Torres Del Paine

The hike can be broken down a few different ways. The first and most popular is the “W” (3-5 days), where you will stay on the frontside of the park and experience a lot of foot traffic. The second version of the hike is the “O” (8-10 days), which leads the hiker around the circumference of the park. We did a combination of both ways in not even 6 days, but I would recommend you to do it in 10 or 11 days.

Unfortunately, I lost nearly all my footage from this trip because one of my SD cards “burnt” and i could not recover them (always back up your pictures!)

It´s hard to describe the beauty of this place. I grew up in the bavarian alps and we also have beautiful lakes and mountains –  but Patagonia is insane. Every lake there has another color, the glaciers, the mountain peaks, the best drinking water… it´s unbelievable. I wanted to write a picture story about that trip but now I can just provide you some basic information and a few pictures. If you plan a trip like this remember that the national park Torres del Paine has its own micro climate – from strong sun to heavy snow falls and winds up to 100 km per hour.

Minimum Pack List:

• Clothes for sunny and rainy weather
• Warm sleeping bag ( Our minimum temperature in January was 0°)
• Camping Gear and Gas Cooker
• tent
• Food ( Pasta, Can Tuna for Smoked Tuna Patagonia Stile ;), Tomato Sauce,Rice, 5 minute noodles/Soup)
• Energy Booster (Nuts!, Mate tea, Dried Fruits, Gatorade powder)
• Headphones/Boombox and a mp3 player (helps you to walk on beat)

If you are hiking with a group (highly recommended, never walk alone!) , you can devide the food and camping equipment /tent on more backpacks and it doesn´t get ultra heavy. Nevertheless, we had a start weight of 20-23kg each (every day a bit less).

Check the weather before you start your trip .If you want to do the O also check if the alpine pass is open (when I was there it was closed due to heavy snow falls and opened just one day before we arrived there). Every second camp is for free or quite cheap ( less than 10$ per night) and also offers basic food and snacks (expensive).

If you are planning to take a plane down to Punto Arenas and you have friends in Chile, check the local website of the flight companies to get incredible cheap rates (you have to pay with an Chilean passport number and book with your regular passport number): I got flights from Santiago de Chile- Puerto Mont –  Punto Arenas and Punto Arenas – Puerto Mont together for only 69$!

For me, the trip down to Patagonia was not planned but I do not regret one second. If you have the chance to do it, do it! Have fun in paradise!