The W is the most popular multi-day trek in South America and the hardest one to organise. The walking is moderate. The logistics are not, because three separate organisations control the beds along the route, they open bookings at different times, and the national park will not let you in without proof of a reserved place for every single night.
More people are defeated by that system than by the terrain. This guide takes the booking problem first, because everything else depends on it.
The route in brief
The W covers roughly eighty kilometres over four to five days, tracing a rough W shape between three valleys on the southern side of the Paine massif: the Grey glacier arm in the west, the French valley in the middle, and the Torres base at the eastern end.
Daily distances, walking west to east:
- Paine Grande to Grey glacier and back, or on to Grey refugio — 11 to 22km
- Paine Grande to Francés or Cuernos via the French valley — 18 to 25km
- Cuernos to Chileno — around 15km
- Chileno to the Torres base and out to Laguna Amarga — around 14km with 600m of climb
None of those days is technically difficult. There is no scrambling, no exposure and no navigation problem — the route is well signed and busy. What makes it demanding is the cumulative distance on consecutive days, the weight if you are camping, and the wind.
Which direction to walk
West to east ends with the Torres, which is the most famous view in Patagonia and a genuinely good climax. It also means catching the catamaran across Lake Pehoé at the start, when you are fresh and the boat is part of the excitement rather than a chore.
East to west puts the hardest single climb on day one and finishes at the Grey glacier. Its real advantage is that it lets you attempt the Torres at sunrise from Chileno on the first morning, and if that morning is cloudy — which it frequently is — you have not yet spent four days building up to a view you did not get.
Neither is wrong. West to east is more common, which means more company on the trail at the same times of day and more competition for the same beds.
The practical consequence: book the accommodation first and the flights afterwards. People do it the other way round and then discover there is nothing available in the middle of the route on the dates they have already paid for.
If a date is unavailable, check again periodically. Cancellations are released back into the system and the middle sections free up more often than the ends.
Refugio or tent
Refugios provide a bunk in a shared dormitory, hot meals, a drying room and, at some, hot showers. Full board is expensive but it removes food weight entirely, and in a wet week the drying room alone justifies the cost. It is the option that turns the W into a walk with a day pack.
Campsites are cheaper, and several rent pre-pitched tents with sleeping mats already in place, which is the middle option most people end up choosing. You can also bring your own tent and pitch it at the designated sites.
Wild camping is prohibited throughout the park, and fires are banned outright following two catastrophic visitor-caused wildfires that burned large areas of forest which will take centuries to recover. Cooking is only permitted in designated shelters. This is enforced seriously and the reasons for it are visible from the trail.
A mixed approach works well: camp the first nights when the pack is heaviest with food, and take a refugio for the last night before the Torres so that a three in the morning start is possible without packing a tent in the dark.
The wind
This is what people underestimate, and it is the defining feature of walking in Patagonia.
Sustained wind of sixty to eighty kilometres an hour with gusts well above a hundred is normal in December and January. It is not a storm; it is the weather. The trees on the steppe grow permanently bent by it.
The practical consequences:
- Trekking poles become a stability aid rather than a knee aid. Planting two poles on an exposed section is the difference between walking and being pushed sideways.
- A hood that seals matters more than an extra insulation layer. Flapping fabric is exhausting over eight hours and it destroys the garment.
- Lake crossings and the catamaran can be cancelled at short notice, which is one more reason to have a spare day.
- Pack covers get torn off. Use a dry bag liner inside the pack as well.
The corresponding upside is that the wind moves weather through fast. A morning that looks unwalkable is often clear by eleven, and the Torres are visible for exactly as long as the cloud allows.
Gear that earns its place
- Waterproof shell jacket and trousers, taped seams, hood that cinches
- Broken-in boots with ankle support — the trail is rocky and root-crossed
- Two pairs of merino socks, worn alternately
- Sun protection. The ozone layer is measurably thinner at this latitude and burn times are short even under cloud
- Two litres of water capacity. Streams in most sections of the park are drinkable, which means you carry less than you would elsewhere
- A power bank; charging in refugios is limited and queued for, and there is none at the campsites
- Earplugs, for the dormitories and for the tent in wind
Leave behind: a water filter for most sections, a heavy camera tripod, and any clothing that is not either waterproof or insulating.
When to go
December to February is high summer: the longest days, the warmest temperatures, the most reliable services, the fiercest wind and the fullest refugios.
November and March are the shoulder months and are arguably better. Fewer people, calmer conditions, and in March the beech forest turns red across the whole massif. Days are shorter and some services reduce.
April to September is the off season. Parts of the route close, most refugios shut, and what remains is a genuinely different and much more serious undertaking.
Getting there
Fly to Punta Arenas, take the bus about three hours north to Puerto Natales, and spend a night there. This is not a wasted day. Puerto Natales is where you attend the park briefing that operators run each evening, hire anything you are missing, buy food for the trail, and repack. The early bus into the park leaves the following morning.
Coming from Argentina, El Calafate to Puerto Natales takes five to six hours including the border crossing, and the two sides of the massif combine naturally into one trip.
Inside the park, buses run to the entrance at Laguna Amarga and to the Pudeto pier for the Pehoé catamaran. Both are timed to the trekking day and both fill.
If the W is booked out
Look at the O circuit. The full loop is eight to nine days and includes the W as its second half, with the back section crossing the John Garner pass into country that sees a fraction of the traffic. It has stricter entry rules, a mandatory anticlockwise direction and a minimum age, and it is consistently less oversubscribed than the W itself. If you have the days, it is the better trek.
Or cross the border. El Chaltén, on the Argentine side of the massif, has world-class day hiking with no permits, no fees and no booking system at all — the trails start at the end of the street. It is covered in El Chaltén's four day hikes.
On the fourth morning we walked up to the base of the towers in the dark, arrived in cloud, and sat there for forty minutes in silence while nothing happened. Then the cloud lifted for about ninety seconds. That was the trip.
For the equipment side in more detail, see Patagonian wind, and the gear that survives it. For the region generally, the Patagonia destination guide.
