Puerto Natales is one of the most southern settlements on the planet, genuinely the edge of the world, and the gateway to the W Trek, one of the most iconic multi-day hikes anywhere. We got up later than planned and properly sprinted for the bus, the exact opposite of the relaxed start we'd promised ourselves.

The scramble to actually get there

Ticket and passport checked at the terminal, then onto the bus to Laguna Amarga, followed by a second shuttle to the welcome centre where the trail properly begins. It's a bit confusing the first time, but easy enough once you realise everyone around you is walking in exactly the same direction. The welcome centre itself surprised me, a proper building selling gear and snacks, not the shed I was expecting this far into a national park.

East to west, hardest part first

You can hike the W in either direction. We went east to west, tackling the steep climb to the base of the towers first, not entirely by choice, it was the only direction with campsite availability on our dates, but it worked out well in the end. First stop after the welcome centre was Hotel Las Torres, an actual proper hotel out here, with horses saddled up for guided rides across the grassland in front of it.

Hotel Las Torres with horses in the grassland outside, Torres del Paine

Hotel Las Torres, horses saddled up for rides across the grassland.

Someone at our hostel had mentioned this stretch of trail as one of the better spots to see wildlife, pumas especially, though genuinely rare. Eyes peeled the whole way, we crossed into the Ascencio Valley over the first of many footbridges, glacial water rushing underneath.

Crossing the Ascencio Footbridge over glacial rapids on the W Trek

The Ascencio Footbridge, glacial rapids running underneath.

The cheese sandwich disaster

Somewhere around here we realised the cheese sandwiches I'd carefully made the night before were still sitting in a fridge back in Puerto Natales, meant to be both today's lunch and tomorrow's. A full meal plan rejigged on the spot, mildly stressful at the time, mostly funny in hindsight. The trail itself didn't care either way, open meadows giving way to a path skirting steep, weathered cliffs, the valley getting bigger every time we looked back.

Forest trail alongside the Ascencio River on the way to Camp Chileno

The valley kept getting bigger every time we looked back.

Chileno, and a decision that would define the whole trip

Two hours later we reached Camp Chileno, tucked into forest against granite cliffs, genuinely felt like riding into a frontier town after a day on the trail. Lunch was oats, dried fruit, raisins and an improvised melted Snickers bar for taste, alongside a proper drip coffee, before dumping our big bags and heading straight back out for the base of the towers, no rest day built in here.

Bowl of oats with dried fruit at Camp Chileno on the W Trek

Oats, dried fruit, and an improvised melted Snickers, the standard trail lunch.

Mirador Las Torres, the most iconic spot in Chilean Patagonia, is famously unpredictable, cloudy and unreliable more often than not. Rather than gamble everything on one visit, we made the call to hike up that same afternoon, keeping the option of a second attempt at sunrise the next day if it didn't pay off. Not something most people doing the W bother with, but we were about as far from home as it's possible to get, and it felt wrong not to try.

A cloudy first look, and still unbelievable

The final push is a relentless rocky staircase, huge boulders and broken granite the whole way up, slowing everyone around us to a crawl. The towers were shrouded in cloud when we arrived, but even half-hidden, the scale of the granite cliffs and the glacial lake beneath them was something else entirely, waterfalls streaking down bare rock into water so blue it barely looked real.

Waterfalls streaking down granite cliffs at the base of Torres del Paine

Waterfalls streaking down granite, even with the towers hidden in cloud.

We shared food and water with fellow hikers who'd run short of both, sat with the view for close to an hour, and generally understood exactly why this exact spot ends up on every postcard of Chilean Patagonia.

Celebrating reaching the base of the towers on the W Trek, Torres del Paine

Made it to the base of the towers, cloud and all.

The highest tent in camp

Back down to Chileno, the descent somehow always feels worse than the climb, noodles for dinner, and a discovery that our tent was the highest of all the pre-erected ones in camp, up a small ladder to reach it. Surprisingly roomy inside, easily big enough for four, sleeping bag and pillow already waiting for us.

Inside the roomy pre-erected tent at Camp Chileno on the W Trek

The highest tent in camp, and surprisingly roomy inside.

Showered, and in bed early, because the plan for tomorrow was to get up in the dark and hike this exact same climb again for sunrise. Nobody else we met at camp was doing this. In hindsight, it was a very interesting decision. If you want to see how that turned out, or how the rest of the trek unfolded, I've written up every day.