Hiking the W Trek Circuit in Torres del Paine Chile Patagonia (4 days self-guided solo hiking)

Hi everyone, welcome to my channel. Today I'm going to share with you my experience solo hiking the famous Torres del Paine National Park. I did a W track in four days from east to west. I will share my experience day by day. Okay, let's go. So in today's itinerary, I'm going to go from Puerto Natales to Torres del Paine National Park. From there, I'm going to hike up to the iconic base de las Torres and then head back down and sleep at Hotel Las Torres. So it's 7am and I'm on the bus that's taking me inside the Torres del Paine National Park. On the bus, you will see the most beautiful sunrise until you reach the main entrance of the park. I have already purchased my park pass online and once you're at the main entrance, take your time to just enjoy the beautiful view of Laguna Amarga. Next, I will take the which will take me from Laguna Amarga to the Welcome Center. From the Welcome Center, it's a short walk to Hotel Las Torres and Camping Central. You can stay at either of these places for night one. I ended up staying at Las Torres Hotel and just took a day pack with me for the hike. Once you depart from the hotel, the trail to the tower is very well marked and trafficked. Don't worry about getting lost here. Even though I was hiking alone, I was able to find many hikers along the who helped me take pictures. We're just walking together. Along the way, you'll pass by beautiful mountain ridges, beach forests, valleys, and rivers. I was told by everyone it's completely safe to drink the water from the park. So I refilled my bottle often from the stream. I personally had no problem with drinking the water from the river. I will also say most of the trail was not too difficult except the last part where you will hike over a huge mass of boulders. But soon you'll be greeted with the iconic Mirador Bay de Las Torres. Many people have lunch here before heading back. I will recommend you to stay as long as you can because it's so beautiful here. So on this route, you will also pass Camping Chilano, which is another affordable lodging option for day one. You can also stop here for food or drink on your way up and down. Once I arrived back at the hotel, the hotel staff already put my backpack in my room. It was such a luxury to be able to sleep in a warm bed and soak in the bathtub after a full day of hiking. The hotel is beautiful with live music. You can also have a delicious three-course meal here for around $30. Just remember to ask for the camping special. Of course, there's no better way to end your first day than with the Chilean national drink, pisco sour. Remember when you're in Patagonia, you also have to try the calafate sour. The calafate is a deep purple berry that's commonly found in the Patagonia region and they often make various drinks with it, such as the calafate sour and the calafate ale. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to day two of the W Trek. I woke up pretty late today. Apparently, it rained in the morning because when I walked out of the hotel, I saw the most beautiful rainbow. The whole sky was lit up and painted gold. It felt very magical and very surreal. My hotel stay included a buffet breakfast and it was delicious. You can also get a lunch from the hotel as there won't be any stopping points for lunch along the way. So the itinerary for day two will start from Hotel Las Torres and continue along Lake Nordensholt until I reach Camp Francis, which is where I will sleep for the night. The sun came out after the rain and it looks like it's going to be a great day for hiking. Wow, this is so pretty. You won't be walking for too long before you reach the beautiful view of Lake Nordensholt. The milky blue glacial lake against the fall colors is simply breathtaking. As you walk along the lake, you'll pass by the Cuernos Camp. This is another campsite you can stay for the night. The cozy wooden lodges look so cute against the backdrop of the mountain. However, this campsite was closed when I went because not all campsites are open during low season. The campsite also gets its name from the famous Las Cuernos, which means horns in Spanish and it's easy to see why. At this point, the weather started to change. It's wild to experience sun, rain, followed by winds that could blow you over. The Chileans I was hiking with taught me how to say strong wind in Spanish and I used it a lot that day. Finally, I arrived at Camp Francis right before dark. At Camp Francis, you can either camping a tent or sleep in a dormitory style dome. Tonight for dinner, I had some ramen that I brought along for the trip. You can ask for hot water for free at the campsite, so ramen is a great option to on the hike as it's pretty lightweight, but definitely a downgrade from the night before. Alright, good night. I'll see you on day three. Good morning. Today, we head to the famous French Valley. Because the valley is in between two big mountains, Las Cuernos and Pond Grande, it's somewhat of a wind tunnel here. You'll often see the wind sending the water from the lake hundreds of meters into the sky. It almost looks tornado-like. Today, I will walk from Camp Francis to Camp Pond Grande, stopping at the Francis Lookout and the Britannica Lookout. Today is probably the most difficult day on the W-Trek. The hike is around 20 kilometers or 12 miles. From Francis, it's a short walk to the Italiano Ranger Station, where I will leave my big backpack and then continue my hike with a small day pack up to the Francis Lookout. The walk is quite challenging, but well worth it, especially as you arrive at the Francis Lookout. If you sit here long enough, you'll hear the rumble of avalanches as the tip of the W. Now, many people skip the Britannica Lookout to have a shorter hike, but if you have the energy and if it's a clear day, I will recommend going up because you will be rewarded by a beautiful panoramic view of the mountain ranges. It's a great place to just sit and admire the nature in front of you. The descent was much easier and the sun slowly came out. I swear I saw more rainbows on this trek than any other hikes I've been on. After picking up my backpack, I slowly made my way to Camp Pond Grande. Just as I thought I've seen it all, you'll see incredible views of Las Cuernos on this last leg of the hike. I arrived at Pond Grande camp a little before dark. This camp is so much nicer than Camp Francis, and I got my own room and took a nice hot shower. Alright, good night and I'll see you tomorrow. Hello, it's the final day of the W trek. To be honest, I was quite scared to do the W trek as it's my first multi-day hiking trip, but it really went above and beyond everything that I expected. I'm definitely a little sad that it's my last day here. Today my plan is to hike from Pond Grande to Glacier Grey and then come back the same way before taking a ferry and a bus back to the park entrance. The moon was still up in the sky when I started my hike. Soon I reached Lago Grey where you can already see Glacier Grey in the far distance. Next I reached Camping Grey. It's a very fancy campsite, just look at the dining room. I had a quick lunch here before heading to the Glacier Lookout. The lookout is so beautiful I've never seen anything like it. While I was there I met a tour group and they told me someone on their trip had to go back early, so now they have an extra ticket for the Glacier Grey boat that I can have. I gladly took the ticket as this cuts down my hiking time to half, and you also get a boat tour around the glacier. This is an alternative route for day four as you can take a boat directly from Camping Grey versus hiking down to Pond Grande first. On the boat you can see many beautiful views of the Grey Glacier. They also serve a complimentary drink with ice from the Natalis. We even stopped for photos inside the park on the way back. Okay that's it, thanks for joining me on this adventure in Patagonia. I'll be updating soon with how I plan for the hike, so stay tuned.