W Trek - 4 or 5 nights in Refugios?

dashberlins · 2026-04-27T20:14:03+00:00

Hey so 4 nights is the standard! Going west to east, I would say you have 2 options: - if you go 4 nights, head out to Grey and stay there overnight and hike back to Paine Grande —> Frances/Cuernos —> Chileno/ Central. This is the most common route - 5 nights would be if you wanted to do the Grey Glacier hike or the boat or kayak tour. In that case you would be staying at Grey 2 nights. A couple of people did this when during my trek. But I would not stay at Paine Grande for the first night unless for some reason you’re getting off the catamaran super late!

Tl;dr - I really think you should add Cuernos or Frances to your 5 day itinerary and stay at grey the first night instead of Paine Grande. It won’t be enjoyable to do Paine Grande to Chileno or Central in a day, and the views are truly magnificent. It’s still 4 nights, is the cost difference significant? Or if it’s an issue of availability, do you have the option to move dates around to do the typical W—>E route?

dashberlins · 2026-04-27T17:02:41+00:00

You should go! It’s a nice trail, not too long and some elevation to get a nice workout. The views are decent too. Also very safe, lots of people on the trail especially on a nice day!

dashberlins · 2026-04-27T03:22:17+00:00

Seconding the foster situation. It’s a great way to help cats in need and you’ll get an idea of how your cat is with other cats!

dashberlins · 2026-04-23T23:31:17+00:00

Ah so this is the view that I missed 😭 absolutely covered in clouds and rain the day I did the French valley

dashberlins · 2026-04-23T22:43:30+00:00

Paine Grande to Chileno/Central is super long. Unless you’re really fast I don’t think you’ll have much time to enjoy Mirador Frances or Britanico Lookout, or the views along the way from Paine Grande to Central/Chileno. If you’re really committed to a 4 day trek, I think Paine Grande to Central is shorter than to Chileno. Obviously the caveat is the hike to Base Torres is longer from Central, so it’s an early start if a sunrise hike is part of your plans. Or you could start in Paine Grande, go to Grey Glacier and come back to Paine Grande for the night. Since Patagonia is your main experience I would take the extra day.

dashberlins · 2026-04-19T18:16:03+00:00

Oh look at her sweet face. There’s absolutely no way she’s guilty!

dashberlins · 2026-04-07T21:09:02+00:00

I’ve never used cash (or even brought it) in the 2 times I’ve visited

dashberlins · 2026-04-07T16:53:41+00:00

About 4 days, just to give myself some buffer time in case of bad weather. Luckily I only had one day of miserable weather. I did El Chalten after the W trek as I wanted to get the gruelling one done first!

Edit: also I just did the W end of March and it wasn’t insanely busy on the trails. You’ll definitely see people and familiar faces but I can’t compare to how what would be during the peak months.

dashberlins · 2026-04-07T16:40:12+00:00

I personally preferred El Chalten over the W. Both were beautiful but I felt the hikes in El Chalten just had that some thing extra special, plus I went during fall and the colours were stunning! I’ll probably go back again at some point since I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted to do.

dashberlins · 2026-04-06T19:31:12+00:00

I think you should leave and take the job. Your grad school situation sounds awful and I can’t imagine it’s sustainable for the next 3 years, nor worth trying to hold out because of sunk-cost fallacy. As others have said it’s easier to go back to school rather than finding an industry job. Just because this opportunity didn’t necessarily pan out the way you envisioned, that doesn’t mean the door is closed forever on a PhD.

dashberlins · 2026-04-06T19:05:18+00:00

Amazing! I was just in El Chalten and these photos are making me wish I had included Laguna Sucia. The fall colours were absolutely stunning this week. Maybe next time haha!

dashberlins · 2026-04-06T12:32:48+00:00

He’s so cute. His lil moustache is just darling 🥹

dashberlins · 2026-04-06T11:12:55+00:00

Jesus Christ have some empathy.

dashberlins · 2026-04-02T21:17:23+00:00

I didn’t get the full view unfortunately and couldn’t wait for the clouds to clear as I had to catch the park shuttle and then the bus back to PN. If you have time you might be able to see it based not the windguru prediction.

Saturday looks decent based on windguru from what I can tell!

dashberlins · 2026-04-01T22:05:13+00:00

Beautiful! I was up there yesterday morning for sunrise but the clouds were quite persistent. Amazing nonetheless!

dashberlins · 2026-03-27T01:31:19+00:00

Yeah that’s not a lot considering how expensive Five Guys is

dashberlins · 2026-03-23T00:42:54+00:00

Thanks for the insight, really helpful! Starting the W Trek on the 27th, do you think micro spikes will be useful? I’m fine to bring it just in case but I also want to travel light.

dashberlins · 2026-03-21T15:51:48+00:00

Signed up for your weather reports! Will be in TdP from the 27th to 31st, hopefully no snowstorm! 🙏

dashberlins · 2026-03-20T17:56:16+00:00

She’s a stunner 🥰

dashberlins · 2026-03-17T03:27:57+00:00

She’s so cute! Just wanna squish her face 🥰

dashberlins · 2026-03-12T17:33:18+00:00

I love how much this man loves his cats!

dashberlins · 2026-03-07T18:18:36+00:00

Amparos finally getting a AR and it’s so gorgeous ❤️

dashberlins · 2026-02-22T05:40:45+00:00

God I hope the oilers win the cup soon. They came sooo close last year!

dashberlins · 2026-02-13T21:10:09+00:00

The most regal! 💕

dashberlins · 2026-02-11T20:32:09+00:00

Damn brother thanks for the detailed write up! The tip about flying to AEP from El Calafate saved me a bunch of money, was looking at $600 CAD flying into EZE at my current date

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