What food to take on a 5 day W trek around Torres Del Paine

Knowing what food to take on a 5 day W trek around Torres Del Paine is quite a challenge! Everyone has different levels of comfort, but as you may know, we are all about saving you money whilst still having an epic time, so this is the most cost effective way, you may want a few more treats!

This is written for an average size girl who is always hungry! Hopefully as you read you will be able to adapt to what suits you. You do need to stay well fed and nourished on the trek; it is not the time to start dieting! Go for high calorie meals and snacks that don’t actually weigh much to carry.

Depending on budget and what you want to carry, you can further adapt what I suggest by eating at refugios or even buying some food on the trail as you go, but bear in mind this is uber expensive and very limited. We want to prepare you to be completely self-sufficient for the full trek.

Ideas and tips for planning meals on the 5 day Patagonia W Trek

What food to take on a 5 day W trek around Torres Del Paine

• Gas: Estimates vary, but one c250 canister should be plenty for one person. This is on the basis that you are cooking breakfast and dinner, having 2 hot drinks a day, but eating a cold lunch. Note, you can only cook in certain areas on the trek, planning to cook your lunch could restrict your plans and timing.
• You can boil up enough evening meal to leave some for your following day’s lunch. Just take thick plastic bags to pop it in.
• 5 days of wraps for lunch can fit perfectly back into the zip fresh wrap bag you originally buy the wraps in.
• Using your pan with the lid on cooks quicker, therefore saves on gas.
• Water is available from all the refugios and many streams. Take electrolyte sachets to put in your water.
• Use dry flavourings and cubes for cooking, rather than sauces.
• Use dried milk powder for breakfast, drinks and cooking.
• Stock cubes are great for replenishing your salts.
• Noodles, pasta and smash cook much faster than rice and lentils.
• You can buy bags of jam and dulce in Puerto Natales.
• Make sure you buy something to clean your pan with.
• You can rent everything you need form Erratic Rock

Simple tasty camping meal Ideas 

Breakfasts |

Oats, raisins, powdered milk and dulce de leche or Jam.

 Rye bread or crackers with pre-boiled eggs and dried fruit.

 Dulce de leche, almond and dried banana wrap.

Lunches |

Cheese and salami wrap.

Crackers or rice cakes with cheese and dried fruit.

Cooled lentils with olives and dried fish.

Cold pasta with beef jerky and parmesan.

Dinners |

Pasta, sun dried tomatoes, parmesan, garlic and onion stock cube.

Lentils, vegetable stock cubes, dried fruit and olives.

Noodles, vegetable stock and dried fish.

Smash with salami cheese and dehydrated onion.

Rice, dried bacon, dehydrated peas and carrots.

Snacks |

Make sure you have snacks a few times a day.

Choooocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!

Dried fruit and nuts

Energy bars

Honey nut bars

Beef jerky

Toffees

Where to buy food for the 5 day Patagonia W Trek

I saw food as fuel so my meals were very repetitive, but somehow I still loved and looked forward to them! Everything tastes better when you’re camping and repetitive meals work out cheaper and easy to carry and organise.

My food for 5 days worked cost 20.000 CLP (20 GBP / 25 USD) and everything can be bought in Puerto Natales.

There are two supermarkets in Puerto Natales town centre: Don Bosco is slightly cheaper and is on Manuel Baquedano (between Esmeralda street and Manuel Bulnes). Unimarc is slightly bigger and is on Manuel Bulnes near the intersection with Manuel Baquedano.

Breakfast x5

A 500g bag of oats, 300g bag of raisins (also used for snacks) 300g of powdered milk (also used in drinks) half a bag of dulce de leche (also used in wraps … and the occasional much needed mouth full of energy!… sshhh, don’t tell anyone)

Lunch x5

Before setting off I made 10 cheese and salami wraps and 5 dulce de leche wraps for lunches, you can add dried fruit to these. It was spring and cool, so there was no chance of the cheese going off. You can pop them back in the wrap bags, the dulce splodges everywhere, so they should go in a separate bag.

Dinner x 4

I took about 700g of pasta and had pasta every night, sounds boring, but I can tell you, I looked forwards to it every night and loved how quick it was to make! I would always put a stock cube or two in for the salts and flavour. I took a salami that I would chop into it and added parmesans to it most nights. You can even add milk powder to make it creamy. – Make sure you drink all the broth!

You should be back in Pureto Natales by the 5^th night. Some use up any leftover food, some go out for a celebratory meal with people they met on the trail … we want for a Christmas carbonara on a catamaran with a wonderful Italian couple and cool Aussie … but that’s another story …

   What food to take on a 5 day W trek around Torres Del Paine

Snacks |

Large chocolate bar

2 large honey nut bars

2 Snickers

100g bag of toffees

Peanuts and raisins

Drinks |

You can top up water all along the way; both refugios and most stream water is fine to drink.

250g bag of hot chocolate powder, coffee powder, milk powder and some teabags … I like my hot drinks!

 What food to take on a 5 day W trek around Torres Del Paine

It worked out perfectly over the 5 days.

The ULTIMATE guide to the Patagonia W Trek

If you’re heading on the W-trek make sure you don’t miss our ULTIMATE GUIDE. Click below for everything you need to know to plan your intrepid adventure in Torres Del Paine…