Advertisement
Published: December 11th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Cerro Poincenot
Too cloudy to get a good look at Monte Fitz Roy This isn´t the southern most we are going, nor is it the end of Ruta 40, but it is the furthest south we were going on Ruta 40: Los Glaciers National Park. There isn´t nearly as much to say about this part of the road trip, however the sights were spectacular. Completely awesome, in the awe-inspiring goose bump raising sense of the word, not the cliche over used TMNT parlance of our time. We decided to spend our first few days in the northern part of the park, seeing the Fitz Roy mountain range. We got lucky, as the first people we met when we woke up in El Chalten were people from the National Park Service in the U.S. They were down in Argentina to do some work on the trails in the area and had an unlimited supply of information for us on the area and the hikes we intended to do. Luckily for us, they had just gotten the best weather forecast in three months; it was going to be warm weather, low winds, and the constantly cloudy mountains were going to be clear. It was perfect news.
With all this help we were able to jump
on the trail that same day and make it up to our first back country campsite at Camp Poicenot. We set up our tent and headed up to Laguna de los Tres. It was a pretty steep hike, but gave us a great view of Launa Sucia, an incredibly turquoise lake, a few thousand feet below and the Cerro Fitz Roy Range. Fitz Roy itself was cloudy, but we could see several of the other jagged peaks. A few were snow covered, but many of them raise from the range at such sharp angles that snow can´t stay on them. When you look at them, it seems as though they would extend upwards without ever reaching a pinnacle. The stone is a gray lavender, which emits a very cold feel, making the sixty degree weather feel much colder. Heading back down the steep, exposed hill the sun started setting, at around seven. As I was going to bed, at eleven, it still hadn´t set.
The next day we woke up, checked out a lookout towards a glacier just a short ways from our camp, saw an unclouded view of Cerro Fitz Roy, then packed up and headed off to
D´Angostini camp, a few hours hike to the west on the shores of Laguna Torre. The walk wasn´t particularly hard and the landscape wasn´t exceptionally fascinating, but it was interesting the way the plants had all adopted to the gale force winds that typify the area. They all were bare on one side with the branches extending off in the opposite direction, bracing themselves from the storms. Finally, in the early afternoon we got to camp and set ourselves up. Shortly thereafter we made the ten minute walk to the lake. It was gorgeous, the lake is quite large with several bright blue icebergs floating throughout, recently broken off from Glacier Grande which sits at the far end of the lake. Cerro Torre and the surrounding mountains sprout from the shores on the far side, but were covered in clouds when we arrived. We spent the next few hours just chilling at the shores reading and taking photos. Eric went on a short hike to the lookout, Drew and Burton went back to camp to relax, I just sat where I was reading and mozying about.
Next morning, as with the morning before, the clouds cleared treating us to
Laguna Sucia
Cerro Poincenot behind it on the right a great view of Cerro Torre. It is without a doubt the most beautiful mountain I´ve ever seen. It is incredibly jagged, at times reaching an acute angle in its ascent towards the heavens, without the slightest bit of snow being able to cling to its sides, except at the very tip, giving it a tiny little top hat. We had this staring down on us as we hiked out of the national park. On our journey out we ran into Drew´s friend Ali, who had been traveling with him for a while before the road trip. He decided to join up with us on the rest of the trip and we headed off to the southern part of the park near El Calafate.
The southern part of the park is famous for the Perrito Moreno glacier, one of the only advancing glaciers in the world. It is awe inspiringly large, over sixty meters high and several kilometers long, going beyond the line of site off into the snow covered mountains and the South American Ice Field. Sitting next to it is like hearing an incredible thunder storm coming in from the distance as every so often a rumble
of cracks and crashes bellows from far away and continually moves closer till it reaches the end of the glacier. We were able to spend quite a while there, as we still had the car and could leave at our pleasure, and we witnessed a lot of action as large chunks of ice began falling off into the water below. First, we saw a large chunk fall off, then two enormous portions flew forth from underneath, like submarines surfacing. (The comparison is both in action and in size.) Then, a spire not too far from the lookout began to fall apart. It took well over half an hour for it to complete crash and we waited in anticipation as one piece after another crashed. Finally, the entire sixty meter spire, the size of a twenty story building, collapsed into the lake. It was one of the most incredible natural events I´ve ever witnessed. (Don´t worry fam, I have it on video.)
We headed back into town completely victorious. It was one of the best road trips of my life; one of the best weeks of my life. We saw an incredible amount of Argentina, some amazing wildlife, and we
Burrrr at Laguna Torre
Glacier Grande in the far background did it at our pace. For those ever thinking of doing Patagonia, I would recommend it. While the initial costs are a bit more, there are tons of ways to save money (camping, cooking, etc.) that you otherwise wouldn´t be able to do. Anyway, we savored our victory with an amazing home cooked meal of tenderloin, sausage, and mash (Eric loved his veggie sandwich), and plenty of Argentine wine. Then we went to the casino to try and ride out the luck. It didn´t work out that well. They had a cover charge, the odds on the craps table were different, and Lady Luck was no where to be seen. I left with my tail between my legs, until I did the conversion and realized I hadn´t really lost that much! Not even that could spoil the week.
And, on a bizarre note that provoked and supported one of my points of frustration with other travelers, we were headed to the bus station the next morning loaded with our packs on our backs, our day backs counterbalanced on our fronts, with four of us on the right hand side of the street and Eric walking alone listening to his
iPod on the left. Suddenly, a forty something year old tourist comes running up to the corner of the street on the right hand side, eagerly pulls out an enormous camera, focuses directly on Eric, and starts snapping a dozen photos, as if he was some rare animal. It was ridiculous, completely objectifying him as if he wasn´t even human, just snapping away at the weird, longhaired, white kid with huge packs. I only mention this as I´ve seen it happen in reverse numerous times, where backpackers are all too eager to take dozens of photos of locals due to their dress or customs without regard to how it objectifies the individual being photographed. Many people who I´ve told to stop it have tried to justify it, and I always ask how they would feel if it happened to them, but, as it had never happened, no one could really respond. Well it happened, and it was felt as weird as I would have imagined. So, if you read this, please, don´t take photos of people without asking their permission first. It is rude, it treats them as less than human, and is like placing them in a museum for
everyone to stare at in the future. Okay, off my soap box...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0338s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kerry Lynn Fleischauer
non-member comment
STUDS...
What a handsome group of guys!