Torres Del Paine, Chile – O Circuit Part 1

November 1st – November 4th, 2024

We booked this walk about six months prior to our start date, so we had plenty of time to prepare. We only did a few multi day hikes, both three days long, where we learnt the limits of what we could carry, and how it felt to hike an entire day with 18kg on your back. I did a lot of research and spent a lot of money on ultra lightweight gear, and devoted an insane amount of my energy and being to contemplating what we’d eat for nine days.

In my true style, I waited until the day before we started the hike to go out and buy some Bensina Blanca (white gas/lighter fluid) for my camp stove, to find out that 90% of the stores in Puerto Natales were shut due to a public holiday. We ran around all over town for hours asking the few stores that were open if they sold it, no one did. Finally a nice man pointed us in the direction of a hiking store, and we were stoked to find it open. The dude behind the counter kindly informed me that white gas was actually banned inside Torres Del Paine national park, you can imagine my delight. I knew that my MSR stove came with a few adapters, one of which could be used to attach the stove directly on top of a propane gas cylinder, so not all hope was lost. We raced back to our accommodation to figure out how to change the adapters to find out that I didn’t actually have one after all. Eventually I had to hire a small stove and gas cylinder from the dude in the hiking store, which sucked, but I’d imagined the extra money we paid would be worth it to not have to eat raw pasta for nine days.

After buying an incredible amount of food, portioning our trail mix, splitting the weight up between our two packs and double checking everything on one of Rachael’s very long lists, we ate the last bit of red meat we’d be able to for quite some time and went to bed probably a little too late.

Day 1 – Bus to Seron

Waking up around 5am in Puerto Natales to strap on our packs and make the twenty minute walk to the bus stop, I definitely wasn’t expecting to see so many people out and about so early. Backpackers and hikers from all over town were also making their way, sleepy eyed to the bus stop which already had at least ten buses waiting to leave. After growing accustomed to the very late starts in Latin America, it was a big surprise to see so much action so early in the morning.

We’d heard from the host of our Hostel a few days prior that another couple from Sydney around our age were also starting the O on the same day as us. Imagine my surprise when, out of the 100+ people standing there waiting for a bus, an Aussie named Sam glanced our way with a “how ya garn?”. Was this pure luck, or do we stand out that much as Australians? I was impressed but also a little disappointed that I’m that easy to pick out of a crowd. Either way, Sam and his partner, also named Rachael, were lovely and it was great to have a bit of a chin wag while we waited to board our bus.

The two hour drive out to the national park was exciting for a total of about 15 minutes before I fell asleep. Rachael said that looking around the bus you can definitely tell the people who booked the hike from the ones being dragged along. Apparently the landscape was very beautiful in the muted greys and greens in the morning of an overcast patagonian spring day. When I finally awoke, we were passing flocks of Guanacos and circling condors as the mountains we’d be hiking around approached in the distance.

After arriving at the park and boarding a second bus to take us to the beginning of the hike, we tightened the straps on our packs and started our first day of hiking, a cruisy 14km all up. Well, it would have been cruisy, if not for the fact that our packs were insanely heavy with all the food required for a 9 day hike. I know we could definitely have done it lighter, but there was no way I was going to survive on two minute noodles for over a week. Instead, I opted for 1.6kg of spaghetti, 2kg of tuna, 1kg of chorizo, half a kilo of some random hard chilean cheese, 16 tortillas, 6 avocados, 2 onions, 2 heads of garlic, a bunch of bananas, 1.2kg of mixed nuts, a healthy half kilo of salt, assorted spices and a very heavy glass jar of peanut butter . Excessive, but I was optimistic that this would all be very necessary to keep morale high and dissuade either of us from becoming too hangry along the way.

This first day was a simple walk through farmland, with no big hill climbs, but due to the weight of our packs I’m sure it was one of the hardest days we had. We did stop for lunch at a nice lookout over the valley we’d be camping in later that day, and ate a very delicious peanut butter and banana taco each. It took us 4 hours and 20 minutes to arrive at camp, and it was a big relief to kick the hiking boots off and strap on the tevas while we pitched the tent. About an hour after settling in the wind began to start blowing an absolute gale, so a bunch of us that pitched out in the open had to help each other carry our tents across the paddock to a more sheltered spot. I was told afterwards that this was quite the funny sight from the vantage point of the check in area, and admittedly I was giggling like a schoolgirl the whole time four of us were running with our tent close to the ground to try and minimise the impact from the wind.

The designated cooking spot at this campsite was in this tiny, dimly lit marquee barely big enough to fit twenty people inside it, so I obviously struggled not having the usual space I require to cook in. I did impress everyone, however. It was crazy to me how blown away people were that I was sauteing onions and garlic. One bloke took a look at my chopping board and knife and told Rachael that it was the most impressive cooking set up he’d ever seen. I’ll admit, tuna pasta with my homemade Italian spice blend did go down a treat at the end of a big day of walking, and it was without a doubt miles more interesting than anything else anyone was eating. And thus, I quickly earned the reputation of the chef on the trail.

It took me all of about 20 minutes of trying to fall asleep in our tent to realise that my 5 degree sleeping bag wasn’t even close to being warm enough, and we were yet to even get up into the mountains and the snow. The solution was to put all of my layers on, and lay my jackets on top of my sleeping bag, which did help but still wasn’t ideal. Only seven more sleeps to go!

Day 2 – Seron to Dickson

It took us bloody forever to pack all our crap up and get to the point of being able to strap the packs on again, and I’ll admit that after leaving camp nearly last out of 50 or so people, my spirits were low and I was already over it. A few kilometres into the day’s walk we reached a very steep climb, but once reaching the top, the landscape opened up to reveal giant valleys and snaking rivers. This gave me a bit of a boost as I now felt like I was actually out “in it” rather than stumbling along an old goat track along some farmer’s fence. The path would begin to take us around the North end of the circuit, which was getting absolutely ravaged by the wind.

We managed to find a bit of a sheltered spot around the 8km mark, looking out at a glacier in the distance. For lunch we had smashed avo on tortillas with salt and pepper. Surprisingly not that bad for something so simple. While it could have done with a squeeze of lime or a drizzle of tabasco, I did have to draw the line somewhere and go without these usual necessities.

It may have been due to the length of the day’s walk, or the weight of our packs, or both, but for some reason we decided to also eat a few bananas with peanut butter another couple of kilometres down the track. We didn’t know it at the time, but we’d already gone over our ration limits for the day, and in a few day’s time we’d realise we wouldn’t have enough lunch to get us through to the end. It was still a very nice snack though.

We finally reached the campground 18km and nearly 7 hours after we started, which was situated on the corner of a river entering a larger lake. A big iceberg sat in the water, stuck on the river floor at the entrance to the lake, and I skipped some rocks on the water with some more Australians and a couple Germans.

I made tuna pasta again for dinner, but with my Mexican spice blend this time. Yep, Mexican tuna pasta. Sounds odd but it was actually pretty good, maybe even better than the Italian the night before. We got chatting to a really nice couple from Oregon, who actually did the entire two day’s worth of walking in one big 34km day which is insane. They both had an optimism that seemed to rub off on me and put me in a better frame of mind to face the coming days.

Brushing our teeth out in the paddock with mountains and glaciers all around, half a dozen horses strolled up out of nowhere and seemed very intrigued by what we were doing to our incisors, canines and the like. We gave them a pat and wished them the sweetest of dreams, then tucked ourselves in for another cold night.

Day 3 – Dickson to Los Perros

It was raining as we were packing up the tent in the morning. A wet tent added quite a bit of unwelcome weight to my pack, but you get that on the big jobs. Before leaving, we walked back down to the river and noticed that the iceberg had finally been carried away down stream.

After a coffee we hit the trail, which was largely a very long climb, winding through the trees with occasional glimpses of the surrounding mountains at a few view points, before disappearing into the thick growth of the forest once more. Most of this day was a blur of climbing, stumbling over rocks and tree roots and crossing very rickety old bridges over small rapids. We stopped for another peanut butter and banana taco each before making the final, very steep climb up to a glacial lake a few hundred metres from camp.

Occasionally, if the wind was quiet enough, you’d hear the deep, guttural sound of the ice cracking, which felt very special to witness. Camp at Los Perros was hidden among the trees, 13km and five hours from our last camp, and it looked like sunlight had never been able to penetrate the canopy. Luckily the wind helped to dry out our tent before bed time. However, this place was disgustingly cold. It also didn’t help that there was no hot water at all, so I braved a cold water shower before starting on dinner. Tuna pasta!!

I was beginning to grow a bit jealous of the people on the hike that had paid for a tour guide as they didn’t have to carry their own food, and had a meal prepared for them every night. Admiring the empanadas sizzling away in the camp kitchen and imagining how good it would be to eat literally anything but pasta, I walked past the bathroom and spied the cook for the guided tour rinsing a hefty piece of pork loin in the tiny bathroom sink, barely able to keep it clear of the porcelain. Needless to say, this squandered my cravings for anything but the pasta I was carrying myself.

We had an early night, as the following day we had to be up very early in the morning to make it over a pass notorious for its extremely high winds which pick up around 9-10am. Fricking freezing night’s sleep.

Day 4 – Los Perros to Grey

Waking up at 4:30am, it seemed as if the entire campground had all set their alarms for the same time. It was a funny site looking around at all the tents illuminated by head torches in the dark, while people were packing up all their things and getting ready for a monster of a day.

The climb up to the pass started immediately. We were met with an incredibly waterlogged path for the first hour or so of hiking, walking over many makeshift timber boardwalks and handily placed rocks to avoid the ankle deep mud and water. It began snowing shortly after we started walking, and became heavier as we climbed. Eventually we climbed above the tree line and began to walk in deeper snow, with very vague trail markers to guide us in the worsening whiteout.

Our views of the surrounding mountains began to disappear as our ascent through the snow became steeper. We were following the first tracks made by people earlier that morning, and I found it very difficult not to sink down into the snow where it seemed others were able to tread lightly on the surface. This was a very difficult climb, made worse by my seeming incapacity to be able to walk more than two steps without almost sinking through the snow to my waist.

Finally, after nearly four hours of climbing, the skies began to open up as we summited Gardener’s Pass, finally getting our first look at the infamous Grey Glacier. The scale of this thing is off the chain. You can’t wrap your head around the size of it. 6km at its widest point, 30m tall, and 28km long, but the view from the pass renders it impossible to comprehend.

We could have easily stayed up here, staring into the glacier and admiring its increasingly intricate details the longer we looked, if not for the blisteringly cold wind picking up. We had to begin the long, long descent back down the other side of the pass. We both had a few stacks coming down through the snow, including a few incidents where I completely sunk down to my waist, flailing around like a helpless baby trying to wriggle myself free. We eventually made it below the snow line and continued the knee-assaulting descent while getting occasional glimpses at the glacier as we walked alongside it.

Thanks to the falls, today’s lunch avocado was pre-smashed. We found a nice log to sit on amongst the trees and rested our legs for a few minutes. Every time it seemed that we’d finally made our final descent, we’d be faced with another big climb. This time along the edge of cliff faces, with howling wind pinning us to the face of the mountain. The trail here was lined with delicious red berries, which I munched by the handful. I recommended them to a few people who were concerned about their potential toxicity to humans, but I assured them that these berries were perfectly safe, as the bloke at the gin distillery in Puerto Natales told me so.

We had to cross three very big swing bridges toward the end of the day’s walk, including one that was suspiciously “wind damaged” which required us to pay an extra $50 each in order to use the zip line to cross. We had to wait in line for nearly an hour and a half in the freezing wind until it was our turn, and I definitely enjoyed it more than Rachael did. They would send over a bunch of half a dozen packs separate from sending people over, and I laughed with a German bloke how it seemed so much more anxiety-inducing to watch six peoples’ belongings be launched over the cliffside, than to watch an actual human life take the leap for themselves.

I was watching the bloke at the other side of the zipline receiving everyone and helping to detach their harnesses, and I noticed he was absolutely coughing his guts up. I told myself, no matter what, do not go near this guy, as I really didn’t want to get sick. Upon reaching the other side, I had to shimmy up the hill, up close and personal with old mate so he could detach me and cough all over me. I knew then and there, he got me.

We would find out later in the walk that there was actually a Brazilian couple that didn’t make it to the zip line before the people working there finished for the day, and instead of trying to cross the bridge, which would have been sketchy but not impossible, or making their way back 4km to an abandoned shack for the night, they decided to wait at the zip line all night in the snow without a tent or sleeping bags. Wild.

We then walked the last two kilometres to camp which just seemed to drag on forever. I was at the point of just walking to try and keep myself upright, afraid that if I stopped I’d fall over and never be able to stand again. We saw our first woodpecker which was a nice surprise, and I couldn’t believe how hard he pecked that wood! It was great to see a new animal.

We finally reached camp, 16 km and nearly 11 hours after we started that morning. After setting up the tent and having an actual proper shower, I bought a beer from reception and started to make dinner. Yes!! Tuna pasta!!! Again! We ate our dinner, sleepy-eyed and absolutely wrecked from the day’s 600m climb and 1200m descent. I can’t remember being cold that night, I think we both just completely passed out.