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Published: August 8th 2007
-20 but still smiling
The views at the top of Mt Arenales brought a smile to even the most frozen of facesTravel update: up until arrival at our third stop in Argentina and our 94th destination of the trip, Mendoza, we had been on the road for 307 days with a scheduled 53 days remaining. I have become a more patient and slightly thinner version of my previous self - complete with shaved head and one of those silly triangular tufts of hair below my bottom lip (which is now long enough to trap scraps of food) - Whilst Carla has become my fiance and less of a worrier who has had one haircut in 10 months and now constantly wears a faded green hoody.
And together we have developed the ability to take anything that is thrown at us with a shrug of the shoulders and a sense of humour (more of this later) having experienced more spectacular and unforgettable sights than we could have ever dreamt was possible in a lifetime - never mind in just one year.
Mendoza
We are getting to fully appreciate the sheer size of Argentina with yet another overnight bus - this time with seats so large and comfortable they resembled something that Jimmy Saville used to sit on during the Jim´ll
Oliver of the Antartic
Complete with frozen furry hood and small nose icicle fix it years.
Mendoza is pretty close to where our South American journey started, Santiago - and it is only separated by a spectacular stretch of the Andes and a 7 hour trip along a "pass" which spends most of the year closed due to extreme weather conditions (more of this later). It is these mountains that make Mendoza an attraction, firstly for the trekking and secondly for the vineyards that fill the region producing 70% of the country´s wine - all offering an abundance of free tastings. We had stopped here hoping to partake in both attractions and after booking into a great hosel run by an English guy, his Argetinian girlfriend and their crazy German Sheperd we grabbed a place on the following day´s wine tour.
Hostel Lao is great - nice people, hot showers and more of a homely than hostel feel - the only real downside is Mendoza itself isn´t the most enthralling of towns and to be truthful even though Salta was "nice" we are yet to discover a great Argentinian town or city.
Our first night´s attempts to find some food saw us avoiding the stretch of gringo bars and restaurants and
Matt of the Antartic
complete with frozen beard seeing what was available nearer to the hostel - but 45 minutes later we ended up back where we had started - very hungry and slightly relieved that we had avoided arrest or worse in the riots we had walked into during our search for a restaurant in the centre of town.
The following days wine tour was the fourth we had done since being away making us expert enough to tell a Merlot from a Malbec - the main variety of the region. We had an OK group - 4 Mexicans, 2 Swiss, 2 Americans and an Austrian guy who had been up all night drinking and had such a bad hangover he didn´t touch a drop all day. After a couple of Bodegas and a distillery we got taken to a restaurant where we were all presented with one of the biggest spreads of food I have ever seen and just ate and drank the whole afternoon away.
After all this and a night out with a group from the hostel where we all ate steaks as big as our heads we decided it was time for some fresh and and exercise.
The guy who runs
Carla of the Antartic
Complete with frozen hair, hat and Mike Reid sunglasses the night shift at the hostel advised us that a mountain hike advertised in the reception was "easy going" and like all our previous treks could be completed in our worn out trainers. So with his advice we booked the trek as well as a nights stay in the lodge located at the foot of the Andes on the promise that there may be a "little sprinkling of snow" making it a really nice place to spend an evening in front of its roaring open fire.
The following morning, full of romantic visions of the next 48 hours, we boarded the mini van for the 2 hour drive to a place called San Antonio - the location of the lodge and starting point of our trek. On the way we were introduced to our hiking buddy, a lovely well spoken English guy named Oliver, who like us knew very little about what to expect but seemed to be hoping for something a little more harcdore as he had trekked through such places as the Atlas Mountians and the Pyranees and even had his own handheld GPS unit. This began to put a few doubts in our minds, doubts that
Feeling on top of the world
At last the spectacular frozen Andes come into view after 4 hours of trekking hell only increased when we reached our lodge to find it surrounded in about 2 feet of very fresh snow.
What followed can only be described in a whole range of words and emotions including torturous, arctic, dangerous, rewarding, spectacular and unforgettable - basically it proved to be one of the most physically and mentally demanding things we have both ever done.
After proudly announcing we had never worn hiking boots before we were introduced to our guide Rodriguez and handed each a pair of plastics which are the footwear of choice for those people attacking the sort of terrain that your average hiking boot can´t handle - this now included 3 unprepared Brits, Rodriguez and 3 Spanish speaking girls who all had a crush on our "xtreme" guide and a quiet confidence indicating that they had done this sort of thing before.
Next we were all handed a sort of snow pole and marched out of the lodge where a large group of Argentinians decked out in designer ski-wear, watching their equally designer clad children sledge down a small hill stared at us as if to say "where the hell are those idiots going in weather like
Can we go home now
The cloud and temperature starts to drop on top of Mount Arenales this we couldn´t even see our mountain through the wind and clouds and as we disappeared out of view I swear they all thought we would never be heard or seen of again.
Our initiation test was a fast flowing stream that could only be crossed by a foot wide ice covered plank and only after we were all safely on the other side did Rodriguez explain what we were all about to do. The mountain ahead of us (which we stil couldn´t see) was called Arenales and formed part of the frontal range of the Andes - with no trail or pathways we would have to blindly head up it´s steep side until we reached the ridge which we would then follow to the summit located some 3,400 metres above sea level. From here we would have to return by a more direct and steep route to ensure we got back by nightfall.
If he had told us all of this before the crossing the stream I think we would have spent the rest of the afternoon in front of the open fire drinking hot chocolate with the designer ski wear massive.
We headed off led by
Mike Reid goes mountain climbing
PAT.....PAT me hats frozen to me head PAT Rodriguez who was VERY closely followed by the 3 girls, then Oliver, then a gap of about 50 feet and finally me and Carla fighting against wind, 2ft of snow and the weight of bloody plastics.
2 hours later we reached the lowest point of the ridge only to be greeted by an icy wind which we were told wasn´t far off -20 degrees and immediately froze my silly triangular tuft of hair, covered everyone´s hats in ice and gave Oliver an icicle hanging from his nose. This we endured for a further 40 minutes until we found enough shelter to eat our packed lunch, during which my fingers on my right hand become so cold that Rodriguez had to massage my hand and then place it under his coat to transfer the heat from his bare torso to my frozen fingers. This all looked a bit gay but to be honest it worked a treat so I didn´t care and after I eventually got the some feeling back Rodriguez even gave up his own gloves to replace the useless wooly fingerless ones that had got me into trouble in the first place - my hero!!
When we had
On top of the world
The frozen ground, blue skies and swirling clouds. A brief but unforgettable view on top of Mt Arenales finished lunch we prepared to move on for the final push to the summit which was still out of view within the clouds, but not before all the Spanish girls started complaining of cold fingers hoping that they would get a chance to lay their hands on Rodriguez´s six pack.
The final push seemed pointless and moral was at its lowest with one of the Spanish girls getting a little upset and wanting to turn around - but by this stage the quickest way down was the slope beyond the summit so we continued even though visibility was down to about 10 feet, God knows what would have happened if we had got lost up there, I have never felt so isolated and cut off in my life.
The top was reached and marked by a small cross, but after some half hearted high fives with Rodriguez we all realised that we could still be at the bottom the visibilty was that bad .......But then the impossible happened and the large cloud that had covered the mountain top lifted and revealed the sort of view that comes with accompanying angelic choir and stops you dead in your tracks.
3,400
Smiling through the pain
Carla does her best trekking pose before it got to cold to take any more photos metres up but completely surrounded by jagged white peaks towering up to 6,000 metres and looking down on bright white clouds that swirled and danced like smoke from a fire......Then as quickly as the blue skies came they disappeared leaving us all back in a thick white cloud but the smiles on everybody´s faces made us all realise it had been worthwhile.
As we headed back down the snow deepened and after every 5 or 10 steps you would drop to waist deep and have to pull yourself up trying not to slip or get your ankle twisted on a rock hidden beneath the 4 ft of snow. This continued for an hour and a half and if we hadn´t laughed we would have cried but thankfully when the lodge finally came into view down the valley it gave us enough energy to make the final half hour push along the first path we had seen since we left nearly 6 hours ago.
We arrived back wet, tired and relieved we had all made it without loosing any toes to frostbite and that evening we sat drinking in front of an open fire glad that we had done it
And their off
The first few steps...if only we had known, we wouldnt have gone any further but 100% certain that we would never EVER do it again!
Paz
MandC
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Jim
non-member comment
Same time next week ?
Fair play to you both, that sounded Horrendous yet exhilarating at the same time and its inspired me to got and climb that big hill on Campbell Park!!