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Patagonia

From April 2-6, I took a trip to Patagonia in Southern Chile. It was one of the most beautiful places I have been, and I took it in by doing the W trek (a famous backpacking trip) in 4 days. Here's how it went down:

Day One

• Picked up at 7 am from my house, then flew 9:00 - 12:30 to Punta Arenas
• Bus from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales (a town full of hostels, gear stores, and cool people)
• Arrived at our hostel, Lili Patagonia's
• Dinner close to the hostel with a German friend we met who had just finished the trek. He had terrible weather and we hoped we weren't facing the same fate.
• An evening of laying out all that we had (gear, food, etc) and packing it into our backpacks. I wish I had a photos of this, it was exciting!

For the next few days, this map will be helpful

Day 2

• Wake up early (again), and get on a bus to Pudeto, wait an hour there with coffee before the catamaran will leave.
• Meet Magnus (Dutch) and Joris (German), who met only a week or so before in Brazil, and are now doing the trek together, on the same schedule as us.
• Take the catamaran across the lake, and be blown away by the first good view of the mountains.
• Get off at Paine Grande, where we'll be camping our first night. Set up tents, eat lunch, and see a fox. Marvel at mountains again.
• Hike 6.5 miles out and back to see Grey Glacier. The best part of the W trek, all of the out and backs can be done without your packs, just some layers, snacks, and water. Still, this section had a lot of ups and downs.
• Get turned back about a mile from actually seeing the glacier, because they don't let people leave the viewpoint after 3pm (we totally could have made it back). Still, we could see it from afar, and the hike itself was gorgeous. grey glacier thank you mary, Kate and I's photographer for the trip
• Get back, make rice and lentils, and stretch.
• Meet a couple doing the W trek who rode their bikes here - from ALASKA - this wasn't the first or the last world-traveler we met. Patagonia was full of them, for a good reason.

Day Three

• Wake up just in time to miss the sunrise (oops), and make the first of quite a few oatmeal breakfasts.
• Leah, a Marquette student in my group, had a hard time day one and decided to stay in Paine Grande, and take the catamaran to meet us for the final day hiking to the classic Torres viewpoint.
• Hike with our packs along the lake until the turnoff to the Británico viewpoint, about 5 miles
• Drop our packs, and hike another 4(?) miles up to the Británico viewpoint, where you go deep enough into the mountains that you get a 360 view, including the backside of the Torres glaciers on the mountains Left to Right: Katy, Joris, Claire, Mary, Magnus, Nick, Me, Kate
• End the day hiking downhill, then 2km more to Camp Francés, getting there in the dark and cooking Puré (mashed potatoes)

Day 4

• The most enjoyable (in the moment) hiking. About 10 miles of mostly-flat trail following the lake, ending at the eastern-most point of the trek. This was a wonderful day to soak in the views of the mountains from their base, to look across the lake at the views of the surrounding park (really just as gorgeous), and take a long lunch break with tuna tortillas and a yoga session. the bridges here all had 2-person maximums
• Finish at campground Central, a campground you can hike or drive into. The people here are divided between those who drove in that day and are just beginning, and those that are just finishing their treks heading our direction. You can usually tell who is who by how much they limp as they walk.
• Find Leah!
• Take a glorious shower, eat more rice and lentils, and in bed by 9:30, prepared to wake up for our sunrise trek to the Torres view. I had no problems falling asleep.

Day 5

• Wake up at 3am, grab our packs, prepared the night before, and start the 6 miles of uphill trekking by headlamp. While this was the hardest day of hiking, it was also the most motivating, as we knew we were about to see something wonderful.
• Using all forms of internal motivation, make it to the end at 6:30, a half hour before the start of sunrise, and pick our spots to sit for the show. There are probably 30 other people here. From here, the photos do much better than words. thanks to the campground employee that recommended bringing sleeping bags
• Glorious
• On the way back down, discover a whole new hike in the light
• After making it back to camp, we go almost immediately to the bus to Puerto Natales. There, we celebrate at an Oregonian-owned restaurant, much to the joy of Katy, from Oregon herself.
• Take another bus to the airport, get on a plane back to Santiago that leaves at 11pm, getting in at 2:30 in the morning. My hips felt the stiffest they have in a long while.

En Resumen

This was a trip on everyone's list from the moment we chose Chile. It lived up to every expectation, although I tried not to have many. The scale of the mountains was immense. I felt I could look at them for even the 100th time that day and still be amazed.

It was overall the hardest hiking experience of my life, with the steep uphills, the 4-day length, and the heavy backpacks.

It was also very fun to be in such a world-known travel location. The number of foreigners and world-travelers was at another level. It almost felt like most people in Puerto Natales or on the trek were there as part of a very grand adventure. Almost nobody was coming and going from their home just for Patagonia. We met the couple who biked from Alaska, a guy who made it from Alaska without any plane flights (and was turning around to do the same in reverse), and plentiful Europeans.

I already want to go back and do the O trek, an extended version of the hike.