Into the mountains

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I'd hoped to sleep a little on the transfer, but the excitement had been a little too much to bear - my ticket said 8:55, in Buenos Aires they told me 9:55, my boarding pass said 10:55, and because it was aerolineas, we took off at 11:55! Anyway, I reached el Calafate at about 8pm, and was driven to a very plush hotel.. Where the german guys got out, and we were driven through a disused airfield to the hostel! Bit of a let down. Nevermind, dinner was included, a huge parilla with a good view of the lake.
Another early start and I met the rest of the tour group; an austrian couple, a portuguese couple, 2 germans and 3 spaniards, and a second group of older canadians. We hopped into a coach and were driven about 3 hours up the road to El Chalten - pretty much wild west, as the town was built 30 years ago to stop the Chileans claiming the land.
The drive in had been pretty, with some guanacos, some flamingoes and some mountains in the distance, covered in snow. We stopped and dropped off everything we didn´t need, then started to hike up the valley; as we reached the first viewpoint, the cloud started to lift off Mt Fitzroy.... wow, wow, wow. The mountain looks like a gothic cathedral - a tall tower over the door, a huge tower for the bells, and some sharp spires extending into the distance. Our guide showed us a picture of the campsite 2 days previous... covered in about 4 inches of snow! As we walked to the campsite, we noticed patches here and there still... we dropped the rest of our packs, then wandered to the viewpoint and shared some mate.
Back to the campsite for dinner, and a wander to the lake to take some evening photos, but by now it was truly chilly! Turns out I was sharing a tent with the one chap who spoke no English, and he snored all night... so when the photographers woke up at 5 to take pictures of the sunrise I passed, to try to get a little sleep (and my feet were very cold!) It´s a shame as the pictures are spectacular!
We hiked up to a lake much closer to the mountain for lunch, and I bumped into some girls who were on the other tour that I had been thinking about doing... very strange. Another night in camp - I´d put a different pair of socks on for the night, but it turned out to be a lot warmer, but still not much sleep!
The next day we walked about 5 hours over to another campsite, including a wander over the glacial morraines to a lake at the bottom of the valley for Cerro Torre. We´d hardly seen a cloud for days, but they were starting to collect now, and the wind picked up so we retreated to the camp. I managed to get a couple of shots of the sunset against the mountains, and fortunately I had my own tent this time, so I slept a bit better.... but the sunrise shots the others took were rather good as well!
The last day in the mountains was wandering up the valley, and onto the glacier. This meant a tyrolean traverse, and a clamber up and down some very steep slopes... One of the Canadian party fell on the glacier, hurting his ankle, so the walk to camp was a little slow, and we could actually see the wind picking up, and the rain/snow on the mountains... time to get out of there! We were blown back across the traverse (think a single rope that you have to pull yourself across using only your hands...) and then the walk across the lake was something else! The wind must have been a constant 100kph (one of the Canadians suggested force 10) so it was a case of lean as close to the ground as possible, and head for the trees! We picked up the rest of our gear and hightailed it out of there - the hostel felt like heaven when it appeared. Out for dinner, including one of the biggest steaks I´ve ever seen - twice the normal thickness!

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Photos

the parilla
in front of Sise is a meal for 2. Hope you're feeling hungry

looking the wrong way
but still utterly spectacular

looking the right way
as Fitzroy emerges from the clouds

the wind gets up
look at the dust to the right of the ice!

Comments

[anonymous]

Glad you got good views of Fitzroy, always looks impressive in the pictures. Was your camp well organised?

[regina]

Halleluja, you can walk on water!
I'm so impressed - you WALKED across the lake!! Size of steak seems to be getting bigger with every blog - are you turning into a fisherman???! Can't believe you'd miss a photo opportunity! As you know from your experience in Disneyland, I'd even take a picture of your snoring tent-mate. Just hope the Austrian's weren't too annoying - it's in their blood!:-)))

[amatth11]

Photos?
I already have 12 gb of photos...

[amatth11]

How camp!
Fitzroy was spectacular, have way too many photos. Camp was ok - a mess, latrine, a lake and somewhere to sleep! Sites in Chile were much better, tho, and I still have left over food!