Torres del Paine – The “W” – Day Three & Four

By Bryan • chile, patagonia, photography, travel • 10 Nov 2013

For some reason I never bothered to finish of my final Torres del Paine entry until now. I had the photos and a few lines of text good to go back in May, however I failed to finish off the post. Probably because I was in the middle of a move back to Fort St. John. Either way, here it is, almost 11 months after I visited. I admit that after the gruelling second day, I wasn’t looking forward to the trail between Campamento Los Cuernos and Campamento Torres. The weather was equally hot, the was an exposed ascent and more importantly, it didn’t look like there was much water on the way. The good news was that there was a short-cut that enabled trekkers to by-pass Hosteria Las Torres (where most day hikers would start their ascent to the famous spires of Torres del Paine. The by-pass also followed the contours at a nice traverse angle, as opposed to the near vertical ascent via Hosteria Las Torres.

Just outside of Campamento Los Cuernos, looking west down to Lago Nordenskjold.

Moving up the by-pass. Contrary to the Lonely Planet, it is well marked and very easy to find.

Moving back into the Massif. Campamento Chileno is toward the middle of the photograph. A fully serviced Refugio, this is where many trekkers will stop, choosing to make a longer morning ascent to Mirador de Las Torres in lieu of a more rustic stay at the further Campamento Torres.

We pushed on to Campamento Torres. Well worth the push as it reunited us with friends from previous days. Easily the best night I had in Patagonia. Like most camps in Torres del Paine, the camp situated around the cookhouse.

At around 4:30am, the camp emptied out as we made the hour long headlamp assisted ascent to Mirador de Las Torres.

Mirador de Las Torres

On the way down from Mirador Las Torres

Campamento Torres

The ascent down to Hosteria Las Torres and the end of the “W”. What would normally be a 3-4 hour hike up, took less than an hour to go down. I’ve always been much stronger on the descent than the ascent.