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Published: March 2nd 2009
This blog was written by my travel buddy Simon......
Day 1 - Leave El Calafate on bus to El Chalten
After enjoying a touch too much Malbec the night before with some people we met in the hostel we kind of missed our scheduled bus and had to book another for 1pm.
All went OK from there as we headed off for what seemed a very easy 3 ½ hour bus trip. However, we left fairly clear but windy weather and headed off into what can really only be described as ‘a cloud'... Driving rain and blustery winds gave the impression, once again, of the place being a harsh frontier town only suitable for the very hardy... I did see a couple of Condors overhead as the bus entered the valley... Boy they are big! Apparently they don’t kill but feed on dead meat. So we’ll not be spending too much time stopping for lunch then.
When we arrived we found out that by missing our bus there were several people looking out for us and wondering where we were (the bus company, the 2 travel companies, our first hostel....) the name 'Simon Abbott' quickly became
well known and slightly famous around Southern Patagonia!
The day before we had found out that our trek was going to involve no others but be just Sarah, me and our guide... We weren´t too sure about this as it relied upon the guide being someone you want to hang around with for 5 days or more. He came to see us and tell us what we´re going to be walking around and seeing. His name was Pedro. A small guy who looked no far off our age. Pretty slight but you could tell he could keep walking or climbing for days.
Good meal, early night, ready to start at 8 the next morning… still raining and windy.
Day 2 - El Chalten to Lago Torre and possible walk on Grande Glacier
I have to explain that El Chalten is a small town (700 permanent residents) located at the edge of the Rio Vuelta. A typical glacial valley (for all geographers and geologists out there) with a wide flat bottom and surrounded by some pretty big sheer rock walls and some other smaller valleys from the sides making it something of a wind tunnel at times.
We woke up and it hadn´t stopped raining all night and was still going strong. We found out from Pedro that morning that we had arrived on day 7 of continuous rain and this morning was now day 8! Pedro hadn´t seen the sun for days and was hopeful (and probably praying) the weather would clear up or our trip would be a very soggy one.
Just to reduce repetition this, not normal, period of rain obviously made the paths very muddy and interesting to negotiate but also turned all small streams into pretty fierce rivers and thundering waterfalls... At least some good was coming from the rain... it was pretty spectacular to see these watercourses at their best. Also you may as well assume that all places and scenery are gorgeous… because it all is. I’ll just highlight the…errr… highlights!!
We set off in all our shiny and new waterproof gear and headed into the foothills of the Fitz Roy range under steady rain from clouds we may well actually be in if we climbed too much. The plus point was that at least it wasn´t windy any more.
Heads down and 2 ½ hours
walking with our packs to the campsite used by local trekking companies. The intention that day was to leave most gear at the campsite and just take lunch and appropriate gear for a walk on the Glacier Grande on the other side of Lago Torre which was itself by the campsite. One the way up we crossed other guides who chatted to Pedro and said that the rain had stopped them going on the glacier at all.
Pedro then explained that to get there we had to zip-wire over a river and also cross another stream - which was now going to be much more than just a stream! He explained that the rain makes the rope of the zip-wire more stretchy and the swollen river may result in us actually touching water on our way over.... also this stream we had to cross can easily be too dangerous to cross at times.... We had no expectations of making it to the glacier but after an hour of drying off and drinking coffee in the campsite, we headed off anyway with harnesses on and crampons clipped to my side - still in light rain.
We hit the lake
saw the galcier on the far side and start to realise the scale and rugged nature of the landscape we´d just entered. This glacier was nothing of the size of Perito Moreno we saw a few days earlier but… we were hoping to be the only people on this one and walking on it too. We knew all along that very big brooding mountains were around but the rain clouds had stopped us seeing anything as yet. It is a geographers dream with perfect examples of everything glacial. Having done a geography degree I was happy and the whole trek became something of a revision session.
The zip wire was fun. None of us hit water but it was pretty exciting to pull youself over an angry glacial river - clearing it only by about 3 feet! As I went first and was waiting for Sarah to come over I glanced up at the snow topped mountains and caught sight of a Condor circling above. It must be a good spot for a bird which feeds on dead carcasses!!
Carrying on round we came across the stream that was now a river... Sarah and I just looked at
each other with the expression of “we aint crossing that are we...” It was thundering down around us yet was only about 4 meters across. Pedro stood there for about a minute checking it out and then hopped into the middle and got us to follow.
Somehow we made it which gave us quite a buzz actually as we then knew that we had just enabled ourselves to get onto the glacier. AND it had just stopped raining.
After an hour and a half from camp (and with Pedro singing songs like “Road to nowhere”) we get to the edge of it and have a bit of lunch where it was still covered in stones. Pedro then puts our crampons on and started to give us lessons on how to go up, down, across slopes, along ridges and so on, all while keeping feet well apart or you can catch the other foot and fall into a crevasses.
He led us out onto the ice and got us practicing our new skills and pointing out all the various features of glaciers. It was exciting, beautiful and basically damn good fun. All the time we could see a
short distance up the glacier towards the mountains where it came from. We could only see the lower shoulder of Mount Torre but that was still pretty impressive to us.
Eventually we had to leave the glacier and head back to camp. Obviously not just a simple stroll as we had to cross that torrent again and deal with the zip wire a second time - I could have done that 10 times... I was loving it.
Rain now was just very light but was not going anywhere soon. We were staying in small 2 man tent but there was a big tent for cooking and another for eating. When we got back to camp another guy called Bebo was there (he was to provide us with more food than we knew what to do with for the next few days) and laid out on a table was various snacks, coffee, hot chocolate and a big bowl of soup. Couldn´t really have expected any more as we were able to get fed and dry again after easily 7-8 hours of action.
We barely made it to sunset before heading off to bed. Sarah and me had both
brought our own sleeping bags. They also had 4 season bags which we still used by putting ours into theirs... technically that meant I was sleeping in a 7 season bag! We kind of needed it as areas around glaciers are not warm, especially at night.
Day 3 - Campsite by Lago Torre to Camp Capri
It rained all night and I don´t think Sarah got more than 5 minutes sleep... I did! However breakfast was at 8 and the rain stopped at about 7.30... Nice.
Got our full packs on and Pedro thought it was a good idea to see if visibility was going to be better at the lake. It was only about 15 mins from camp so we had no trouble with that.
I´ll explain now that it was fast becoming apparent that our guide was a top man. He was a freelance guide and had settled in El Chalten after visiting in the mid 90´s and falling in love with the place. He lived for action. Over the days he told us of the contiuous trekking he did in the area, that he had climbed most of the peaks in the range
(except Fitz Roy and the way more difficult Cerro Torre), he roamed over the area on mountain bikes in the off season, always did cross country skiing, trekked for days across the ice cap just behind Torre - which included kite-skiing, spent much time rock and ice climbing... generally he just couldn´t sit still for more than 5 minutes.
He also knew all the other guides, all the National Park Rangers and was one of those people in town who are on-call for a mountain rescue if and when it happens. We felt like we were in his garden almost.
He was also an absolute fountain of knowledge about everything to do with the area. The geographical and glacial history, all the different zones of vegetation, all about the animals and birds... just everything including where various people had died on mountains and in rivers!!
He has actually found bits of people while climbing mountains… We felt 100% safe with this guys though.
On the way to the lake that morning he pointed out a rock which had a beautiful array of mosses and lichens on it and in the middle was a really small Beech
tree (all trees are various types of Beech tree up there with not a leaf in the area being bigger than a thumbnail). Only about 5cm tall and growing out the side of the rock. Obviously it will not grow fast but Pedro pointed out that since 2003 it had grown another 3 leaves!!!
I really hope that tree never gets damaged buy some clumsy tourist. Pedro loves that tree.
Anyway. Back to the trek and we hit the lake again and hid our packs behind a rock!! We went around the other side of the lake on top of a lateral moraine (go geographers!!) which had to be at least 50m high. Just a quick stroll to view the glacier again was about an hour!
We were fast finding out that it takes plenty of time to get places here... it’s all large!
Got packs again (when we had full packs it was tough as my ruck-sack was still pretty heavy but when all clipped in and fitted properly, you can almost get used to it) and head off into the Fitz Roy river valley (were we came up the day before) and through stunning
landscapes that seemed to change every 20-30 mins from grassland, to low Beech shrubs, to tall Beech woodland to rocks!
All of it beautiful and fascinating. Much of our walking was done in almost silence (apart from much singing by Pedro) as we were just taking it all in - and working hard with our packs!
Had lunch by some stunning (as usual) lakes and by now the weather had cleared and it was a nice and sunny day. That famous Patagonian wind was picking up though.
We set off again and as a mountain got out of the way, all of a sudden almost all of mount Fitz Roy came into view..... Oh my god!!
This had been hidden from us all the time by rain clouds but now we just stood in amazement at these granite monsters... the 8 days of rain had also resulted in the peaks being partially covered with snow making them even more stunning in my eyes... we closed our mouths again and headed off. There was a climb to be done to Lago de Los Tres which gets you to the knees of the mountain and should be pretty
stunning. The thing was we had been walking for a good 4 ½ hours already and camp Capri was still another 1 ½ to go. Pedro decided it was best to leave the climb now and do it first thing in the morning.
No need to tell you how amazingly beautiful the campsite next to Lago Capri was... what with Fitz Roy looking over us and beautiful woodland all around.
Although we’d been on the road for about 7 hours we got to camp at about 4pm which was pretty early. So with some time to kill before dinner what else do you do but get taken up a steep little climb by Pedro to a rocky outcrop… the views just blew me away... I came back down to camp just buzzing from what I’d just seen.
That evening Pedro’s girlfriend (Laura) decided to stroll into camp with a nice bottle of vino tinto and join us for the evening. She suited someone as active as Pedro because she too does guided treks, has about 2 other jobs (including working in the El Chalten micro-brewerie) and was aching because she had been learning how to do trapeze
that day!!!
Pedro thought that the weather may just give us a glimpse of Fitz Roy at dawn without any clouds if we were lucky.
I set my alarm to 6.30 and got into my 2 sleeping bags.
Day 4 - Camp Capri, Lago de Los Tres and back to El Chalten
I got up, looked up and saw no clouds.... So I legged it to a nice vantage point with my camera and tripod and set myself up to wait for sunrise.
As the first light hit the top of the totally clear mountains it turned it bright orange and in no time carried on to light up the whole range a bright glowing orange... I can´t really explain how calm and beautiful it all was but my camera was working overtime and I didn´t even realise I was frozen solid until after an hour or so.... easily the best sunrise of my life and one never to forget.
Breakfast and again buzzing with excitement!
Packed up all our gear and headed off to a climbers base camp (camp Rio Blanco) 1 ½ hours away (only for those who want to climb
Fitz Roy) dumped our big bags in a hut and headed off with just a day bag.
Took an hour of hard uphill to get to Lago de Los Tres but the views shut us up again, many of the peaks were in view and we could even see tiny people on the mountains treking across new snow way up in the exposed sides of the mountains. Pedro thought anyone trying to climb the peaks in those fresh snow conditions were practically suicidal. One ranger had told him that a lone Japanese guy had gone up to try, and that seemed to tickle Pedro as he was convinced that this guy would get into trouble but could understand why he did it as Pedro thought that many Japanese people were slightly (if not totally) insane!!
We had many laughs about this guy.
Another wealth of information from Pedro was his knowledge of all the peaks, who climbed them and when. Including who claimed to have climbed them after cheating. One guy had claimed to be the first up Cerro Torre (the most difficult in the range) but his climbing partner who had the camera fell to his
death and the camera was never recovered and so his “evidence” was lost. Then this guy came back with a compressor (!) several years later and proceeded to pound rods into the sheer face every meter to get up there. He reached the ice mushrooms at the top but didn’t go further, because it was ice he claimed that he had reached the actual top of the peak. He managed to get up but also managed not to let anyone else in his team up there too pulling many of the rods out on his way down... Apparently the compressor is still up there with many of the rods.
The thing is that this guy was first considered a liar with no proof and then became a cheat for the compressor thing. All round he´s considered to generally be an arsehole while someone else has the full credit for legitimately reaching the top, a French guy who showed up a year later, climbed up another route and got to the top of the ice mushroom.
Had lunch surrounded by these peaks (it was cold but again I didn´t notice or care!) and decided it was the best lunch
spot of my life... Well, it was until 24 hours later anyway!
Headed back down in near silence (damn that makes your knees and thighs hurt) and realised that 4 hours has passed already!
After starting in the rain. Camping for 2 nights and only really getting to wash (or splash rather... no soap allowed near water bodies) in ice cold glacial rivers we were feeling pretty knackered and ready for a bit of civilisation again. So we headed off down another valley back towards the road where Pedro had organised a pick-up at 4pm... Easy really, only took about 3 more hours!!!
As we headed to a kind of hotel Pedro pointed out Cerro Electrico. Obviously we had to ask why the name and it´s because it has 2 close peaks. One of them in black rock and the other in red rock... Obviously positive and negative in old-school wiring... I thought that was a great name for it.
We arrived at this place for our pick-up about half an hour early. A strange place which looked straight out of Somerset complete with white picket fence and all... Who cares anyway as we managed to
all down 2 beers each before the car arrived to take us to our hostel back in El Chalten for the last 2 nights.
And what a hostel... easily the plushest place we´ll be in on this whole holiday. Imaculate rooms and we both made maximum use of shower facilites.... Quality meal included too which got me back to eating large slabs of meat again... yessss
Bed by 10... most Argeninians don´t even eat until 11...
Day 5 - El Chalten day walk to ..... viewpoint
Pedro had chosen to take us on a one day walk at the end to a view point - as long as the weather held up. The evening before (not long after we got to the hostel) the heavens opened again and the winds got all Patagonian on us. Thankfully though the skies were pretty clear with just scattered clouds.
Now, being a viewpoint that means you have to go up to get there... And we did that almost from the front door of the hostel... for 4 ½ hours!
As always the landscapes changed constantly: grassland, low woods, tall and twisted woods (I have deliberately not mentioned
the series of 3 fantasy films based on a book about a type of jewelry and involving a few small folk with hairy feet - I prefer to liken the woods to a forest created by Tim Burton in, say, Sleepy Hollow).
Then the trees stopped growing and it was left to grasses... then they give up and it´s just those tiny Alpine plants which hide under the leeward side of small rocks!
Many of the mountains in the area were volcanic in their creation. However this one was once part of the Pacific sea bed that was pushed up during the creation of the Andes. Therefore we went through an area made from a layer of sedimentary slate-like rocks which when inspected were riddled with fossils!! Seriously against all rules to remove any from the mountain so just had to find, inspect and say things like “wow” and stuff....
Then came the final push... best explained by Pedro´s singing as we climbed steeper and steeper... “Walking on the moon” by The Police! Just rocks and loose screed reaching an angle of, I reckon, about 70 degrees or more... Just that final push was an hour alone
but when we reached the top... I had to apologise to Pedro for the language I was about to use...
Full 360 views of all the places we had been, the Fitz Roy range (except Cerro Torre which never actually showed itself to us fully), the Rio Vuelta valley and all the way back across the Lago Viedma which aint small.... this was the place that beat yesterdays “Best Ever Lunch Spot” contest.
Lunch was had in a dusting of snow which was being blown from the clouds which were clinging to the tops of the surrounding peaks... yet again I hardly noticed until I realised I could hardly feel my fingers or cheeks!!
Headed back down again, stopping for another proper rummage for fossils, with a slight disappointment that it was almost over, yet relief too as my body was really feeling painful, achy and a bit shakey from 5 days of serious exercise - the most I´ve ever done anyway.
In stead of heading straight back in Pedro gave us a last little detour to get views over town and just generally keep it going for a bit longer. Almost on the 8 hour
mark we arrived at the town Chocolatier housed in the towns oldest and most shaky looking building. But to get in there, have a mug of hot chocolate and whiskey with a bit of chocolate and a slice of easily the best chocolate cake I have ever had the pleasure of eating, was a fitting way to end.
Pedro could have just said “see ya” and headed off as his time was done but he didn´t. He wanted to make sure we had something to do the next day as our bus out was at 6pm and took us to a hostel where they rent bikes. We wanted to be taken up to a lake up the valley about 35km so we could cycle back (cycling up there would be suicide as the winds were not messing about at this time). Unfortunately the hostel vehicle had died recently and they couldn´t do that, Pedro was offering the services of his friend to take us up there but we politely declined on that.
During the trip I had got out my gloves I use for cycling which are woolen yet also waterproof and windproof... Pedro was well impressed. He
wanted to buy them off me before I left as decent gear was really hard to get when you´re based in the middle of know where... In stead of giving him a cash tip I decided to give him my gloves as I can always order another pair when I get back.
He looked really chuffed. In fact after we showered and headed off to the town micro-brewery :D to kill some time before dinner we saw Pedro showing off the gloves to a mate of his in the street.
Dinner, early night, end…
Day 6 - Kill time and bus back to El Calafate
Up and checked out at 10am (as bleedin always…). With time to kill we obviously had to go walk somewhere. Thing is we’d done much of it and we didn’t want to kill ourselves with another 7 hour plus jaunt. So we decided to head up to see the local waterfall which was about 3-4 km up the valley road….
Seems real easy but the winds in the valley were being Patagonian again in an angry way. The road was pretty much flat but the winds were of a strength
I hadn’t felt for many years… It physically stopped us in our tracks several times while also using the dust from the road to remove several layers of exposed skin!!!
Two psychos on fully loaded bikes passed us (just) on the way and we expected them to be on route to the lake 35km up the valley so they can cross the lake on a boat and head off into Chile… Nope… we saw them at the waterfall a bit later on heading back into town… they did it fully loaded just for fun!!
Once off the road and at the waterfall it was sheltered from the wind and in the sun. With the ozone a bit in short supply down there you sunbathe with long sleeves and hats on. Beautiful waterfall but with the knowledge that we are going to Iguazu later… we took a couple of photos and headed off.
To the micro-brewery…
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