Puerto Natales Base of the Towers Day Hike in Torres del Paine

Puerto Natales to the Las Torres trailhead

The day starts between 06:15 and 06:45 with pickup in Puerto Natales, the port town on Last Hope Sound that is the base for every Torres del Paine hike. The van drives north for about two hours across the open steppe, past Lake Sarmiento and the park entrance at Laguna Amarga, where you pay the park fee and show your passport, and on to the Las Torres sector on the eastern side of the Paine massif. The first light on the Towers from the road is often the best of the day.

At the trailhead our guide gives the safety briefing, hands out the trekking poles and checks that everyone has water, food and layers for the full day. Torres del Paine National Park, created in 1959 and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1978, has strict trail rules: stay on the path, no drones, no fires. The Base of the Towers trail from Puerto Natales is a long day, so an early start matters.

Ascencio Valley and the first climb

The trail leaves the flat grassland and immediately starts the first climb, a steady ascent of about an hour over a windy pass known as the Paso de los Vientos. From the top the view opens back over Nordenskjöld Lake, the turquoise glacial lake below the Cuernos, and up to Mount Almirante Nieto, a 2,640-metre peak with hanging glaciers on its flanks. This is the hardest sustained section before the final ascent, and the guide sets a steady pace.

Beyond the pass the path drops into the Ascencio Valley and follows the milky river of the same name, fed by glaciers at the head of the valley. The valley walls are steep and bare, with waterfalls threading down the rock, and the trail runs along a ledge above the river for a couple of kilometres. Guanacos sometimes graze on the lower slopes and condors ride the thermals above the ridges.

Chileno camp in the valley

About two hours from the trailhead the trail reaches the Chileno camp, a cluster of shelters and tent platforms beside the river in the heart of the Ascencio Valley. It is the midway point of the ascent and the place where most hikers take a proper rest, refill bottles from the stream, use the toilets and eat something from their own supplies, since no meals are included on this trek.

The camp sits at the point where the open valley narrows into forest, and from here the Towers are hidden until the very end, which makes the final reveal more dramatic. Our guide uses the stop to check the group's pace and the weather report, because the park authority can close the upper trail in strong wind or snow. After a break of about 20 minutes the trek continues upward into the trees.

The ancient lenga beech forest

From Chileno the path winds for about an hour through an old-growth forest of lenga, the southern beech that grows across Patagonia and turns red and orange in autumn. The trees here are twisted and moss-covered, many of them centuries old, and the trail crosses wooden bridges over glacial streams and skirts fallen trunks. It is the gentlest and most sheltered part of the hike, with soft ground, shade and birdsong.

The forest ends abruptly at the foot of the moraine, where a sign marks the start of the final ascent and a last chance to rest. In spring the forest floor is dotted with orchids and in autumn, from late March to April, the lenga turn the whole valley to fire, which is why many hikers consider autumn the best time for the Base of the Towers hike. The guide briefs the group here on the boulder section ahead.

The Base of the Towers viewpoint

The last stretch is a steep scramble of about 45 minutes to an hour up the moraine, a slope of loose boulders and rock steps that gains the final few hundred metres of the trek's roughly 900 metres of climbing. Then the path crests the ridge and the three towers appear all at once: Torre Sur, Torre Central and Torre Norte, granite pillars of pale rock that soar to about 2,500 metres directly above a turquoise lagoon fed by the glacier at their feet. Cerro Nido de Cóndor stands to the side.

This is the view that defines Torres del Paine and the reason the Base of the Towers trek is on so many lists of the best day hikes in the world. The group spends around 30 to 45 minutes at the lagoon for photos and lunch before the descent by the same trail, about three and a half hours back to the trailhead, where the van waits to drive you to Puerto Natales, arriving around 21:00 to 21:30.