1.25.2026.

I made it, guys 🙌

The entire W-trek. . . 78 miles in 4 days.

1.25.2026.

Patagonia Adventure - W-trek - Day #4

The final day 🙌 Because Linda had the sugar incident the night before she opted out of the climb to see The Towers. I can't say that I blame her, and honestly, it started raining this day and we could barely make them out when we reached the top anyway 😔

The plan was for her to hike down to the end of the trail and him and I would hike up to finish before meeting her at the finish. There's a hotel at the end so we (I thought) agreed to meet there. More on that later 🤦

Ronny and I started the climb to the Towers and it was drizzling pretty heavy. I used my pack cover on my daypack to try to keep everything semi-dry. It was 2k elevation in less than 2 miles, but it didn't seem as difficult as the day before. There's a point in a backpacking trip where your body adjusts and you just flow into walking without it feeling as strenuous. Today was that day. There was a scramble for the last half a mile. It was a bit challenging just due to the rain creating slippery rocks.

The lake at the top was gorgeous 😍 I can't believe we'd had such sunny weather the first three days and then the day we reach the most iconic spot it's misty 🤦 It was still a cool place to be. We only stayed up there for a little bit then headed down to the Refugio to grab out big packs and start the trek down to the finish.

We made really great time this day so we reached the hotel almost 2 hours earlier than we had planned. The hotel was a super fancy hotel (we had no idea when we planned to meet there) and they didn't let hikers in. Ronny showed them pictures of his mom, asking if they'd seen her, and they told us she had gone down to the Welcome Center by the final Refugio.

We hiked the final 2 miles to the Welcome Center but she wasn't there either. And when we showed the staff her picture they said they hadn't seen her. There was no way we passed her and didn't know it. We didn't think she could get lost ( even if she is horrible with directions). We knew she was worried about checking into it Airbnb late, so maybe she tried to get an early bus back to Puerto Notales? We caught a shuttle to the bus pickup and she wasn't there either 🤦 There weren't any other buses for almost 4 hours so we basically had to wait. He has shown her how to add Wi-Fi but we never got any texts from her. . . . UNTIL just before the bus was supposed to leave.

Somehow, who even knows how, she had chosen to walk back up to the hotel to meet us at the same exact time Ronny walked to the Refugio to look for her 🤦 They must have just missed each other somehow. She even ordered food there and they still didn't recognize her when he showed them her picture 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, we still have a 100% return rate, thank goodness. 😂

1.24.2026.

Patagonia Adventure - W-trek - Day #3

Day 3 was haaaaard. My friends were burnt and the sun was relentless all day long. We had a 10 mile, full pack, trip from the Francis Refugio to Chileno with just about 2k feet of elevation to cover before dinner.

The terrain went from dusty to rocky to marshy to walking through streams. Portions of the trail were so windy I had to carry my hat so I wouldn't lose it. It's weird what seeing the trail ahead of you does to your mind. When you can see how steep it is, and how far you have to go, your mind tells you it will be too hard. A lot of the day was like this for my friend. She was blowing through sugar as fast as she was eating it again on this day so we had to make a lot of stops.

We reached the Refugio at Chileno before dinner this time so that was awesome. Even though the day was really hard and long, we still made great time somehow.

Dinner service was SO good. It was a giant piece of salmon in a rice pilaf with tons of veggies. It was the best meal of the trail.

Unfortunately this was the night that my friend's sugar numbers tanked hard and fast. She has an insulin pump and sensor, and for whatever reason she had a ton of insulin on board in her body and her food wasn't catching up fast enough. Her alarm goes off at 75 and tells her to eat something. By the time she found us as the cafeteria she was at 46 with double down arrows. She still has a lot of insulin going in so to combat she chugged 2 full sugar Cokes, 7 glucose tablets, and half a package of Skittles just to even it out. If you have diabetes you'll understand just how dangerous that really is, and how much sugar that actually is going in. Needless to say we didn't sleep very well that night because we needed to make sure she didn't spike high, or have another drastic drop.

The third day was, by far, the most difficult and exhausting because of all of these things.

1/25/2026

Patagonia Adventure - W-trek - Day #1

We started the W-trek in Torres del Paine on Thursday with an early bus ride (3hrs 🥴) and a 45 minute boat ride to our first Refugio at Paine Grande. To stay on track with time/days we needed to finish the hike to Grey Glacier this day even though we didn't end up arriving to base until after 11. Check in wasn't until 2:30 though. They let you leave your big packs in a locker so you don't have to carry them the entire way if you want to do the glacier hike.

We packed our day packs and headed off to try to complete the 14 miles (they say! It's further) before dinner. It was supposed to be raining every day we were doing this trek, but it didn't. The sun is SCORCHING here. The UV is so high. I'm the only one who actually gets tan in my group, and somehow I'm the only one who brought sunscreen 🤔 My friends both got extremely burnt right off the bat.

The hike was gorgeous! The terrain is pretty rugged and a lot of the trail is narrow. It was pretty crazy to see all the ice chunks just floating in the lake when it was so so hot out.

Grey Refugio was at the top of the hike so we refueled with snacks, coffee, and water there before heading back to our base. We were late for dinner, but they still fed us thankfully. This camp was really loud compared to the other places we ended up staying so it was my least favorite. But, man, it is a pretty awesome part of the world.

3 Ways to do the Famous W Trek in Torres del Paine

Trekking season in Patagonia is upon us! Read on to discover three different ways to do the famous W Trek in Torres del Paine with us this season. Self-Guided with Rifugios (basic)EcoCamp (comfortable)Explora (luxury) 1) Self-guided 5-Day Patagonia: Traditional W Trek in Torres del Paine (Staying at Refugios) Traditional W-Trek in Torres del Paine, Patagonia This is the most traditional way…

Our final hiking day was to see wildlife and with some luck a view of the Torres from afar.   So we hiked across open range past herds of guanacos. Watching the adults hop over the fences, leaving the youngsters behind on the other side.  They didn’t seem concerned to leave them there, but the guides noted all the guanaco skeletons near the fence and said it was a favorite hunting ground for pumas.  

We spotted a fox in between the rocks, hiding under bushes.  

The end point of the hike were some old paintings on the rock walls above the plain.  

Next was a stop on the shore of a lake with a view across to the Torres.  The weather was perfect again!  

On the way back to EcoCamp we were surprised to stop at a waterfall none of us had ever heard of.  It was quite a cascade with a view of the Torres beyond. 

 The day ended with everyone feeling great about the experience, and a golden glow at sunset.

The next morning we woke to a beautiful, if cloudy sunrise.

But the skies were clearing as we headed up into the mountains.  

As we headed out the weather was the best we had seen for a while, a good sign.

Going up we crossed the river and side streams, with some nice waterfalls.

As we got into the valley, it was clear, but the peaks ahead were still in hazy clouds.  

 As we continued the clouds kept clearing.  

By the time we made the turn to head up the valley walls it was looking good and spirits were high!  

As we headed through the boulder field the guides came running back saying, “It’s clear, hurry!”   We of course were already “hurrying” as much as we could up the scree slope.

When we got to the cirque with the towers above it was perfect: the towers were clear with puffy clouds for a backdrop.  

Now the earlier windy, rainy, cold periods didn’t matter, it was clear and sunny on our big day, so all was right with the world.  

As we sat there we watched an 18 year old out on the lake hopping from rock to rock, wondering what it would be like to have energy, and balance, like that again.