February 9 – 22, 2025

The memories of a man in his old age

Are the deeds of a man in his prime.

• Pink Floyd

Patagonia. An inspiring word that conjures up images of South American wilderness. But exactly what? And where? I didn’t really know. This required some research when the idea to go hiking there was hatched with a fellow hiker about seven months earlier. We soon settled on the O-Trek in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile for our destination. Different sources will give slightly different numbers for the magnitude of this hike – I measured 83.5 miles with about 23,500 feet of elevation gain on my GPS. This included an optional glacier hike and some adjustment to the trail on the last day due to campsite availabilities. 

Back to where and what Patagonia is. Torres del Paine National Park where we hiked is about 51° south latitude. In the northern hemisphere that’s about where Calgary, Canada is. The region covers ~400,000 square miles in the southern end of South America, about half of Chile and half of Argentia. Only about 2 million people live in this vast region, making it one of our planet’s least populated areas. The penguin population in Patagonia is said to be nearly the same as people, but penguin locations weren’t on our agenda. The name “Patagonia” comes from the name Ferdinand Magellan gave to the indigenous people when he arrived in 1520. The far western sections receive the most rain, overall, the region is semi-arid grasslands. Temperatures ranged from the lower 30s to the upper 70s, with most days in the 50-60° range. Weather varied from sunny, peaceful calm to howling, ferocious blasts of 70+mph wind with freezing rain, sleet, and snow. Plan for everything.

There are a wide variety of options available for trip planning. I settled early on with an outfit called Howlanders. This is a large organization based in Spain that organizes trips all over the world using regional operators. Many people we met used an à la carte approach instead using Vertice, Los Perros, Bigfoot Patagonia, and other local operators. They reserved campsites on their own on these websites, packed their own tents, prepared their own food (or purchased at the campsites), etc. That’s the normal process I use for backpacking in the US, but I wasn’t after that here. Howlanders provided one stop shopping. Their booking package, using local operators, included bus transfers to/from the park, park entry tickets, local transfer from the park boundary to the hike start at Central Camping, all refugio/campsite reservations, full board dining, and an optional half day glacier hiking excursion. Our final agenda included four nights of camping and three nights in refugios. I am very happy with our Howlanders booking – there was already enough planning for all the logistics getting to/from Puerto Natales. I didn’t find this resource until after return, but the site has good information for summarizing different options.

A final note – both guided and self-guided options are available. We took the self-guided and I am certain we had a better experience for it. I would recommend it for anyone with at least a modest level of hiking experience. Further – there are porter options. We were already hiking with packs about 10 pounds lighter than our usual backpacking weights. There was simply no need for a porter.

On to the actual hike. Four other hiking buddies joined me on this hike. I’ve already mentioned we selected the O Trek over the W Trek. The O trek includes all the W trek, plus an extra 33 miles of much more remote terrain. The O trek includes the single most difficult day, the hike over John Gardner Pass. A modest 3900 feet in elevation, this was a steep hike into very strong headwinds and below freezing temperatures on our hike day. The overall hike profile and distance is not severe for experienced hikers but should not be taken lightly if you aren’t. This is wild and remote. Turning around on a bad day has serious consequences.

The O trek is hiked counterclockwise by all hikers. Coupled with much less people hiking this section, this results in longer and more frequent periods of isolation and solitude. The W trek captures many of the scenic highlights but with many more people and with people hiking in both directions. This results in bubbles of hikers at times that can detract from the backpacking experience. On to our adventure.

We all arrived in Punta Arenas (population 145,000) on February 10 after about 20 hours of travel in three legs to cover 6200 miles. I never cease to be amazed at how portable travelers are in the modern era. We stayed two nights in Punta Arenas, the extra day a conservative decision on my part to accommodate possible flight delays or lost luggage.

On February 12, we took our bus from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales, about 3 hours. After checking in to Hostal Baquedano, we meandered around town, checking out pizza joints, local shops, and machete jugglers. A Vertice employee gave us a hike brief, explaining what to expect each day, and providing me with a ticket package that gave our itinerary for the next 8 days and a detailed, well-organized package of all tickets for the five of us. We were set.

The actual hike started on February 13, beginning at 7:00 AM with a chaotic international mass of people at Terminal Rodoviario, the central bus station for Puerto Natales. Numerous tour buses depart to many destinations, and it takes a few minutes to sort out which is which. The Vertice ticket packet, with seat assignments by name, was helpful. This was another three-hour bus ride to the Laguna Amarga park entrance. Our park entrance tickets were checked when we arrived, followed by another 15-minute shuttle to the Welcome Center. We were ready to hike. I headed out with an 18-pound backpack, much lighter than usual backpack weight for me thanks to no tent or air mattress, and much less food.

Day 1 February 13

We headed off on the O Trek towards Seron Campground. Before even getting a tenth of the mile down the trail we spotted three pumas! I had asked about campsite mice during our brief and was told I was more likely to see a puma than a mouse – they were right! We already had our first highlight.

The first few miles were a gradual incline through a mix of grasslands and forests. The weather was perfect. During a lunch break we were treated to a pair of nesting Cachaña parrots, busily feeding their young in a nest built inside a tree trunk. This was the first of two pairs we saw that day. After climbing 800 feet, we reached a peak overlooking a valley with the Paine River winding through it. Camp Seron is about three miles away.

Camp Seron was one of two locations on our hike where a refugio was not a choice. Instead, we slept in spacious “safari” type tents, robust elevated platform tents with concrete footers. Everything is in place when you get there. I also had the first of several hot showers in a wonderful solar powered bath house.

Snacks and refreshments were available at all our stays if you didn’t want to wait for dinner. Food quality was consistently good and sometimes excellent. We enjoyed meeting other hikers from Taiwan, Germany, England, Australia, the US, Ireland, and other countries, maintaining many of these relationships for the duration of the trek.

First day distance travelled was 8.9 miles with 1535 feet of cumulative elevation gain. Distances and elevation gains vary by source – the numbers I give are as measured by the Garmin GPS I carried.

Day 2 February 14

Our second day started off with a pleasant stroll along the Paine River for a couple of miles before a 600-foot climb over a pass on Mount Paine. Crossing the pass brings Lake Paine into view, with the Paine Mountain Range in the distance. We took our first break of the day to take it all in.

We came down from the pass and hiked through a rolling section of scrub bushes and small trees. We had lunch at Guarderia Coiron Ranger Station, where we had to produce our passports and Policia De Investigaciones (PDI) document and sign in. The PDI is proof of your legal stay in the country, and they take it seriously. If you go to Chile, keep up with it.  We had to produce our passport and PDI several times over the course of the hike.

After lunch, we hiked across mostly flat terrain with the Dickson Glacier in the background increasingly drawing our attention. A lengthy boardwalk across a bog section was helpful. Insects were never a problem on this hike, what few mosquitoes I encountered were on this section.

At the end of the day, we had a brief climb to a high point that seemed to serve no other purpose than to set us up for a spectacular vista of our next lodging, Refugio Dickson. The rooms were tiny, but the beds were comfortable. I was beginning to develop a relationship with Calafate Ale by a popular Patagonian brewer, Cerveza Austral, for my after-hike refreshment.

Daily numbers: 11.9 miles, 1922 feet cumulative elevation gain.

Day 3 February 15

After our standard breakfast of cereal, toast, yogurt, plates of ham and cheese slices, and instant coffee (with an interesting playlist of old American jazz and blues in the background), we received two instead of the usual one bag lunch. Today’s destination is Los Perros campground, the most remote of the camping locations and the most difficult for the park to keep supplied. We received supplies for 2 days to get us to Refugio Grey to simplify that part of Los Perros logistics.

The hike was just wonderful. Comfortable temperatures, and, after an initial 600-foot climb, the trail meandered for several miles through Lenga Forest. Lenga is a tree in the beech family, iconic to the Patagonian Forest. The trail then began a modest incline to a small glacial lake with the Los Perros Glacier in the background. This was another photo spot.

Los Perros campground was just a few minutes away. This is the second campsite that is tent only, and the only time we camped on the ground instead of a safari tent. No matter, the tent was fine and a pleasure as always to require no assembly. The shower here was advertised as cold water only. I took a hard pass on that.

Daily numbers: 8.7 miles, 2300 feet cumulative elevation gain.

Day 4 February 16

This wasn’t the longest day, but it was the toughest. This was the day we crossed John Gardner Pass, and the campsite had to be empty by 7:00 AM to try and get ahead of the most severe weather. We were up for breakfast at 5:30 and on the trail with headlamps at 6:15. We slogged our way through the forest for the first couple of miles before breaking out into a scree field for the final stretch to John Gardner Pass. The temperature dropped, the wind howled; rain, sleet, and snow pummeled us as we reached the pass, I later asked a ranger what the wind speeds were. He said 40 mph wind makes walking difficult; 50 mph starts to knock people down. Based on that I believe we were in 50 mph winds as we saw people knocked over and others unable to continue without help. My rarely worn raincoat paid for itself that day.

The reward for reaching the pass was the unveiling of the Grey Glacier field dominating the landscape below us. At four miles wide and seventeen miles long, this was unlike anything I had ever seen. The trail declined steeply ahead of us, and didn’t get any easier after that as the trail followed a craggy rock face for the next few miles. The adventure continued as we traversed three separate suspension bridges as high and as long as any I have ever seen for foot traffic.

The hike day ended with a less severe profile, arriving at Refugio Grey. This was the end of the section that was exclusive to the O Trek. From here on we would join other folks hiking the W Trek. Accommodations from here were larger and better supplied to handle the extra traffic – a plus and a minus.

Daily numbers: 10.1 miles, 4324 feet cumulative elevation gain.

Day 5 February 17

This day was scheduled for the shortest, easiest hike, so we took advantage of signing up for an optional glacier hike to start the day. This was included in the Howlanders package but conducted by Bigfoot Patagonia. They did an amazing job. This was about a four-hour excursion for us that included all the necessary gear, the boat transport, and experienced support that gave us a real treat. We traversed the Grey Glacier and had the surreal experience of lowering ourselves into a crevasse in the glacier, finding ourselves surrounded by crystal clear ice and an otherworldly blue.

We returned to Refugio Grey for a delightful shepherd’s pie lunch before heading on to Refugio Paine Grande. We passed through remnants of a forest fire thirteen years earlier. Lightning is rare here, so fire fuel accumulates, and the frequent strong winds make containment difficult. Fires of any kind by hikers are under strict control. Even smoking is prohibited in the park except in designated spots.

Daily numbers: 10.1 miles, 4324 feet cumulative elevation gain, including glacier hike.

Day 6 February 18

This was the longest hike, with the first of two long valley hikes adding an extra ~8 miles round trip on the way to our destination of Cuernos campsite. We were able to drop our backpacks off at the Italian Camp (Campamento Italiano) before starting our 2000 foot climb up the French Valley with a lighter daypack. The first vista, Mirador Frances (French viewpoint) is about a mile climb with some steep rocky sections. Looking back to Lake Nordenskjold is spectacular. Another three miles of trail ends at Británico Viewpoint with a beautiful view of Mount Paine Grande, with wind-whipped clouds shrouding the peaks.

I read filling water bottles directly from the creeks was completely okay in the park given the glacier melt source for most of the streams. I was slow to embrace that but did several times on this leg.

We retraced our steps back to the Italian Camp for a quick lunch before heading on to the Cuernos Campsite about three miles further on. We passed another of the many solar power panels we saw on this trip as we left the camp. The occasional thunder of falling snow and ice shelves was our company. This is a pleasant hike at the end of a long day, dipping down to the lakeshore for a short section before reaching camp. Calafate Ale and a hot shower was waiting on me.

Our weather for this hike was very good overall. The worst rain of the trip occurred this night, accompanied by howling winds that damaged several tents.

Daily numbers: 15.7 miles, 5082 feet cumulative elevation gain.

Day 7 February 19

The severe weather of the overnight disappeared on cue for us to greet a glorious day. Our hike was a satisfying Goldilocks hike along the shore of Lake Nordenskjold – not too steep/flat, not too long/short, not too hot/cold, etc. We arrived where we began at Camping Central in the early afternoon. Plenty of time for a hot shower and clean clothes followed by a pizza and refreshments. One big day remained – the hike to perhaps the most iconic view on the hike, the wonderful view of the three granite towers (Central, Monzino, Dagostini).

Daily numbers: 8.1 miles, 2140 feet cumulative elevation gain.

Day 8 February 20

Just like that our hike was drawing to a close. This last day is also the most popular. In addition to O and W Trek hikers, many people arrive for a day hike to the iconic towers. Traffic on the ascent isn’t too bad for a few reasons. Some people depart camp early to catch a sunrise at the towers, others had the good fortune to have accommodation at Chileno, leaving them a much shorter three-mile hike to the towers. We chose to have breakfast before heading up from Central Camping to start the six-mile hike up. These factors help to spread out the hikers for the approach. We hit the trail about 8:00 AM for a mostly pleasant valley climb. The last mile is quite steep, about 1000 feet of gain. The towers are slow to reveal themselves, only in the last few feet of trail are they exposed. Time to pause, soak, and reflect. We took time for a variety of photos and just relaxed to take it in. These are the special moments.

Finally, it was time to head down. The tour buses had unloaded their passengers, and the trip down was a different experience. We passed hundreds of people, often having to just step aside until the crowd passed. We made it to Refugio Chileno and stopped for a beverage before continuing back to the Welcome Center.

Daily numbers: 13.1 miles, 4181 feet cumulative elevation gain.

The hike was finished. All that remained was our return to civilization. A bus ride back to Puerto Natales for a night, followed by another bus ride to Punta Arenas the next day. We enjoyed a farewell dinner as a group before our ride home. That turned into an adventure as well but that is another story.

On the bus rides I took time to reflect on the experience. I was very impressed with the package delivered by Howlanders and the role of each of the local operators that provided service on the trip. Every step of the process was executed with no problems. The food was good to excellent, and I never expected to take so many hot showers. It’s clear the park and related tourism is a moneymaker for Chile – at times there seemed to be more people than facilities were designed to handle. Trash on the trail was almost completely absent, very refreshing for the number of hikers that pass through.  The scenery is truly spectacular – for example, I consider it unlikely that I will ever be inside a glacier again – but if you’re looking for peaceful solitude this park did not score high in my experience. That doesn’t detract from an awesome hike, it’s just an aspect to be prepared for. This was a wonderful experience I will forever cherish.