How We Prepared for a 2-Day Hike in Torres Del Paine National Park

After logging many hours on board buses, we finally arrived in the town of Puerto Natales. This is the town that primarily outfits hikers and adventurers for their trips to Torres Del Paine national park, our next expedition into the massive Patagonia region. Here is where we began our preparations for the journey to Base Torres.

Table of Contents

Food

Food in Torres del Paine is more expensive than elsewhere in Chile, so we wanted to pack our own food along with us.

We were able to get sandwich fixings at the local grocery store, Unimarc. (If you can, the Unimarc in Punta Arenas has a greater selection and lower prices, but Puerto Natales has all you need.) Here’s what we grabbed:

Tortillas – We noticed a pair of backpackers grabbing tortillas and followed suit. This made clever sense as tortillas are already flat and that way you don’t have to worry about flattening your bread. We like bread, you probably also like bread.
Deli Meat – While we recommend keeping meat in the fridge as long as possible, it did hold up just fine for two days in our packs, especially since the evenings were cool.
Sliced Cheese – Same as the deli meat above.
Eggs – We hard-boiled them at our AirBnB for breakfast the next day.
Apples and Carrots – Although they’re a bit heavy, they made great snacks.
Candy and Chips – Because who goes into the mountains without some good ol’ refined sugar?
Apple sauce in squeezable packets – They’re shelf stable and tasty, but we admit the portion size is small.

We packed food that would keep well for our three days in Torres Del Paine as some of the few businesses in the park itself have historically “nickled and dimed” guests at more exorbitant prices. Our method of cured meats, cheeses, and tortillas may have worked well for us for a shorter expedition, but the experienced hiker will favor dehydrated camping meals as they are lightweight and filling. This is one thing that we didn’t find at the store in Puerto Natales – you’ll need to bring them from home. The grocery store did have instant oats, ramen, and instant mashed potatoes, all of which I wish we had grabbed.

We also weren’t able to find peanut butter at the grocery store, which is to be expected outside the United States.

Our last purchase was empanadas from the convenience store in the small village of Torres del Paine. They were huge and made for a nice pre-hike lunch.

Cooking in Torres Del Paine

There is a lot of confusion online and outdated information/misinformation about cooking in Torres del Paine. Many of the campsites do not permit the use of portable camp stoves, though some do. As we ourselves only stayed at two different sites, we can attest to two cases.

The campsite called Refugio Torre Central, nearest to the parking lot of the eastern entrance, did not seem to mind folks fending for themselves by use of portable camp stoves as long as they used them in the designated cooking area. There was also a place to wash dishes.

The cooking tent at Refugio Torre Central.

Refugio Chileno, the closest campsite to the Torres Del Paine towers, does not permit camp stoves but had free hot water for those paying for a campsite which folks used to prepare their dehydrated pack meals. These individuals did have to vacate the dining hall during meal times for those who paid for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. (We paid for half board, dinner and breakfast, at Refugio Chileno because we were unaware that hot water would be available at the time of our booking.)

Even if you haven’t booked your dinner and breakfast along with your campsite or refugio bed, the Refugios serve pizza, hamburgers, and sandwiches during lunch and early afternoon hours (usually until 5-7 PM, or before their dinner service starts). Prices were around CLP$5,000 for a ham and cheese sandwich, CLP$13,000 for a meat and cheese sandwich, or CLP$15,000 for a pizza. Beers were CLP$6,000-8,000.

You’ll need to bring your own camp stove and cooking utensils if you plan to cook for yourself.

Equipment

Equipment can be rented in Puerto Natales, and if time allows one can peruse the many gear shops in town to compare prices. Oftentimes, the rental prices are a much better deal than buying your own. Of course, the best deal of all is to bring your own equipment from home – but as long-term travelers, it wasn’t practical for us to do that.

We found one instance where it was in our favor to purchase equipment. Cheap trekking poles are available for sale in Puerto Natales for the same price as a 3-day rental. Although we both own our own trekking poles at home, we travel primarily by carry-on baggage and trekking poles are a checked-baggage sort of item – not something we could put up with on our multi-month adventures in South America.

Using one pole each for improved balance, we did perfectly well. (Perry notes she wouldn’t have made it up the mountain without a trekking pole. It’s an essential item for all travelers.) (Pete finds that they are a luxury and not a necessity, many make due without and live to tell the tale)

We initially intended to sell our poles off to a weary hiker on our way down from Base Torres but settled on keeping the poles for our adventures in Peru. We had to check a bag and wield our flyer status to ensure they were permitted in checked baggage, as they were a good 5 inches longer than my suitcase. (They made it intact without issue.)

As mentioned, we struggled to find good and viable information to best prepare for our adventure. Reservations have to be made well in advance of your visit to Torres Del Paine. Here is a link to an article we found helpful by the Stingy Nomads. They seem to be the most up-to-date for 2023.

Weather

The weather can be very dry and very prone to fires depending on the season (hence the restrictions on camp stoves).

The first half of our hike was wet.

Our first day trekking to Refugio Chileno was occasionally rainy and hot. It was one of those “Damned if you do…” moments. Wearing our rain gear made us hot and sweaty which made us wet. Not wearing rain gear meant we got wet by rain instead. We settled for getting wet from the more comfortable rain. We dried our wet clothes as best as possible by hanging them in the tent.

Actual footage of our impromptu clothesline.

Day two was windy and sunny, with an extra order of wind. The wind could be quite cool which was refreshing. There were moments when the gusts of wind were strong enough to throw an unexpecting person into rocks.

It was freezing at the top of the Towers.

Depending on the time of year, there can be ample snow and other challenges to prepare for – so always plan accordingly. We packed and wore all of our layers on this trip: t-shirt, thin sweatshirt, puffy jacket, and raincoat and pants.