006: The Road To The W
And yes, I share how much it cost us.
Just before we flew out to Argentina, I threw a wobbly.
During this wobbly, I defiantly told Harry that I wasn’t going to do it. The ‘it’ of the matter was one of the main reasons we’d decided to go away: the W Trek.
The W Trek, much like the North Coast 500, is a bit of marketing genius – for the unacquainted, it is a 46 mile (well, 63 mile for us somehow) multi-day hiking route that draws a nice little ‘W’ pattern around some of Chilean Patagonia’s best landscapes. When you Google it, you’ll be treated to imagery that looks like its AI-generated.
My protestations were numerous - some more reasonable than others - but the top three went something like this:
I’m a pilates girlie not a hiking girlie – why on earth would I sign myself up to this?;
I hate anything that involves an uphill climb of which there would be many on the route;
Camping? Me? Right now?
I run cold so I’m drawn to the heat, however, Patagonia’s weather is unpredictable and at this time of year, chilly. The gentle trolling of the weather apps gave me the fear that I’d spend 5 days freezing my arse off and being a soggy mess;
And last but not least, a perennial worry that simmers away at the back of my brain most days relates to having endometriosis – a condition which means that if the timelines clash, I may not feel like walking 12 miles in a day. Or I may feel like doing it but I’ll be extra moany which is no fun for anyone involved…
Thankfully, Harry understood that this reluctance was par for the course – he’s seen me gayly sign myself up for things before proceeding to have an almighty panic just before crunch time. Knowing this pattern of behaviour well, he said some comforting words and then continued to set about packing sleeping bag liners, hiking socks and waterproofs.
Knowing that I had only mere hours to turn my frown upside down, I - naturally - turned to TikTok. After watching a few W Trek vlogs (particularly from this TikToker) I came to the realisation that it didn’t actually look that bad so I walked back my refusal to try and sheepishly rejoined Harry in the quest to get ready in time for our flight.
When you’re living in London, to be out in nature means to go to Richmond park and to use your body to its fullest requires going to a gym class that doubles as a sensory overload or god forbid, running a marathon. For us, spending quality time together either meant being on the sofa, on a dog walk (the same one we did multiple times a week) or occasionally out for a dinner. The W was the antithesis of this – it was exactly what I’d been looking for.
While the road to the W may have been marred in self doubt, the route out of it wasn’t. As we sat on the catamaran back to Puerto Natales, each of the worries that I’d had prior to the W had melted away to nothing. I’d proven myself wrong – I was capable of hiking, hills, camping, being cold and sticking it out even when I felt like I had a stick in my side. Yes, there may have been more than one occasion where I lamented why we weren’t the type of people who just went and sat on a beach in the Maldives for our holidays, but there’s still plenty of time for that.
Now, my memory of Patagonia is a ticker tape of beautiful vistas (the sunsets, my god, the sunsets), new friends and faces, and a general feeling of warmth that comes with feeling fulfilled, having rediscovered a smidgen of confidence and with ticking something off that had occupied a corner of your mind for too long – what a beautiful thing that is.
We live and die in our Notes App – from cringeworthy musings about life to words or numbers that no longer have meaning, scrolling through a Notes App is the closest you’ll ever get to reading anyone’s inner thoughts.
While on the W, I started to collect my reflections on the experience –predictably they’re a ramble of silly little observations to more practical advice. Here are the (slightly edited for clarity) things I thought would be of importance one day:
All smart people say dumb things – we witnessed a grown man ask their guide what the ‘dark spots’ were on the glacial lake. The answer? Shadows from the clouds, duh.
You can pay for WiFi, but don’t. Spending this time without access to everything everywhere felt amazing;
Glacier water is truly god tier. Plus, filling up your water bottle from a stream feels unbelievably wholesome;
Every single person who has a dog at home will tell them how much they miss their dog at home (yes, I am the worst offender for this);
Gordon Ramsay has ruined the word ‘wow’;
Packing two categories of socks is mandatory - merino for the day, cashmere for the night darling;
Lululemon Aligns will be comfier but adanola leggings will need less hoiking;
The Refugio dorms will look nice but the consensus is that every room will have a snorer - bring ear plugs;
You still won’t get a full nights sleep even if you’re camping – bring ear plugs;
Almost everyone doing the W will be wearing one item from Patagonia. Our count was only the one: a fleece (classic). Do we all subconsciously feel that we need to bring these items with us on a pilgrimage back to their rightful home? Or is Patagonia truly the best brand for this kind of outdoor activity? I’m undecided;
Harry who is generally the most chilled out person I know will become utterly outraged that the so-called ‘welcome drink’ is a thimble-sized beer (Note: he is still complaining about this);
You need thick soled boots – that £35 pair that you bought from Mountain Warehouse will leave you with bruised feet;
Your campsite (platform) Crocs will cause you to trip over everything;
Don’t underestimate the ‘easy’ or ‘flat days’ of the route – they’re not actually flat, they’re just less hilly than the others;
There will be low moments - the consensus amongst other hikers was that while the sound of nature and silence is optimal, a podcast and/or good playlist will help you out in those especially low moments. I listened to pre-downloaded episodes of this;
You’ll know people by where they come from, not their names – “the Canadian girls”;
You’ll meet people whose lives are dedicated to the outdoors – it might seem like a bus man’s holiday but people who live with big skies will seek even bigger ones;
Iced lattes may not be on the menu but they can definitely be acquired;
And perhaps the most important note of them all, even though you’ll be off your phone for 5 days you will not lose your Duolingo streak.
Unfortunately, to do the W means to open your wallet – it’s not cheap despite it being a trip where you’ll sleep in a tent and only bring one change of clothes.
If you’re interested in doing the W, here’s a full rundown of how and what we booked (and how much it cost):
OUR ROUTE: East to West
We decided to do it east to west – this way the hardest day with the most elevation up to Base Las Torres would be our first. In my mind, this meant that the rest of the time would be plain sailing.
ACCOMMODATION: Premium Camping = £1.4k
After deciding that we were going to do the damn thing, we quickly realised that booking it wasn’t just as simple as clicking ‘confirm’ on booking.com. There are a myriad of accommodation options for the W – luxury accommodation (and I mean, luxury), camping, dorm rooms, bringing all your own equipment etc etc. It is a minefield.
In the end, we opted for the ease of the catered premium camping option which meant that we wouldn’t need to carry a tent, sleeping bags or our own food (bar some snacks). To save money, we didn’t book through an agency and instead, chose to book each element ourselves. This saved us a few hundred quid!
All in all, the premium camping option with catered food cost us just under £1.4k for two people. Let me be the first to say that this is not cheap but by the time we realised the total cost, we were already committed in our minds and hearts. We also knew that Patagonia in general is one of the most expensive areas that we were planning to visit – if we wanted to go there, then we’d have to accept that it would take a good whack to do it properly. What was the point of going to Patagonia if we weren’t going to throw ourselves into it both literally and financially?
The campsites in the park are run by two companies, Vertice and Las Torres so if you’re self-booking like we did you’ll need to make your bookings across two different websites. We stayed at:
Central and Frances (run by Las Torres)
Paine Grande and Grey (run by Vertice)
Frances was great – it had the best showers and a nice sunset view over the lake but if you wanted a slightly more premium experience, I’d recommend the nearby Cuernos campsite – the mountain cabins looked super cute, have great views and would be a lovely alternative to camping.
For the amount you pay, the food isn’t anything to write home about but you’re paying for the convenience of having everything (including your washing up) done for you. In hindsight, we may not have gone for the fully catered option as some of the campsites had food that you could buy on the spot – for instance, Paine Grande sold pizzas which were definitely more appetising than the dinner and annoyingly, significantly cheaper.
TRAVEL INTO THE PARKS: Bus + shuttle = £52 + £7.70 = £59.70
Busbud is your best friend when booking buses in South America remotely. You can always just turn up to the bus terminal on the day and I’m sure you’d get a spot, however, for this we wanted to guarantee seats that we would get into the park bright and early. We booked our buses in and out of the park at the same time and the total came to £52 for the two of us.
Once you’re in the park you’ll need to have some cash on hand for the shuttle from the Welcome Centre to Central Camping which costs $5 each (around £3.85 each at the time of writing). They do not give out change (despite everyone paying in cash…).
Harry had taken charge of booking the W but had failed to realise we’d need to take a shuttle from the Welcome Centre to the start of the trail which almost saw us add a hefty few miles onto the first day of hiking…
TORRES DEL PAINE PARK TICKETS = £79.87
Entrance into the park isn’t free – you’ll need to buy tickets ahead of time at this link. For the W you need to buy a 3 day+ ticket which cost us £79.87 for the two at the time of purchasing.
TRAVEL OUT OF THE PARK: Catamaran = £49.14
On our last day, we hiked back from Grey to Paine Grande to catch the catamaran across Pehoe lake to Pudeto which cost us £49.14 for two people.
The boat’s schedule depends on the time of year so check well in advance so you can plan your last day of hiking. We managed to get onto a 5pm boat which meant that our last day was quite relaxed. The bus takes around half an hour and has some insane views that felt well deserved after our last few days of racking up our step count.
Once you make it to Pudeto, you’ll need to organise a bus out from back to Puerto Natales (or wherever you’re staying).
OPTIONAL EXTRAS:
Extra activities:
Depending on how you decide to do the W, you might end up with some free time to kill at the Grey campsite – to make use of this time, you can sign up for some activities like ice hiking and kayaking with BigFoot. Keen to get close and personal with the glacier and its icebergs, we decided to do the kayaking – this cost us £236.38 which again, not cheap, but for me was well worth the memories and the opportunity to truly understand the scale of this wonder of nature.
Rental equipment:
I rented some trekking poles from Rental Natales for the five days for £32.02 – it’s up to you whether you think you need these, I probably used them on only 2 of the days and on and off, however, some people relied on them throughout the whole of the trek;
Extra food and drink;
While Harry and I had opted to book the fully catered food package, that didn’t stop us from buying overpriced snacks, coffees and drinks (of the alcoholic kind) in the park. We spent a hefty £91.40 on extras;
WiFi:
There is no signal in the park, so if you’re addicted to your phone and can’t live without it, then you can purchase WiFi at all of the campsites. If memory serves me, you can either purchase hour-by-hour for the grand total of around £7 an hour or get a 5 day pass for around £60.
In the spirit of the start of this newsletter, I want to know about the last time you ‘threw a wobbly’ (as my mother would say). Notes on a postcard below:
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