Peter recently came back from a winter W trek, here he tells us about his experiences with Swoop, our partners and the trek itself.
How was your winter W trek through Torres del Paine?
The walk was great and we were really lucky with the weather.
Day 1 was super windy with a few clouds – but was good to see how harsh this place could be.
Day 2 & 3 were the most perfect blue sky no wind days for the hikes into the french valley and grey glacier.
Day 4 the moving day was totally low cloud, couldn’t see a thing, but was okay because we walked out.
Day 5, was snowing on the drive and first hour or two of the hike to the towers. Then we continued on up through dense fog, and on the last scramble up to the towers it cleared to blue skies, so it couldn’t have been better. Just was we were heading down the fog rolled in again.
Overall our timing could not have been better, yes we got some bad weather but it came at suitable time. Although it made me realise in winter we could have easily been unlucky – we met some people doing hikes at slightly different stages to us and couldn’t see the towers or other parts.
Our guide was great. Couldn’t fault him. Was very accommodating and understanding when Natalie got sick.
What were the guides like on your trek?
For me, my highlight would have been the walk into the french valley. Obviously the view to the towers on the last day was also incredible. Natalie really enjoyed the grey glacier, as she had never seen one before.
What would you have changed about your trip to Torres del Paine?
One thing that would have changed our plans was the advice we got (before leaving aus) that we couldn’t get a bus in winter from puerto natales over to el calafete in argentina to see perito moreno. We found this was not correct, it seemed buses were leaving natales almost every day to el calefete and we met multiple people who had done just that and see both. Anyway I can’t remember if it was you guys or the contacts at chile nativo that gave that advice, but that’s not the case and because we had already planned the next stage of our trip back up in northern chile we couldn’t just go while we were there. Our guide on the ground knew that it was possible, so perhaps the chile nativo contact based in Santiago (I think) could get updates from the guides in natales.
