I was not born an athlete. And neither am I one now. So how was I going to carry a backpack with food, water and clothes for a 5 day trek in one of the world’s best national parks, self-guided? Was I fit enough? Was I emotionally strong enough? Could I even carry my backpack and walk for hours each day? What if I got lost? I was scared. I am not a very brave person. In fact, I am scared of almost everything. But you see, I have this great thirst for adventure and exploration, thanks to all the Enid Blyton books I grew up reading as a kid! (If you haven’t heard of her, read the Wishing Chair or The Magic Faraway Tree and then drop me a note on what you thought)! So even though I was scared, I wanted to see with my own eyes, this place I had heard so much about. So, I decided to attempt it. I decided to confront my fears of a self-guided trek to Torres Del Paine, and discover for myself if I was capable of such a physical challenge.

How to Get to Torres Del Paine

I booked a flight to Santiago, the capital of Chile using Expedia. I found a hostel on hostel.com that happened to have the most beautiful rooftop and an incredibly welcoming vibe. I spent a night here before flying out the next day to Punta Arenas, a three hour 20 minute flight. (Jan-Mar you can fly directly to Puerto Natales). From Punta Arenas, I took a bus to Puerto Natales, anywhere between $6-$16 and about three hours away. At the bus station I booked my ticket to the Torres Del Paine Park for the next day. I spent the remainder of the day walking around the tiny town of Puerto Natales and spent the night in a cute hostel called Tin Hostel Patagonia. The bus ride the next day was a three hour ride to Laguna Amarga. The entrance to the Torres Del Paine park is $30. From here we took the catamaran via Lake Pehoe to the Paine Grande Refugio, which took about one and a half hours.

DAY 1: The Grey Glacier

Upon arriving, my friends and I loaded up our backpacks and began the trek which was about 6.8 miles to Refugio Grey (a traditional hiker’s hut with beds, showers and food). The path to Refugio Grey is fairly simple and straightforward, without much incline. There is only one path to the refugio, so you can’t really miss the trail. My biggest fear with trekking the Torres Del Paine, self-guided, is veering off the trail, and not having signs that can guide you back. But what makes the W circuit doable for someone like me is that the trails are pretty easy to navigate. I saw a handful of people on the way but there were plenty of moments where it was just us on the trail and it felt safe.

Tip: On the way, there is a little lookout point from where you can see the spectacular beginnings of Glacier Grey. If you don’t feel like stopping, keep going, you will get a closer look later on. It is SUPER windy here so make sure to zip up your jackets, wear gloves and have a beanie, as it can be very cold at this particular point.

Lesson 1: Never attempt to start a new hike when the light is fading

Once we arrived at Refugio Grey around early evening, we checked into our dorm rooms which I found surprisingly clean and well maintained. After a small snack, we stepped back out again to begin the short hike to the Mirador, a viewpoint to see the magnificent Glacier Grey, a gigantic ice field that can be seen up close and personal via a boat tour or even via glacier trekking. We didn’t make it to the Mirador because we kind of got scared and it was too late in the day. The hike is a little uphill and we got as far as the suspension bridge. It looked super long and even though I fought against my rapidly beating heart to go onto the bridge, I only made it halfway on the shaking contraption before we all turned back. The lesson here is to go to the Mirador early next morning before leaving the Refugio so you can take your time and cross the suspension bridge if you have a fear of heights.

Tip: Bring ear plugs if you’re a light sleeper like me, as you’ll be more than likely sharing a room with one or more hikers.

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Day 2: Leisure hike to Refugio Paine Grande

The second day of trekking Torres Del Paine’s W circuit is really just a back tracking of your day 1. Your job is to get back to Refugio Paine Grande, from where you first started the hike. A pleasant three and a half to four hours later we easily self-guided our way back to Refugio Paine Grande which has a beautiful large dining room by the way. In case you’re wondering what we did for food, we paid for full board when booking the refugios, which means you have breakfast at the refugio, carry a packed lunch on the hike and eat dinner once you reach your next refugio for the night. I had a hot shower, and spent the day relaxing in the common room playing board games, and then took part in the buffet dinner in the dining room before retiring early for the night. I contemplated on how carrying my own backpack with food, water, and clothes hadn’t been so bad. I wore the same clothes pretty much every day (with the exception of my sports bra and tops that I changed out) and the food and water got consumed along the way, so overall having to carry my own pack was not a show stopper and quite doable. I hadn’t realized I was capable of this.

Tip: Only pack what is absolutely necessary. You don’t need water purification tablets for this hike. You can drink water safely from streams. You don’t need a change of clothes everyday. I also trained for this hike by carrying a loaded backpack on my local hikes near my home on the weekends for at least two months prior to this trip. If you can’t hike near your home, just walk at least 2-4 hours several times a week with a backpack filled with clothes and books.

Day 3: The hardest day

Before trekking Torres Del Paine, I had done the most popular of the hikes in South America, the 4 day Macchu Pacchu guided trek in Peru. And since this hike in Chile, I have hiked a few more times and realized there is always that one day that every hike touts as the hardest. In the W Circuit, this would be the third day of the five day hike. On day three we were hiking a total of 9.3 miles until we would reach our refugio for the night, at Los Cuernos. Starting early was key, this much even I knew. The refugios open for breakfast pretty early by 7:30am so post breakfast we started walking to Italian Camp around 9am which is about 2.5 hours away. The hike started bright and sunny with beautiful lake Pehoe shimmering on our right for company. As we journeyed north and then east, basically continuing on a circular path around Paine Grande, the rain started. My REI gear came in handy and I put on both my rain pants and my rain shell with hoodie to keep me dry. And boy was I dry. My water proof Vasque boots were no less perfect and together with my backpack rain proof cover, I really was quite cozy and warm hiking in the now pelting rain. So far so good. By the time we got to Italian Camp, the rain had subsided. Little did we know, this was just the calm before the storm.

Tip: Get the best rain gear possible, because hiking in cold, wet conditions isn’t fun, and worse if you get sick, you are in the middle of nowhere and still have to complete the trek. I highly recommend REI or Outdoor Research or Backcountry for your gear. The wind can sometimes go up to 100mph, so use a garbage bag to line up the backpack from the inside as the rain cover on the backpack might blow away.

Hiking the French Valley

At the Italian Camp we left our backpack at the rangers office, ate half our lunch, drank some water and asked the ranger if it was safe to hike into the famed Valle Del Frances (French Valley). The path ahead looked gloomy, wet and cloudy. The ranger said he didn’t recommend it as the weather forecast wasn’t good but that we could hike as far as we could comfortably and return if visibility was poor. After having flown 15 hours from San Francisco and trained for two months, we felt the least we could do was to go on a little bit of the trail and see what we could see. So we ventured on the trail, past huge boulders and came across the Frances glacier and sat there in awe, basking in the view. We were lucky to watch what seemed like a snow avalanche, although the thundering sound it made was a bit scary. We continued on past the large boulders, climbing our way up through dense forest, with the glacier fed Frances river roaring to our left. The weather was cloudy and cold but visibility was okay. For now.

Bad Weather Ahead

Filled with adrenaline and an eagerness to explore, we decided to keep going. A small rise ahead soon took us to an opening from where you can see gorgeous views of lake Nordenskjold and the mountains and glaciers of Paine Massif. 3 hours of climbing up a steep path later (I almost slipped a few times, caught on to a rope once or twice and my friend gave me his hand once), we made it into the French Valley. There was no one else here. The trail ends with a climb to the Britanico lookout, from where we could see panoramic views of the surrounding peaks. It wasn’t a clear day but the confusion of cloud swirls just added to the mysterious environment around us. It was truly awe inspiring and magical, like being on a different planet. And then the sun shone. We reveled in the warmth, taking pics, each of us silently grateful for being able to witness this beautiful part of Earth. Finally we decided to not push our luck and head back. But alas, we had indeed pushed our luck a wee bit by now.

We couldn’t find our Refugio for the night!

For this hike into the French Valley, we should have packed a snack and some water. But in our defense we hadn’t intended to go far. Big mistake. We ended up hiking for about 3 hours till we got to the top and then it took us another 2.5-3 hours to come back down through the boulders, our knees taking a brutal beating. On the way back, the hail began. And I didn’t have my gloves because I was trying to pack a light backpack and October was technically Spring so I figured I didn’t need them. Patagonia is a little trickster that way – it can go from spring, fall, summer to winter in one day. If there is nothing else you takeaway from this article, just remember that. So here we were with no food or more importantly no water. I was scared as we hiked silently back as fast and as safely as we could through the hail. Visibility was quite poor and I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to make out the path down. Coming down the boulders was no small feat either. I stayed optimistic and still reminded myself to appreciate the beauty around me. We managed to make it back to Italian Camp. By now it was 6pm. We had yet to make it to the second half of our hike – our Refugio for the night. As we walked, the skies cleared up and it was impossible to ignore the vast beauty that surrounded us. Towering peaks, glaciers, springtime flowers and blue/grey skies. We soon started an upward climb that took us through dense forest and then down to a beach. Welcome to the stunning Lake Nordenskjold. We were the only ones on this self-guided W trek it seemed, for we saw no one else on this route. We walked through the beach, now getting worried because we saw absolutely no signs for the Refugio. We just saw dense forest to our left and the lake to our right.

Tip: Always take water and a small snack even if you think you’re only going to go a short distance. You never know when you might decide to hike further and if bad weather hits, it might take you longer to get back

Lesson 2: Leave early if you have a long day ahead

We kept walking and followed the path as it began to climb upward again into what looked like more forest. The light began to fade, it was almost 8pm now. We started talking about what to do if we didn’t see our Refugio soon. I couldn’t even spot it looking ahead – no roof peeking out – nothing. And we didn’t have flashlights either because we did not anticipate this. We picked up our pace. I just didn’t understand why there were no signs here. There was one path I saw to the right and we debated if we should go there. Call it intuition or maybe we were guided, but we decided to go straight. I realized what a stupid thing we had done, not carrying a flashlight. What if there were wild animals here? Yet even through my fear, I surrendered to the journey, accepted that things were happening exactly as they should. And just as it turned 9pm and the light had all but faded, we spotted the lights from the Refugio. My fear turned to gratitude. As we walked into the reception, the front desk told us they were just about to call a search party for us! Leave earlier than you think you need to if you are going to have a particularly long day. Our day three was the longest, hence we should have probably packed up our breakfast and left by 7:30am instead of 9am.

Lesson 3: Take an anti-inflammatory if you start feeling pain

If any part of your body becomes inflamed with pain, it’s okay to take an anti-inflammatory to help the inflammation subside. If I had just taken an Advil, my knee pain might have subsided, but instead it got worse, even though I iced it, and I ended up having to just surrender to this pain for the rest of my hike on day 4 and day 5.

Tip: Ask the refugios for an ice pack if any part of your body becomes physically inflamed.

Day 4: The day before the final ascent

Today we were hiking around 8 miles to Refugio El Chileno. This was our last stop before we got to see what we came for – the Torres Del Paine or the three peaks. Our self-guided W hike to El Chileno was fairly uneventful. We saw glimpses of wildflowers, the gorgeous peaks towering around us, and wide expanses of grassy fields with no one in sight for ages. We talked, we sang songs, and hiked in silence amazed at our surroundings. As we approached the refugio, there is a tiny patch you have to cross that’s a drop off. I literally froze with fear here and it was difficult to take the next step. But after a few minutes I talked myself out of it and gingerly, very slowly, put one foot in front of the other and made it to the other side. I surrendered.

Day 5: The ascent to see the Torres Del Paine

After much debate about what time to get up to hike the base of Torres Del Paine, we decided to head up there for sunrise. The hostel folks will look up the timings for sunrise and advise when you should start your trek. We decided to leave by about 4:30am even though we were warned it was going to be cloudy. We met a few other folks who also said they wanted to join us. It was finally a total of only 4 that set off at 4:30am in the morning. The moonlight paved the way and I felt a little scared but was assured that the path up was straightforward and we couldn’t miss it. Half way up the steep climb, it started to snow. It snowed so much that the trail got covered and we had no idea where we were going. I was scared but I had no choice but to surrender to the moment.

Getting Lost

I was stunned when I saw the other three just put one foot in front of the other as they kept walking. Without complaining. Without debating. I wanted to stop, discuss if we should continue, there were no rangers anywhere to talk to, was this even safe to hike in snow? At times we couldn’t make out anything. We were lost! We didn’t even have snow shoes! Now I had read you had to climb through boulders to get to the top. But the boulders were covered in snow. We caught glimpses of the boulders underneath the snow at some point, and we knew we were going the right way but imagine, we could have just as easily stepped into a gap and twisted our ankle or fallen. But watching my friends plow forward steadfastly, I had to surrender and just trust everything would be okay. We finally made it to the top but due to the snow and hail, the visibility was really poor. Still, we drank in the sight in front of us. I was frustrated and deeply disappointed I couldn’t see the three peaks we had come for. I have to admit, the cloud cover still made it other worldly. My hands were now starting to freeze.

We finally Made It!

We decided we had to turn back, there was no waiting out the weather at this rate in the hopes that visibility would improve. It was scary heading back since the falling snow had wiped out our footprints. One wrong move and we’d be tumbling down the mountainside. The white soaring peaks around us were so huge, it sent frissons of fear in me. But I looked down, focused on putting one foot after the other and using my poles, made my way down. We heaved a sigh of relief as we got down the rocky bouldering part and made it to flat ground. The snow had stopped and made it easier for us to navigate our way back to the Refugio. From this point, we hiked another few hours to where the bus would pick us up and take us out of the park. I pretty much limped my way down and out of the park as my knees were hurting pretty badly by now thanks to day 3 and our escapades at the French Valley portion of the hike. But I had a whopping grin on my face, a sense of accomplishment, a new confidence brimming from the awareness that I, the non-athletic brown girl, was capable of this multi-day self-guided W trek in the Torres Del Paine, and felt immense gratitude for this incredible journey that had taught me how to surrender.

Lesson 4: Gear essentials & scheduling

Don’t sacrifice critical items like gloves & poles. Ever. You never know when the weather is going to turn for the worse, and being equipped could mean the difference between life and something more serious. Also, give yourself an extra day so that if there is bad weather you don’t have to still attempt your final hike. If we had had another day at this last refugio, we might have waited and attempted the final hike to the top later. The weather might have cleared and the view might have looked very different.

Lesson 5: Surrender

Hiking teaches me to surrender and shows me that I am capable of anything I put my mind to. And over time, I have learnt to apply that to my daily life, when self-doubt creeps in and where things don’t always go according to plan. We plan and meticulously plot our day to day, but sometimes, there’s something else in store for us. It’s how we react to that “something else” that defines us in that moment. Trekking Torres Del Paine taught me to surrender to the moment and just enjoy it no matter what my expectation of the outcome was. I realized even though the ending was not what I desired, the journey of this multi-day trek will always remain firmly in my memory. Joyfully so. And in the end, isn’t that what we all really want? Joyful memories, lessons learnt, and the awareness that we can achieve whatever we want to in our lives?

Since this hike, I have attempted several multi-day hut-hut hikes so yes I can confirm a non-athletic brown girl like me can indeed undertake such physical challenges and be successful! So what’s next? Well…I’ve set my sights on Kilimanjaro in Africa! And yes, I am scared. But I’ve learnt not to let that stop me. This time I will be taking a small group with me so if you wish to join me, please leave me a comment below and I’ll be in touch!