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Published: December 12th 2007
Buenos Aires Airport
Travelling light ;-)Honeymooning in Patagonia
What better place to honeymoon than Patagonia. With the bad reputation of the weather, you are pretty much garanteed lots of quality time, stuck in the tent. And this is just what happened to us!
We arrived in Patagonia early November, with the hope to climb ice as this is supposed to be the high season for ice!
After a long flight to Buenos Aires and then El Calafate, we took a bus to El Chalten. It was pouring down and cold when we stepped off the bus. The next day, we were setting up camp in the snow at the Bridwell camp, in the Torre Valley. Grim. We were told there was a window the next day, so, quick to act, we loaded up gear to the advanced camp at The Beach, hoping to start climbing right away. We were turned back instantly. In Patagonia, there is no two ways: it gets so windy and stormy that decisions are black and white. We headed back to Bridwell. In the days/weeks to come, we would end up going up to and down from The Beach 4-5 times (3-4hr each way on a grim glacier because of
Waiting for flight to El Calafate
Sick from the lamb meal of the night before! the rocks) and then back and forth to El Chalten, the closest village from camp, to reload on supplies and be social. The weather kept us away from the mountains. I would do yoga most days, read and eat. We got to spend tons of time locked up in the tent. Finally, a window opened and we go to climb the easier peak in the valley: L'Aguja de la S. After climbing a super long snow couloir, you get to a notch and steep wall that leads to the upper part of the climb, a 5 pitch long climb up really nice yellow granit rock! By the time we reached the summit (awesome view on the Torre Group), the winds had picked up, announcing yet another storm. Back in camp, we decided to move on and head up to Bariloche, a 2 day bus ride away. On the bus, I read "My invented Country", by Isabel Allended and watched "The Motorcycle Diaries". It all fit right in.
Bariloche is still in Patagonia. The Frey Range offers some shortish climbs. It takes about 3-4hours to hike up there and, after being in the "real" Patagonia, we were quite disappointed by what
Frey had to offer. Soon, we were headed back to the USA, to finally get on the ice we had come to Patagonia for!
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