Torres del Paine W Trek - Day Five

We set our alarms for 6:30AM knowing we had a long day ahead of us. We opted to make our own breakfast of coffee and oatmeal before setting off on the trail towards Chileno Camp. It followed along the lake for several miles over rolling hills, forests, and bridges. I liked the views of Paine Grande but it soon disappeared behind the Cuernos. A new jagged volcanic-looking mountain range appeared. We reached the shortcut junction to Chileno to bypass the extra mileage down to Las Torres Hotel. From there the trail started climbing and I had flashbacks to passes on the JMT!

We hiked through a grassy area in front of glacier covered mountains with several waterfalls. I was getting pretty exhausted and sweaty hiking up the hill but I was relieved it wasn’t raining. Instead we had a perfect sunny day with temperatures in the 70s. We eventually re-joined the trail from Las Torres and climbed several more steep sections before Chileno came into view below. The refugio is in a valley along the river with campsites for a ¼ mile or so. We lucked out and got a site above the river not far from the refugio.

After pitching our tents we had a well-deserved lunch (the morning hike was about 7 miles) and gathered our strength to continue up to Torres del Paine – the huge granite towers that give the park its name. This ended up being my favorite section of the trail including several river crossings over picturesque bridges, dense green forests, and sweeping views of glacier packed mountains. The whole time we saw the Torres peaking over the ridge.

At this point my legs were exhausted and the last section reminded me of the top of Mt. Baldy back at home – slow, steep, bouldery, and exposed. We only had day packs but my body was so tired! I finally rounded the corner that led to the lake in front of the Torres and it was unbelievable. The photos don’t even do the place justice. The lake was a gorgeous deep turquoise with peaks rising high out of it. To top it off, we were officially finished with the W! It’s really hard to describe the place in words so please checkout the photos below.

On our way back down we were passed by a large condor flying very close. We guessed his wingspan was 8ft!

The only drawback of the trail is that we did this section on a Sunday with perfect weather so there were tons of day hikers. It was probably the most crowded trail I’ve ever been on. It wasn’t too bad although at times the trail is only wide enough for a single person to pass.

We returned to camp and had cold Austral beers along the river. The water was painfully cold but nice on my sore feet. We made dinner in the campers cooking room which was actually pretty cool. So many people gathered around from different countries. We snagged a corner and made a huge feast of our remaining food: two types of soup, pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan, and a nice box of wine!