patagonia trek schedule

Ok this is my idea for a circuit of patagonia.arriving buenos aires start of november:heading down to puerto madryn for a spot of whale watching.then heading towards esquel for some hikes around alcerce area then heading south stopping off for so,e treks along the way dozn the carraterra austral all the way to villa o higgins. this will get me to the start of the torres del paine trek early december followed by heading to ushuaia and heading for the dientes trek: i am hoping this gives the trails for the major treks to be clear: My concerns are transport on the c.Austral at this time of year.also i hear that it gets busy dozn south early january but how are the torres and paine treks populated then or is it mainly tourists hanging around the bases.do you think that the passes will be clear at this time and how will facilities on the paine trek be:also is it possible to buy staples like cheese bread and eggs on torres;dientes treks from farms at this time and how frequent along the trail..is it possible daily..is water mainly drinkable::please give me any feedback..ty

Edited by: theskipdiver

Hello,

I did the Torres del Paine Circuit in late January last year. It was fine in terms of crowdedness. I did the O anticlockwise meaning the first 5 days in the north were not populated at all. May have come across 5-10 hikers per day and camped with about 10-20 people each night.
The W (bottom southern part of the Torres del Paine circuit) was a bit more populated meaning you'd see other hikers every half hour or so but not too crowded. I camped all the way but on the W there were huts which people pre-booked or just rocked up. On the W part of the track you can buy food every day, on the northern part of the O there was one hut from what I remember where I purchased bread, salami and cheese but the rest of it did not have anything.
In terms of weather it was great, almost no rain but very windy in parts especially near the glaciers. Temperature wise I would have to guess but it was short sleeve hiking but warm jacket weather whenever I stopped because of the cold winds which made it very chilli.One morning I woke up and it had snowed over night.
The water is very clear coming straight of the mountain. Just check the recommendations in your guide book where there are huts/campsites upstream but otherwise it's fine. I didn't end up using my water purification tablets at all, always found plenty of water to fill up with and did not get sick.

Have a good trip.

N

thankyou.more advisers welcome

Overall a good plan. Around Ushuaia there are a lot of good treks to do. Dayhikes, 2 - 3 day trels and longer treks too, like the Sierra Valdivieso circuit which can be extended easily from a 4 daytrek to s 7 - 10 day trek. Most likely you will be completly alone all the time.
The circuit of TDP is great but pretty crowded allthough early december should be fine. The "W" is more crowded and much less interesting than the "W"
There are a lot of trekking oportunities around most places, many are not well known. The Dientes circuit is nice but expensive to get to Puerto Williams usually.

I did the TdP Circuit in late December. It's been a few years since I was there, but if you post this in the Chile section you'll get all sorts of advice. When I hiked it there were quite a few people on it, but you mostly see them when camping (or if you stay in the Refugios). You can buy food items, snacks and drink at the refugios and at Los Perros campsite, but I don't think you'll find eggs, cheese or bread - nothing is cheap.