• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

Walking Holidays

  • Home
  • Site Map
  • About Almis
  • Contact us
  • The Walks
  • Walking Experiences
  • Walking Gear
  • Walking Health and Fitness
You are here: Home / Featured / Torres del Paine – the "W" walk

Torres del Paine – the "W" walk

By Almis Simans Leave a Comment

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
The Famous Torres del paine

Occasionally I like to include other world walks to give you a perspective. So here’s our article on the famous Patagonian walk – the “W”.

We were at Refugio Chileno in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, Patagonia.
 
 The weather looked great. Mike, Matt and Liz got up early to try and see the towers at dawn.
We decided to have breakfast and then climb up to the towers viewpoint (Mirador). This meant that we would be catching the later (7pm) bus back to Puerto Natales.

We enjoyed breakfast with Sean and Alicia (Madonna) and then back on the track with a daypack. After having walked for 4 days, our muscles were accustomed to the rhythm and we made good progress.

The last section was a rock scramble over a lunar landscape. Once we reached the lip of the glacial crater and saw the Towers, all our tiredness vanished and we enjoyed the views in the bright sunlight. This is known as following one’s fascination.  The average height of the Towers was 2800 meters.

The Towers are often obscured by the harsh winds blowing mists and clouds over them. The traditional visit to view the Towers is at sunrise. We had heard a number of disappointed walkers who had done this and seen only shrouded towers in the cold. Our later start had paid off.

Below the Towers is a small milky-green glacial lake tucked into the mountainside. The sun glinted off the snow at the base of the Towers. One of our South American walking companions clambered down to the lake, stripped off to his shorts and plunged into the icy water.

His wife drew out a towel from his backpack and shook her head in disbelief at his quick bath. Since there was no wind the sun warmed us all up. We gazed out at the incredibly large rock formations and the remnants of the winters snows, still held captive in rocky crevasses.

You really can’t take it all in, it’s an overpowering sight and somewhat unreal. After about half an hour we had absorbed enough of the splendid views and the cold wind was nudging us back, we knew it was time to return. If we were spritely enough, we might even catch the 3pm bus back to Puerto Natales.

See you next time.

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

Your Turn: Do you have any advice you would like to share? What tips would you like to add? Please comment below.
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Featured, Walking Experiences Tagged With: Patagonia, Puerto Natales, South American walking, Torres del Paine, world walks

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Additions

  • Walking in the Cotswolds
  • Cotswold Way – A Six-Day Ramble in the Cotswolds
  • The Cotswold Way Walk – Our Walking Experience
  • Did Hadrian build Hadrian’s Wall – We find out on our walk
  • Drinking water for folks on Walking Holidays

Plan and Book Your Trip






eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Devon & Cornwall
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright © 2021 Travelsignposts Pty Ltd · All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Service   |   Affiliate Disclaimer   |   Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address