The Path to Patagonia (W Trail: Day 1)
Word of the Day: Polola
noun. Cheerful-sounding Chilean word for girlfriend that, as far as I know, is used nowhere else in the Spanish-speaking world.
Today’s post assumes that you successfully reached Punta Arenas, hopped on your connecting bus to Puerto Natales, and finally found yourself on the bus from Puerto Natales into the park. As if that weren’t enough, I’m also assuming that you, like us, have decided to hike the W trail from West to East. East to West is a perfectly reasonable route to follow, but it seemed smarter to give ourselves more time at the end near Las Torres in case the weather decided not to cooperate or other unforeseen circumstances were to befall us. After all, traveling in shoulder season is always a bit of a gamble.
I’m going out on a limb here, but I am also assuming that we are kindred spirits and that you will also have an unhealthy fascination with the alpine meadowland guanacos, the tall, awkward cousins of the llama. In my mind’s eye, I can still see them prancing clumsily in the foreground of the aloof, untouchable vista of Torres del Paine.
In any case, once you’ve experienced the guanacos, you will soon arrive at Pudeto. This is your stop. You now have 30 minutes to book it up a hill to Salto Grande–so jam your packs under a bush and get started immediately. A short note here, Chileans apparently call waterfalls saltos (the term I’m more familiar with is cascada, but whatevs). Despite a sneaking suspicion that Chileans are just making up words, you will take in the beautiful waterfall, which was gloriously wreathed in a rainbow when we arrived. Then you will walk a little further up the hill and realize how small you really are in comparison to the surrounding mountains. And then you will wonder (apprehensively) if you were not a bit crazy to want to climb all over them for the next week.
The next step will be to descend and hop onto the catamaran, which will take you across the water to the Paine Grande trailhead. I highly suggest riding outside for the first part of this journey, given that it is a spectacular photo opportunity. Also, I just really like boats, reflections of mountains on water, and the feeling of wind in my hair. Enough of this. Now that the boat has docked, and since you are a seasoned Patagonia backpacking expert, you will take your pack off of the top of the pile and go. Seriously though, you do not want to be at the bottom of that pile or you will be stuck behind all the slow walkers for the afternoon — plan your boat entry accordingly.
The first part of the day will wind you through a beautiful field and up an incline to Lago los Patos (Duck Lake). I highly suggest taking your lunch break there given that the view is spectacular. From there, you will wind through forested areas, rocky steppes, and a former glacial plane to arrive at Refugio Grey (our home sweet hostel for the night). Super simple, right? Perhaps.
The first lesson you learn on the W trail is that distances are measured in hours. Instead of measuring your steps, you instead realize that the difficulty to traverse the terrain is the true unit of measure, which has a corresponding effect on time. At first, it was disconcerting to lose the comforting concept of distance–but then I realized that, as an American born and bred, kilometers have no meaning to me anyway.
The second thing you learn, is that no matter how good you think you are back home at hiking, you are probably just mediocre here. If even that. The fastest hikers we saw were two middle-aged German ladies, who were practically running down the trail with their enormous packs. I tried not to take it personally, but yeah, I was out of my depth here.
Your third–and most important–epiphany will be that the water in the streams criss-crossing the trail is drinkable. Not only is it drinkable, it is also plentiful. So yeah, you probably bought a fancy canteen for this trip, but a Solo cup would have been more than adequate. You will soon start identifying the tried-and-true badasses by the increasingly diminutive sizes of their drinking vessels. In fact, my personal trail hero held a tiny mug in her hand–pinkie out–while gesticulating her point to her companion as she hiked down the trail. Style points to Switzerland.
After some unspecified distance (perhaps 11 km), you will arrive at Refugio Grey. The menu del dia is as follows: Lentil Soup, Chicken, and Faux Flan. All in all, not bad at all. We were even able to sneak in some light reading at the edge of Glacier Grey.
That night we made friends with an English couple who were on an epic South American adventure, a group of NorCal people (represent!) who quit their jobs and were traveling South America, and our two hapless roommates who would stick with us for the entirety of trip (more about them later!). We also watched the sunset, went star-gazing, and had the room right outside of the wood stove, so life was good for this polola.
April 5, 2015