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Published: February 9th 2006
sunrise at fitzroy 1
sunrise from the base of fitzroyAnd here i am having finally arrived in patagonia after a number of little adventures i find myself in patagonia ready to trek around some of the most beautiful places on the planet.
First i arrived in el calafate, we had an interesting journey from puerto madryn as usual i was a little late for the bus so had run from the campsite 4km away with all my stuff, the day was very hot and i was looking pretty hot and bothered by the time i got there, tearing around the corner i saw quite a lot of people waiting so was quite pleased that the bus was running behind schedule, of course no bus had arrived at that point, an hour later the situation hadn't changed and now a little cooler after drinking a litre of water and a litre of coke i wasn't very pleased at all that the bus was late. We had a message over the tannoy and apparently the reason was that someone had stolen the bus! Now i'm not sure how this was supposed to have worked but basically the driver had got out somewhere for whatever reason and someone had nipped in and
nicked it, probably some scousers on holiday. I'm not sure what you are supposed to do with a stolen bus it would be a bit obvious to drive around in!!! They were trying to arrange for another bus to come and pick us up but it would be another half hour, in half an hours time it was going to be 20 minutes. This carried on for quite a while and eventually a bus arrived about 2 hours late. This was becoming a bit of a worry as i was due to change buses at Comodoro Rivideria at midnight and if we were delayed i would probably be stuck there until the next morning which would make something of a mockery of taking an overnight bus. Luckily a bunch of people who were on the peninsula valdes tour with me were waiting for the same bus so we had quite a laugh and we were all seated quite close together making the journey to comodoro rivideria quite fun. When we got there it turned out our bus would continue on so they made us all get out for half an hour then said we could get back on again. To
face of perito Moreno Glacier
Huge chunks of ice fall off the glacier accompanied by load cracking sounds and large splashes. They then turn into icebergs be honest i had no idea what was going on but as ever sometimes its best just to get back on the bus and not worry about things. Upon arrival at Rio Gallegos the people who had booked there onward ticket to el calafate had missed their bus and loads of grief broke out as it was with another company. I having not booked the onward part of the journey simply went and bought a ticket on the next available bus and off i was again eventually arriving in El Calafate around 3 that afternoon.
I found a fantastic campsite in the gardens of a hostel that had cherry and plum trees. You could eat the fruit straight from the trees, and there were BBQ places available where you could burn cherry logs to cook the ample steaks that form a big part of your diet in argentina. I also roasted some aubergines and a kind of round squash which confused all of the argentinean campers no end. A number actually asked me what i was doing, i think the whole concept of having vegetables other than potato with meat is so alien they just couldn't comprehend it. It
Cerro Torre through the trees
Cerro torre from below laguna torre Fitzroy range was also here that i realised that my stove was going to be a real problem. The pump broke while i was on aconcagua and required quite a lot of coaxing along to make sure it continued to work, for a while it looked as though my whole climb might have been in jeopardy, anyway all i needed was a new pump. MSR being a leading brand that shouldn't be a big problem. In fact most stores said that they used to have them, the problem was that MSR have designed a universal pump that fits all of their stoves (wait for it) except the dragonfly. Why no one seems to know in fact a guy in one store had specifically asked for dragonfly parts but been given the universal pump instead. However they all had dragonfly repair kits which were no good because i had one and the part that had broken is not fixable. More than a little niffed i proceded to buy a small stove attachment for gas canisters and will send my expensive top of the range all fuel stove home in disgrace and use one which is smaller and costs about a tenner. Of course
overview of perito Moreno glacier
glacier is fed from the southern patagonia icefield it means i can't climb to altitude again without hiring a stove that is in every way the same as mine except that the pump fits the bloody new one from MSR. Not that i'm pissed off or anything!!!
Anyway the next day i went to see the Perito Moreno glacier. It is absolutely huge as you can see from the photos. The face is over 60m high and a couple of kilometres across.When you arrive you stand on a peninsular which divides the snout of the glacier in two, known as a nanutek. This means you can get really close and when you hear the cracks as the ice breaks when the glacier moves the sound is like a rifle shot as the noise is reverberated between the glacier face and the land you are watching from. The cracks happen a lot and frequently small bits of the glacier fall off with big splashes. Every now and again though huge chunks come away setting off little tidal waves that crash against the land with the ice forming large icebergs in the lake. The whole thing is absolutely amazing. In the morning it was raining and everything looked a
Perito Moreno glacier across lake
Glacier is 60m thick and a couple of kilometeres across bit grey, i was chatting to an american couple and we had become really engrossed with every crack we thought we would see a big chunk come down, eventually we got cold so decided we would go for a beer and warm up. About an hour later we came back and the sun had come out. This transformed the glacier giving it a minty freshness you wouldn't believe. The blue of the ice shone through and was really impressive. Some of the pinnacles were so overhanging it was difficult to believe they were still standing and we were expecting a huge crash at any moment. It was also nice because the clouds over the mountain dissipated so we could see the four arms of the glacier pouring off the patagonian ice field and joining together to form one huge glacier. It really was fantastic and i could have stayed there all day after 5 hours we had to go to catch the bus but even so if we heard a crack we turned round to see what was happening. Unfortunately it is a little touristy as the walkways and bus system encourage a lot of people to come who get
fitzroy from laguna madre
Fitzroy from the mother and daughter lakes bored and can be a bit noisy but if you can find a spot out of the way the sounds and shapes of the ice are truly awe inspiring.
Next i headed off to El Chalten and the national park around the fitzroy range. The native indian name for Fitzroy is El Chalten which means mountain that smokes. The mountain is so frequently engulfed in cloud or has a stream of cloud coming from it that they believed it to be a volcano. It was renamed Fitzroy by Perito Moreno who organised a lot of the national parks and renamed everything. Fitzroy was the captain of the beagle of Charles Darwin fame and allegedly Darwin and Fitzroy were the first europeans to set eyes on the mountain when they sailed up to lago argentina. The park is really well run and the wardens obviously care about the place as they talk to each bus load of people that arrives and explain the walks they can do and what they can do to avoid damaging the park. Unfortunately these lessons are lost on a lot of the people that come but most attempt to do what they are told and
sunrise at fitzroy 2
sunrise from the base of fitzroy not wash in the streams or walk off the trails damaging the environment.
The trails are fantastic if a little busy. Luckily i had fantastic weather and so got to see the spires which are so frequently in cloud. The first day i walked to laguna Torres a lake beneath the spires of cerro torre. Cerro Torre was for many years one of the hardest challenges in the mountaineering world, being a sheer spire often with unstable snow deposits, the first undisputed climb wasn't until the seventies although a guy cesare maestri claimed to have climbed it in the 1959 but his partner with the summit photo's fell to his death in an avalanche on the way down taking the photo's with him. The climbing community found this a little strange and so wouldn't believe him. The survivor maestri returned in 1970 and climbed it hauling a compressor drill with him to secure bolts into the spire, and then not actually climbiing the unstable snow cap at the top. It wasn't until 1974 that an expeditioon led by an italian named Ferrari made the undisputed attempt. While i'm sure you are all fascinated by this climbing history i add
me and sunrise at fitzroy
sunrise from the base of fitzroy it to illustrate the achievements of a guy in camp with us. At the campsite by Laguna Torres a number of climbers were staying, it's relatively easy to spot them as they have tons of climbing gear (something of a giveaway) and are generally to be found tightrope walking on ropes between trees as the winds were to strong to climb.The guy next to my tent spent most of his time carving wooden animals out of bits of wood i particularly liked the fish on sticks that were coming out of a nearby tree trunk. One of these climbers a guy called paul deacon was apparently really famous a few years before he had opened up a new route on Cerro Torre in it's own right an impressive feat, however he had done it lugging a parachute which he then used to base jump back down. Upon hearing this story i decided he was a pretty cool guy, the scene from wayne's world where they meet alice cooper and go 'we are not worthy' sprang to mind.
The next day i strolled around to the camp beneath Fitzroy itself, met a great bunch of lads at the camp and
following a couple of bottles of wine thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Unfortunately i had to get up at 4.30 the next morning to go watch the sunrise from a lake just beneath the towers. When i woke up i was a bit reluctant to get out of bed. I really should have brought an alarm clock with me, but the thought of watching the sunrise turn the spires red drove me on after all it's not every day that you get to go trekking in patagonia. Having got up with quite a bit of clothing on it's chilly at that time this far south, i headed off headtorch lighting the way. It was only about an hours walk up to the lake so i should be there in plenty of time although when i looked at the sky ironically the mountains were clear but there was cloud over the ridge that the sun was coming up behind. Slightly downheartened as i expected the sunrise to be unspectacular i hurried on towards the lake. The approach was very steep and i slowly took off quite a lot of my spare clothing as i had to hurry. About 100m below the ridge
fitzroy and lago del desierto from argentinean army camp
fitzroy and lago del desierto from argentinean army camp i saw the top of the peaks and they had gone pink even though it was still very dark. I redoubled my pace not wanting to miss the event because i hadn't got up early enough and raced to the highest point above the lake. Once there it was quite windy and very cold so i put all my clothes back on and looked around. The moon was still above the side ridge and the sun hadn't come up beyond it's ridge the other side of the valley but already the pink was fading from the tops of the fitzroys. Fearing that it was all over i tried to take some photo's but it was too dark so i shot a video clip of me describing what it looked like. Then about 15 minutes later as it got lighter i shot another one where you could just about see the valley and the sky was covered in pink cloud i thought that would be all we would get with the clouds as they were. About then the guys i had been talking to the night before came up so i chatted with them for a little while. Then in a
lago o'higgins chile
lago o'higgins chile classic case of peaking too early The sky went an unbelievable colour shades of orange, pink and purple reflecting in the lakes below. but the battery warning came on my camera due to the cold so i could only take a few pictures. The top shot on this entry is my favourite, i'm not sure i have ever seen a sky go that colour and with the setting and the reflection in the lakes it was absolutely amazing. Then as the sunrise began to fade and the lads and i were discussing how amazing it had been the sun rose a little further and the spires went blood red we all turned around and started snapping the other way but with my batteries dead i had to borrow some and missed the best colour, still they were fantastic. After sunrise one of the boys had brought a stove so we chilled out and had a cup of coffee and some biscuits and generally agreed we had never seen a better sunrise. The lads headed down but i decided i would climb one of the peaks mount olivia. It was only 1900 metres high but it turned out to be an
dusk at lago o'higgins
dusk at lago o'higgins excellent scramble following a knife edge ridge for the upper sections and then climbing some pinacles to attain the summit (paul you would have loved it) It is from this peak i took the shot towards lago del desierto which i visited in a few days, the summit had tremendous views sitting on the top of a sharp pinnacle, the peak being about 2 feet square, looking at the way the crevasse pattern in the glacier below was effected by the glacier bouncing of the lip of a mountain before tumbling in an ice fall over the aspect change. It split apart in a radiating circular pattern like the interference pattern of two point waves. Each crevasse glimmering a deep blue beneath the white surface. Then behind me were the peaks of fitzroy with their glaciers and lake and to the other side the valley and ridge where my camp was. The distance had snowy peaks converging on an azure blue lake, despite the chill and the fact the wind almost had me off a couple of times which was a little unnerving it was a stunning location all the better as i knew no one else would come up
sunrise towers of torres del paine
sunrise towers of torres del paine so i had it all to myself.
On the way back down i reflected on what a fantastic morning i had had, despite my early misgivings and thought what a shame it was that the majority of people in the park would never experience anything like it. They would only get up much later and go to the lake when it was really crowded and never go up to the peak with its fantastic views. Still it did mean that it made the experience much better for me so i guess i shouldn't complain. That afternoon i strolled around to the other side of Fitzroy close to lago electrico. This is wilder country and fewer people come round. My objective the next day was a lookout over cerro electrico which required a 7 hour climb but was supposed to be absolutely superb. I had however walked for 13 hours that day so was a little tired. In the morning it rained and was cloudy the idea of walking 7 hours to a lookout that was bound to be in cloud didn't appeal so i had a restful day reading my book and chilling revelling in the great morning i
sunrise turns towers red torres del paine
sunrise turns towers red torres del paine had the day before. Then in the afternoon i strolled back to prepare for my next adventure. When i was in Rio i had met a guy who said the best thing he had done while trekking was a walk from lago del desierto to chile and back. He had been to both fitzroy and torres del paine so i figured it must be pretty good. What i really wanted to do was combine it with a walk across a section of the ice field so i could get some good experience on ice but i would have needed additional specialist gear and at least one other person so in the end even my reckless approach to such things couldn't justify it and i decided the ice would have to wait for bolivia.
After getting a bus to the lake the walk to the argentinian army post was beautiful, that night I camped about half an hour from the army post and the sunset over the fitzroys now 45Km away but still clearly visible was really weird. It had streaky clouds turned a bright orange with pink clouds over the mountains in the opposite direction, still beautiful though. The
glacier grey from john garner pass
glacier grey from john garner pass next day I checked out with the argentinean army and wandered to the border which is hilarious the only things there are 2 signs one saying welcome to argentina and the other welcome to chile, and a marker with chile on one side and argentina on the other that marks the exact spot. The border in this area has been disputed for a long time and relations between chile and argentina have often been strained. El Chalten is argentina's newest town only having been established in the 80's to ward off the threat of losing territory. I thought that the chillean outpost would be quite close to the border as i had planned on a 3 night expedition. Unfortunately it was 15km in the wrong direction but having had my passport stamped by the argentinians i had no choice but to get it stamped by the chileans. So 15km later i arrived at their base and they told me i would have to complete my walk and come back. This meant the pass i had intended to walk through was not allowed and it added about 50km and 2 days to my walk. As i was only carrying 1 days
glacier grey at dawn
glacier grey at dawn spare rations and had planned for 3 days this became a major issue for food. It basically meant i had to walk really long days which was a shame because the area was so beautiful and empty i could happily have chilled out there for days. I only saw one other person in the 5 days i was there and that was an estancia owner. The place was absolutely deserted the great thing about that was seeing so much wildlife especially the birds woodpeckers, falcons and all manner of smaller birds that you don't see often on the busier trails. The day after the chillean army barracks i walked around lago o'higgins a lake surrounded by mountains with glaciers coming down each valley. That night i had a fire knowing that i was the only person around and trusting myself to be able to control it. There is so much firewood lying around it seemed rude not to, although of course i wouldn't have been allowed to in the national park.
The next day ascends through a hidden valley between a mountain pass. This would also have been an excellent place to camp. As i went along i kept
swan iceberg glacier grey
swan iceberg glacier grey disturbing hares and was running through plans of how i might catch one and supplement my depleted food stocks as well as satisfy that boyish urge to live off the land. No such luck though they were way to fast for me with a big ruck sack on by the time i had noticed them they were out of there. Still next time!!! Finally i returned back to the chillean army base and walked home another long day but rewarded by finding somewhere to buy a litre of wine before dinner. Now that was definately a step forward, the little food i had was fairly irrelevant but i went to bed happy.
After the treks i headed back to El Calafate for a bit of R&R before heading to Chile again. It would have been most restful but i ran into the boys i had seen at the sunrise and things escalated a little out of control. Consequently i missed my 8 o'clock bus the next morning, woke up realised i had left my jacket with my wallet and only debit card at the guys place the previous night so staggered to retrieve it, got a few giggles (apparently
rainbow over lago grey
rainbow over lago grey i had got pretty drunk and when standing up to leave fallen flat on my face hence my bruised nose and forehead and my cut lip), staggered to the bus station and didn't even argue when the guy told me i would have to pay full fare for another ticket. To be honest i didn't have a lot of argument in me. Having purchased a ticket for 4 o'clock in the afternoon i went back to bed and woke up at 3.30 needing a panicked packing and a run to just catch the bus and avoid missing the same bus twice in one day which would have been a little inexcusable.
Puerto Natales in Chile which was my next destination, exists for 2 reasons, the NAVIMAG a ferry between the extreme south of patagonia and the lake district to the north runs from there and it is the gateway to Torres Del Paine. Other than that puerto natales has no redeeming features. It is set in a nice enough environment, pleasant sea a few mountains but it is essentially a collection of corrugated iron houses with nothing to do. The hostel i stayed in was so dull i resorted
first view valle francis
first view valle francis to watching chillean TV now that is desperate. Still the next day i was off to Torres Del Paine which is one of the most amazing walks in the world.
Standardly it is an 8 day walk to do the circuit, although that only requires you to walk for 3-4 hours a day which is a bit short for me so i decided 6 days would be more than adequate and added a few side treks to make sure i didn't get bored. The towers are similar to fitzroy and similarly need to be trekked to at sunrise. I had gone their at the beginning of the trek where it is normally the end because the fitzroy sunrise was so fantastic i wanted a chance to go again if the first morning wasn't all that good. When i was at the fitzroys one of the guards told me the peaks can only be seen at sunrise less than 10 days in the year so i figured it might be the same for torres. Having arrived quite early with a ridiculously heavy pack(possibly due to the 3 litres of wine that accompanied my 7 days of food) up a steep
deep blue water lake pehoe
deep blue water lake pehoe path i decided to pitch camp and then head on a side trip to the back of the towers. This is only an extra couple of hours but again hardly anyone goes there. En route is a climbers camp for those trying to climb in the area. The weather was bad that day and i guessed that my previous neighbour was there when i saw two carved ostriches sticking out of a tree trunk on the way past. The route to the back of the towers was mostly over morraine, and so quite hard work the wind was unbelievable and as i got above the glacier on the edge of the morraine i was actually picked up by the wind. This was a little nerve wracking as i had to lean into my poles to prevent getting blown over the edge by successive gusts. I could see all of the towers and so decided that i had probably gone far enough and should think about returning to camp. Dying before the trek started would be incredibly bad form, afterwards then perhaps!
The next morning i got up at 4.30 for the familiar hour up a steep slope the way
lake pehoe from valle francis
lake pehoe from valle francis the light works at torres is not quite as good as fitzroy although the sunrise was very nice. I took my stove this time as i knew how nice a cup of coffee and a few biccies at the top would be. The sunrise did it's thing the towers turned partially red so reasonably happy i went back down and back to bed for a few hours. The thought of carrying my heavy pack was not appealing maybe those 3 litres of wine i had put into it were a mistake. About 11'ish i headed back down and started on the circuit proper. The north part of the circuit isn't too busy as most people trek the popular 'w' route to the south. However it is really beautiful as it has lots of meadow land with wild flowers and a few smaller mountains, then it passes round to the pass the highest point in the park from where you get the first view of the big glaciers coming down from the patagonian ice field. This is absolutely amazing as i reached the pass the wind was absolutely howling through the gap. I shot a couple of videos from various locations
me by raging river valle francis
me by raging river valle francis and then built a little wind shelter out of rocks and just sat and chilled for a couple of hours revelling in how beautiful the place was. The view is so spectacular i think it is a real shame that so many people come for the highlight tour to the south and miss it. It was definately the nicest spot on the trek as far as i was concerned.
From there the trek travels steeply downhill through a forest and then annoyingly goes up and down very steeply when just below is an obvious glacial plateau that should have made a simple path. I was not overly impressed with the path route planner but aftera few incidents when i had left the path previously i decided i would stick with it. That night i camped by the side of the glacier so got to cook and eat dinner while gazing out at the ice. That night i didn't sleep all that well so decided to get up early having lain awake most of the night. I popped to the glacier and got a quick video of it in the predawn light with the dawn chorus of some of the birds, it was really cool. Then i packed up and trekked to a mirador that looks out over the glacier and cooked breakfast while watching over it again. Unfortunately you don't get quite as much 'chunks falling off' action at glacier grey as you do at Perito Moreno but it was still quite cool.
I decided having picked up so much rubbish left around the trek by careless travellers that i would dump it at the next refuge. While there i spotted an iceberg that was just the shape of a swan. I couldn't believe it as obviously 90% of the iceberg is still underwater so to have the tip look like that seemed to defy all natural laws but the photo shows it, definate swan charateristics. As I walked round the track i met a couple of londoners from richmond. They were hillarious they had been at a wedding in chile and had planned to come and spend a few days in the park but with various bad planning and bad transport connections had only 2 days. They really wanted to see the Valle Francis so we motored along the path to get there as quickly as we could. The path on the way round is stunning as you pass pristine lakes that shimmer about every colour of blue imaginable. Valle Francis is the wildest part of the Torres circuit and is truly beautiful, if a little crowded as you file up the path. It starts with a section through forest beneath the most amazing face of a mountain with glaciers pouring down and waterfalls coming from the glaciers, often being blown back up by the ferocious winds. Avalanches occur constantly with chunks falling from the glaciers which appear to cling to steep faces, the avalanches form a tallus slope of ice which eventually reforms into a secondary glacier which then carves further down the valley. It's really very spectacular, a river pours down the valley and at one point forms a series of waterfalls, the rocks and water pressure however somehow combine to make the water shoot out horizontally and then fall and then head out horizontally, or even spurt upwards again without there being any specific flow to it, that combined with the wind made for a good soaking when trying to get a picture next to it (i heard from a girl i met at chalten that when she was there someone had fallen in and been quite badly hurt so a bit of care was required too!!). Here the boys had to turn back so i promised them i would take a video of the horns further up. Hence the start which says just for matt and keith. On the way up i bumped into a few people i knew from the first day at the towers and some others from chalten. It seemed that we had all basically been going around the same attractions with slightly different timings and speeds so we inevitably bumped into people time and time again. That was actually quite nice because it gave the impression that you knew people in the area, after a couple of months of only meeting people for a couple of days and then moving on. When i got to the top of the track i thought i would climb a little higher, apparently if you climb all the way to the pass it is possible to see the fitzroy range in the distance. I had covered more than 2 standard days by this point though and was getting a little tired. When i reached the top of the vegetation line i spotted a pair of blokes coming down from the pass so decided to wait and have some chocolate and find out how much further it was. When they got to me they looked exhausted despite it being a really nice (if windy) day in the valley the pass had blizzard like conditions with snow really strong winds, which under the circumstances was perfect as otherwise i would probably have had to spend another few hours climbing. I just strolled back down enjoying the view of lago pehoe where the wind picked water up from the lake surface blowing odd patterns across the lake.
I was going to go back to the towers the next day, but i bumped into some friends from the fitzroy range and decided to go back to puerto natales with them instead. Luckily for me we made it out just in time for my bus, actually the bus left before me but i managed to chase it down and get him to stop. Also luckily for me i didn't go back up as i met some people who had done and it had rained and been completely rubbish. Anyway that night in puerto natales i actually managed to find quite a cool place. We went out to dinner to El rincon Don Chicho's which basically just means Don Chicho's restaurant. The owner was an absolute legend, he must have been about 70, did all the BBQing while his wife made the salads and constantly came round to impress you with card tricks in spanish which were a little tricky to understand. He also had a ring on a long rope that he could get to catch on a hook on the wall from just about anywhere in the restaurant, obviously the audience had to try so luckily for me i got it quite quickly, otherwise my competitive spirit would have kicked in and i would have been there all night. Dinner lasted for hours by which time we were all hammered, including strangely Don Chicho, we asked him where we could go next so he took is all in his car somewhere across town to a club. That was fantastic and the club was fun until about 5'ish when i wanted to go home and i had absolutely no idea where i was going. As i stumbled around i bumped into 2 men and asked them where to go and they took me into this house. It was clearly a house of disrepute although i had no idea what was going on. There i drank pisco and smoked their cigarettes having run out of my own while they tried in vain to explain to me what was on offer. A few drinks later i got up thanked them for their hospitality and headed off still with very little idea where i was. Eventually i found my hostel got let in and went to bed. I was on the top bunk, however when i woke up i was on the bottom bunk with the top bunk mattress lying at an angle. Apparently as my roommate later told me i had come in jumped onto the top bunk fallen straight through with a huge crash but was asleep by the time i hit the bottom bunk and no one could wake me up so they just left me where i was. Fortunately for the guy that had been sleeping beneath me he had caught an early bus and i had come back so late he had already left. Just as well really although in my opinion it was a shabbily made bunkbed and i harboured no blame at all.
From here it is on to ushuaia some more treking and possibly an antarctic cruise if i can find one cheap enough. That will have to wait for the next entry though.
take it easy
alex
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Chris
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Got a suggestion - I get a bit confused sometimes with where these places are you talk about. In fact, sometimes exactly which country you;re in at any one time ( no change there, though). What about loading up a map, so we can follow you around? Or is everyone else's geography of South America a lot better than mine? Happy trekking!