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Trek the Torres del Paine circuit

The wind at Refugio Chileno hits sixty kilometres an hour and pins your jacket to your ribs before breakfast. Four days into the W, the trail turns to boulder and moraine, a scramble more than a walk, knees against loose granite for the final hour up to the Mirador Base Torres. Then the cloud lifts, and the three towers stand there, pink at the base, ice at the top, exactly as every photograph promised and somehow still a shock. You sit on a rock, eat a cold empanada, and stop caring about the twelve kilometres back down.

Practical

Cost
$1,000–2,000
Best time
November to March, the southern summer
Difficulty
Moderate
Time it takes
4–5 days to walk the full W
What people get wrong
People book flights before booking refugios or campsites, then find the circuit full and end up rerouting or camping somewhere unplanned. They also underestimate the wind, packing for rain when the real problem is being blown off a ridge.
With
A group

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