luckily for us our new tent held out well and didn’t have any problems with the wind.
Whilst cooking dinner we met a Irish girl who was attempting to do the whole circuit in six days and a two Californian guys, Mike and Eric, who were pretty hardcore trekkers.
Day 2 – Lago Dickson – 6 hrs, 18.5km

Today we had to climb a steep hill and walk across an extremely windy ridge for six hours to arrive at the next campsite so we set out early. The wind on the hilltop was so strong that it was pushing me all over the terrain. I couldn’t even walk straight! At one point, the wind actually made me fall down. Luckily, I wasn’t hurt.
When we finally arrived at the camp, we started to set up our tent and we were soon covered in small flies. They didn’t bite but they would fly straight into our eyes, ears and mouth and were very annoying so we decided to go inside the Refugio to relax. Inside, we met a German couple who were staying in the Refugio and two American ladies who we saw along the trail.
After a cold drink we went back to the campsite to try and get a hot shower. People were starting to arrive so we queued up for the one shower that worked. After waiting for a while, I decided to ask the Refugio manager how much I could pay to take a shower inside (normally the inside showers are only for hotel guests). I knew that the German couple were the only ones staying there and they had already taken a shower. He said that I can’t pay for a shower inside and then said quietly to go ahead and use it but don’t say anything to anyone so I quickly grabbed my clothes and had a nice hot shower inside.
We had heard that there were small shops along the way where you could buy food so we didn’t bring enough snacks and lunches thinking that we could buy some things along the way. We had a look at the shop to see what we could buy and the only thing that they sold were chocolate bars, cookies, canned strawberries, large packets of mayonnaise and eggs. We thought the canned strawberries were an especially strange item to be selling. We found these at every shop but we couldn’t get tomato sauce or pasta or anything else that might be used to make a meal. Luckily we had enough rice for dinner and lots of dried fruit and nuts.
After dinner, the Chilean boys started a football game in the field beside the campsite. We couldn’t believe that they actually had energy to play football. We sat inside drinking beer and playing hearts with the Californian guys, Eric and Mike.
Day 3 – Campamento Los Perros – 4.5 hrs, 9km
Today we woke up to light rain so I made breakfast inside the tent. The trail went through the forest with a lot of steep climbing and it was hard to take a break because the moment we stopped walking we were covered in small flies. We even saw one of the Chilean boys spraying bug spray directly into his face to try to get rid of them but the flies didn’t seem to care. We stopped at a waterfall for lunch but quickly went on as the flies were getting to be too much for us. At the end of the trail, we reached an area of loose rocks and climbed up to a viewpoint where we could see a small glacier at Laguna de los Perros.
The campsite was only another 30 minutes walk and was in the forest. It was very cold and damp at the campsite and the only shelter was a small cooking hut made of corrugated plastic with a small wood stove heater. There was also a small shop here but the only thing aside from the usual chocolate bars and canned strawberries, was fatty sausage. We were hoping for some tomato sauce to go with our pasta but they didn’t have any so we had to invent a new dish: pasta cooked in minestrone soup with chopped up sausage. It actually turned out pretty good and compared to our previous two dinners it was a feast.
Day 4 – John Gardener Pass
We woke up early in the morning to start our trek over the John Gardener pass which involved climbing 680m and then an 800m descent. This is the hardest day of the trek and we woke up to rain so the trail through the forest was very muddy and wet. It took a while to get to the top of the tree line due to the deep muddy trail. It was hard work trying to keep my feet dry. As we got closer to the top it got colder and the rain started to turn to hail and then to snow. As we reached the open exposed rock and stepped out of the trees, we could see some people crossing the pass in the distance. All of a sudden a snowstorm hit us and it was a complete whiteout. The snow was blowing sideways in the wind and the trail markers disappeared so we went back into the semi-sheltered forest to wait for more people. The next group to come up the path were three Chilean guys. They were wearing tracksuit pants, no gloves and one guy only had a plastic bag poncho. They were soaked and looked very unprepared. A few more Chilean students arrived looking just as unprepared and they were deliberating whether to cross or not. We advised them to wait until the storm passed and to try again the next day but they were determined to finish the circuit and had to catch their plane at the end of the week so couldn’t spare an extra day. We were freezing at this point as we had stopped walking and the trees weren’t providing much cover so we decided to start walking back and try to meet up with Eric and Mike who are more experienced trekkers so that we could cross as a group.
We didn’t see either of them on the way down and eventually reached the campsite, covered in mud and soaked through our boots, to find them packing up their tent and getting ready to leave. They had visited a nearby glacier in the morning and were planning on going up in the afternoon. At this stage, we weren’t in the mood to go all the way back up through the muddy forest and after telling them about the storm, they also decided to stay the night at Perros as well and we would all go as a group the next day.
So we grabbed the first available spot in the cooking shelter, took our shoes and socks off and put them by the stove while we played cards and tried to keep warm. There were lots of other people who had either turned back or not left at all so the shelter was full and as the day went on, more and more people arrived. We were lucky that the Chilean boys kept chopping wood for the fire (we think trying to impress the Chilean girls who also stayed behind) but the hut was filling up with smoke so our eyes were burning as we took cover from the rain. Ross and I had to make shoes out of garbage bags just so that we could walk around without getting our socks dirty while we waited for our boots to dry out. It was a long day but we did get the chance to finish our Hearts championship with Eric and Mike.
Day 5 – John Gardener Pass Take 2 – 10 hrs, 22km, 680m ascent, 800m descent
In the morning, the weather started to look a lot better so we set out through the muddy forest again and had to hike a lot faster this time to keep up with the guys. When we reached the top of the trees this time, there was only a bit of snow and we could see the path clearly the whole way. The climb up the snow was very difficult and it sometimes felt like we were walking up a black diamond run on a ski hill but we finally made it to the top. Close to the top of the pass, Mike and Eric realised that Ross had a sports / model shooting mode to his camera so they started to pose whilst shouting “you’re a tiger, now a pussy cat!”. It was all very Zoolander’ish and pretty funny. Most people at this stage of the pass are just desperate to cross.

When we got to the top, the views of Glacier Grey were amazing.

The wind at the top was supposed to be really strong but it wasn’t so bad for us and it was behind us so it didn’t bother us at all. Ross and I found some softer snow beside the path and ran down the hill. We then entered back into the forest for a very steep and treacherous descent in the mud. The trail was so muddy that we had to grab onto trees in order to keep from slipping.
At one stage, there were two possible paths, one with orange markers and one with steps that looked very slippery. I decided that the path with the markers looked less dangerous and Ross decided to take the stairs. No sooner did I take a few steps and I was on my butt sliding down the hill. After hitting a few logs and falling backwards over one from the weight of my pack, I eventually grabbed onto a branch to stop myself. Luckily, I wasn’t hurt so we can laugh about it now. Especially Ross who got to witness my fall and describes it as “watching a pinball machine in slow motion”.
Along the way, if ever there was a choice to be made between a very difficult path and an easy one, I always managed to pick the difficult one.
We finally reached the first campsite after the pass called Paso. Our original plan was to stay there but after losing a day to the weather and since it was still pretty early, we decided to try and continue on to Grey where we knew there would be a Refugio and we would be able to celebrate with our friends. It was also positively freezing at Paso and without a fire, spending the afternoon there didn’t seem appealing.
The path from Paso to Grey went along the Glacier Grey and was relatively easy apart from the dangerous metal ladders that were put up to help us to cross heavily eroded ravines. One was so steep and slippery that we had to take several trips to get our packs, poles and camera down safely.
When we finally reached Camp Grey, we were exhausted. We’d been trekking for 10 hours so we had a few drinks to celebrate and even had a cognac with some glacier ice (which we nicknamed “The Mike”, after its creator. Hopefully people don’t start ordering this in Vegas or the worlds glaciers will be retreating even faster
). We don’t know whether it was the 10 hour hike or the glacial ice but it was smooth.