Straightfoward Instructions For Travelers: How To Hike The W In The Chilean Patagonia

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share directly, albeit in a slightly edited manner, the instructions that were given to me by one Paige Rylander (ahem, Paige, shoutout, holler) for hiking the W. I find that for the uninitiated, there is never enough information on traveling, hiking, how to get things done, even if there is in fact an absolute overabundance of information on a topic. People just don't really know but it helps when something comes from somebody they trust. And so Paige continued the cycle of being a good person and helping out other fellow travelers and gave me these awesome words below, which I now pass on to you, dear reader, in the hopes of continuing the cycle of generosity and people enjoying Patagonia. This was cobbled together from Facebook messages as I recall but the message has remained true even though this is a transcription. Paige was very thorough (giggidy). The main thing I did was format and correct numerous typos, while adding typos of my own.

"Here's whats up:

1. Fly to Punta Arenas (advice: if you plan to camp, buy camping food in whatever city you're in before hand.  I recommend canned tuna, pita bread, and a lot of spaghetti noodles and packets of tomato sauce)
2. There's a bus from the Punta Arenas airport (no one will tell you that it exists but it does and it's called Bus Sur) if you wait long enough in front of the airport it will come and it is cheap to Puerto Natales
3. In Puerto Natales there are millions of hostels, I don't really care which one you pick, but at 3:00 PM go to Erratic Rock Base Camp* (Erratic Rock is a hostel, Base Camp is the bar they own next store) for a talk on how to complete the hike without dying. Make sure you go to this because you should follow the girl's instructions exactly**. And you should rent whatever gear you need there.***
4. Hike the W from west to East and enjoy the most amazing landscape ever. And then tell me how it went.  You'll meet awesome people, too.

I think you would get a good feel for patagonia in about 10-11 days. You do the treck. Stick around in Puerto Natales and see a glacier, take a horseback ride, or something.  Head back to Punta Arenas and see the penguins/some more glaciers. Enjoy the city ect. Then fly out."

From Brennan: Now get ya buns down there and go hike!

*Comment from Brennan, not Paige: say this name fast and see what you get. Just try it. You'll laugh.

**Paige was like "exactly EXACTLY" and I be like "How exactly?" and she like "EXACTLY bold CAPS italics" and I be like "Exactly exactly?" and she be like "Exactly MOTHERFUCKER, I will KILL YOU!" and I be like "Damn, Paige, I'm just playin, don't playerhate, hate tha GAME!" Ok the end.

***You can rent pretty much everything you need there except pants. Their sign with all the items they rent and the price per day says they have pants but they don't. Or maybe they were out of rented pants that day. I don't know. But you can always ask. And I found poles cheaper by $1000 Chilean pesos (about $2 USD) a day.