“Rest” Day - 2/5/10
Today was a rest day. So that means Kevin ran 15 miles and I ran 2.5. You shouldn’t be surprised really if you know Kevin. He was disappointed about the clouds at Laguna de las Tres, so he went back again today since the weather was good and of course got some great photos. We followed that up with a pizza and later on an great dinner at this place called Maffia (yes I believe they spelled it with two F’s). We had both had spaetzel pasta with beef, a bottle of wine (for only ~$12 USD), and a large piece of tiramisu for dessert.
Loma del Pliegue Tumbado Viewpoint - 2/6/10
Kevin was off today to do the Huemul Circuit which is a 4 day, 3 night trip that allows you to see the Patagonian ice field (3rd largest in the world). Only Greenland and Antarctica have larger ones. Here’s what he is doing: link to youtube video.
I opted out because I didnt’ think I’d handle the steep sections well. I’m still working up to that, though I’m certainly making progress. I’m not sure if Kevin will do a blog when he is done, but I look forward to it if he does… it’s him and three guys from England, New Zealand, and South Africa plus two guides that have a so/so grasp of english. From what I could tell, none of the guys really knew much spanish… so I much look forward to the recap!
While Kevin is on his awesome trek, I’ll be doing all of the day trips around El Chalten. Today, I decided to share the trail with Kevin a bit by doing the trip to a viewpoint called Loma del Pliegue Tumbado, which shares the trail with the Huemul trek for about 3-4 miles. Both hikes begin at the ranger station at the south side of town. Kevin and I had breakfast together, then we packed, and he was ready to meet up with the others at Serac (tour company that arranged the trip) at 9AM.
What he did from there.. I don’t know. I spent an extra 15 minutes getting ready then I headed to the ranger station. Once there, I registered the fact that we saw a huemul deer (the trek is named after the mountain "Huemul" which is named after the deer) at the Agostini campsite the other day. I actually had to fill out an official form describing the ecnounter and then they requested that I also email any photos to them.
After that I started on the trail which began in a small canyon next to a river.. I wasn’t a huge fan but it really wasn’t much of a drop at all. After about 10-15 minutes of that tops, the trail just kept going up up up in an exposed field. After a while, awesome views of El Chalten and the mountains around opened up behind me. I passed many groups of people but never Kevin, so either they were far forward or behind me.
After that the climb continues into a lush forest and just keeps going up! There was little to NO elevation loss on this entire hike as I was climbing to the viewpoint. After at least 30 minutes of this forested section, the trail becomes completed exposed on a barren hillside with expansive, amazing views all around.
As I climbed higher, I kept seeing more and more of Viedma Lake behind me as well as more of the valleys to my right. Eventually after another 30-45 minutes of climbing, I finally made it to the viewpoint and boy was it worth it. I had an epic view of Lago Torre (the lake we had camped near when we saw the deer), clouded Fitz Roy, and the valleys surrounding.
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| The hill to the left is the knobby hill that describe in the paragraphs below |
After this I had the option of going up this knobby hill to the left that was no joke in terms of the steepness of the climb I started getting a bit nervous as I kept climbing even though the trail switched back over your same steps for a while just simply due the exceptional steepness of the trail. It was gravel.. So I imagine if you feel you’d just slide for a little bit until friction stopped you.
I said pretty much this when I talked to a couple of guys that were headed down from the top. The response I got was paraphrased as follows: “Kudos to you for getting this far considering you are afraid of heights. Yes this is rather steep… but don’t worry it’s pretty flat and wide once you get to the top.” … me: “Yeah it doesn’t seem like you would die if you slipped anywhere along the way.”... them: “Errrm… uh… well it gets a bit hairy up there at a few spots… but it’s um… worth it.. It’s beautiful up there.”
After that discussion, I went another maybe 50 ft up… I was ¾ of the way done with the climb (maybe 3-5 minutes from the part where you have to climb over what looks like a rocky outcropping), when I decided I’d gone far enough and didn’t want to find out what was hairy about the climb. I got a lovely view of Viedma lake that you can’t get from the bottom, and then I headed back to down.
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| I didn't think of taking a picture of how far I got until I already descended again, I got about 2 switchbacks above this photo. |
The hike back took me half the time, but my ankle was definitely feeling the pounding after a while… 3500 feet downhill with no break can be painful after a bit. All in all it was 100% worth it and one of the best hikes of the trip for me. Some random pics I took on the way back down:
And then reward = happy hour drinks and calamari:
FINAL STATS:
13.88 miles (including walk from hotel to ranger station), 5:38:31 total time, 24:23 avg. pace, 3612 feet ascended
Lago Desierto - 2/7/10
After I finished the hike the prior day, I managed to book a tour with a company called Zona Austral (recommend by Serac) to check out a lake about 1 ½ hours north of town. They picked me up from the hotel at 8AM and then we were off.
Once we had gone about a half mile and were level with the trails that head to Fitz Roy from town, route 23 begins… and it is gravel. It’s 37 kilometers of gravel… so it takes a lot longer than it should to get there. About 50% of the people on the bus (which was really more of a giant van with about 10 seats) got off at various spots along the way. This was all well and good because it allowed me to move to a seat to get better views along the way.
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| We kept going over narrow bridges with inches of room from the van! It felt like we were just driving over wooden planks a lot of the time. |
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| Seriously though |
We stopped after a bit at a nice waterfall along the route. Then, we continued onwards, finally arrived at the boat dock near the lake at 9:57AM. Our boat tour was scheduled for 10AM.. But I suppose it wasn’t going anywhere without us.
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| Salto de Anillo = name of waterfall |
We signed in and then boarded a medium sized boat (50 person capacity if I recall… maybe 25-35 seats though) and then began a cruise along the lake. The cruise took maybe an hour across during which we got lovely views of the peaks and glaciers around. Also, the guide gave us the option of having a hot chocolate or tea as well which was a nice and welcome surprise.
The boat stopped at the other end of the lake and we were given 15 minute to get off and take pictures if we would like. There would have been an awesome view of Fitz Roy from here, but as usual, he was blowing smoke. It was still lovely even so. As I was taking pictures, I saw quite a few bikepackers get on the boat.. so I suppose it is used as a ferry as well. We then road the boat for another 40 minutes until it stopped along a random dock along the way. Those of us who had booked the tour disembarked with the guide.
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| Fitz Roy in the distance |
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| View on the other side of the lake is not glaciated but still nice |
She led us to a large group tent, and then gave us the option of doing the easy trail, medium trail, or hard trail. Surprisingly everyone was game for the hard trail and there were 2 more guides that were actually there as well. It seemed like a lot for only about 5-6 people on the tour. The guides, me, and a young kid pretty much smoked everyone else to the top (though my calves were burning from the 14 miles the prior day). I think it took us 20 minutes at most, with a steep uphill climb along a stream the entire time, though it is advertised to take 45 minutes to the top. There was a lovely viewpoint of Huemul glacier and Desierto lake, then I walked up to a side viewpoint that lets you see the north side a bit better as well. After hanging around for quite a while while the other had a chance to look around, I ran back down to the beach.
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| Chasing down the guides |
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| short path to north viewpoint |
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| stream running into the lake |
I got back down about 10-15 minutes before everyone which gave me a chance to enjoy a nice hot coffee provided by one of the guides while we waited for the boat to arrive. Like clockwork, it got there at 1:15pm and we took it back to the main dock about 15 minutes away. Once there we had time to kill until 4pm when the bus was scheduled to arrive and we were all on our own.
I had asked one of the guides about the quality of the other hike to Huemul glacier and she advised that it was well worth the ~$12 USD entry fee (it’s on private land). Oh and she was right! It was also a quite steep climb over 2 kilometers with even some rope to help in parts. However, surprisingly since it was privately funded, the family that owns the property did a wonderful job marking the trail and making it safe.
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| Arrived at 1:15pm on the dot to take us back to the main shore |
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| Main shore with cool plants in the water |
I had asked one of the guides about the quality of the other hike to Huemul glacier and she advised that it was well worth the ~$12 USD entry fee (it’s on private land). Oh and she was right! It was also a quite steep climb over 2 kilometers with even some rope to help in parts. However, surprisingly since it was privately funded, the family that owns the property did a wonderful job marking the trail and making it safe.
It was a great hike up along a larger stream than the other hike and there were several access points along the way to get nice views of the stream cascading down with clouded in Fitz Roy in the background. At the top, there were a million little ways you could go to get viewpoints of the glacier as well as a nice glacial lake below it. It was crowded with people, but I can understand why.
The hike back was quick and I was back down at 3:30pm (this included a while for contemplation at the top). I had just enough time to order a sandwich from a random hut with a grill that was basically 2 pieces of baguette with a beef steak and some salsa and mayo. After the hiking, it might as well have been the best thing ever.
The hike back was quick and I was back down at 3:30pm (this included a while for contemplation at the top). I had just enough time to order a sandwich from a random hut with a grill that was basically 2 pieces of baguette with a beef steak and some salsa and mayo. After the hiking, it might as well have been the best thing ever.
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| Random rickety swing bridge to play with while waiting for the bus |
On the bus ride back, I sat in the same seat so I would be able to see the awesome views on the other side on the way back. I was glad I was.
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| Celebratory chocobanana waffle |
FINAL STATS:
Glacial View with Lago Desierto: 1.6 miles, 44:12 moving time, 758 ft. elevation gain
Huemul Glacier w/ Glacial Lake View: 2.4 miles, 01:04:22 moving time, 944 ft. elevation gain
Chorillo del Salto and Mirador de Aguilas y Condores - 2/8/17
I woke up to find out that the power was out and the water was not running. Luckily, the stoves run on gas, so I was able to still get a fine breakfast. It looked cloudy, so I decided I would do a relaxed hike over to waterfall called “Chorillo del Salto”. It was a 6K trail round trip not including my walk from the hotel.
The trail begins from the same parking lot where the trail goes to Fitz Roy. It rises up and then down with not very much gain paralleling the route 23. Then, a short section joins with the road for about half a kilometer; at this point there is a ½ kilometer trail to the right of the road, next to the river, that I completely missed. Finally, you cross the road, and then continue on a ~1 kilometer stretch until you finally get to the waterfall.
It sprinkled a little bit just as I was arriving, but then the rain stopped as quickly as it began and I had no need for my rain jacket. The waterfall was beautiful and there were tons of little boulders in the water to skip onto and sit on. I sat on a large on near the base of the waterfall and I kept seeing rainbow colors as it crashed into the rocks. Then, it was a simple walk back to town the same way.
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| Hehe read the sign. It's a contemplation area. |
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| On the hike back I noticed you get a good view of the hike we did last week up towards Fitz Roy. You walk right next to that big rocky area on the left then continue up to the ridge. The section that made me nervous is once you are on the ridge and there is a clearing next to you above the treeline. |
The weather astonishingly became very clear after this despite the cloudy morning and rain! By the time I got the hotel, I realized that I should go ahead and try to do the other short hikes in town. These leave from the ranger station on the south end of town and are called viewpoint of Condors (Condores) and viewpoint of Eagles (Aguilas). The first 5 minutes shares the same path as the way to Loma del Pliegue Tumbado, but then it diverges to the left. After a 10 minute climb, you get to a fork. To the left you can climb for 10 minutes to the Condores viewpoint and to the right you can go 30 minutes to the Aguilas viewpoint.
The Condores viewpoint gave a great view of town and the mountains surrounding. I saw no condors. I then walked back to the fork and took the gradual uphill to the Aguilas viewpoint. I saw no eagles, but at the viewpoint was an expansive view of the route into the south part of town, surrounding mountains, and Viedma lake.
Then, as I started to walk back, the mountain that blows smoke finally showed itself! That’s right, Fitz Roy was unclouded!! I took an absurd amount of photos, hung around for a bit, then walked back to town.
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| Condores viewpoint |
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| Aguilas viewpoint |
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| Aguilas viewpoint looking back at the trail |
Then, as I started to walk back, the mountain that blows smoke finally showed itself! That’s right, Fitz Roy was unclouded!! I took an absurd amount of photos, hung around for a bit, then walked back to town.
That’s it really… the power has gone out two additional times since I’ve been back. No one knows why because it’s not the weather. They think it’s because the power company is still working on fixes. In the interim I went to a local bakery and bought an assortment of goodies, drank some beer, and now I’m bored out of my mind. I can’t wait until Kevin gets back tomorrow.
FINAL STATS (for all hikes and includes walking north to south in town):
9.9 miles, 3:21:25 total moving time, 1232 ft. elevation gain
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