More trekking and glaciers - Argentinian stylee

After a good recovery meal and nights’ sleep in Puerto Natales we felt rested enough to continue the journey north. Two recommended destinations further north across the border in Argentina were El Calafate and El Chalten. El Calfate to take in the awesome Perito Moreno glacier in the National Park de Los Glaciers and one of only 2 advancing glaciers in South America. Apparently if you were lucky and visited the glacier at the right time of day, you could see big shards break off and crash into the icy water below. Obviously with a tourist spectacle like this came a pretty touristy little town set up to cater for everyone. But it was pleasant enough and we found a cute little campsite within the town centre, near the creek. You could camp anywhere within the grounds, amongst scattered picnic benches and they even had Wifi (at times!) The adjoining parrilla (specialist meat / grill house) had an all you could eat deal on meat for £7, but with me having scoffed a whole lamb the night before, we opted for a pasta and sauce at the campsite. But with this new town came a new flavour of pasta n sauce - salsa verdes – green veg flavour and we even found some sun dried tomatoes to add, taking it to serious a la carte levels! 

Dinner at camp. New pasta n sauce and statutory beer.

The town was in a gently undulating vastness of shrub land and on our 5hr journey, there was no more to see than the odd guanaco (lama like animal) or nandu (small ostrich) for entertainment. They are quite cute but even these only popped up every 10 minutes or so. The park where the glacier was situated was 2.5hrs further west and only accessible via a slightly overpriced tour bus from town and entrance fee. However, the camping and pasta and sauce kept us within the daily budget and the glacier is well worth a visit. The bus took us there for 11am and left 4 hours later. Within this 4hr window you could walk along one of the built up walkways that give you different angles on the glacier or if you fancied it, you could just sit and watch a single point for the entire 4 hours with cameras poised to get a shot of some ice breaking off. This is what me and Tim did and although there were no epic breakoffs, I captured a few little ones, but unfortunately missed the bigger one that happened after my camera ran out of battery! 

It was really good fun though and the blue tones of the glacier were beautiful. Stupidly though we forgot to put on any sun cream so I spent the day wrapped up like I was on the arctic, even though it was quite warm at times. And even through all of this, I still managed to burn my nose, again. Fingers though are getting much better. The anti-histamine has worked but unfortunately I think the irreparable damage is that I’ve managed to age the middle part of each finger by 30 years or so, and I didn’t like my fingers to start with. But they no longer hurt or burn like they’re in a furnace anymore, so I’m counting myself lucky! 

Here are some shots of my second favourite glacier (my first being the epic Glacier Grey at Torres del Paine. You can’t beat your first glacier). Other news from El Calafte – it’s where we wrote all your Xmas postcards out and Tim bought a new waterproof coat after finding out his old inherited Adidas one wasn’t waterproof anymore.

First view of amazing Perito Moreno

Getting people in the shot gives perspective on just how HUGE this glacier is

Dressed up for the arctic, but it was actually quite warm!

After a 3 hour wait, I got a shard breaking off. Such a loud thunderous sound.

After El Calafate, we took the bus a further 4hrs north to a town called El Chalten. A bit smaller and more chilled than El Calafate and home to the impressive Fitz Roy mountain range. If any of you see Ali (with Star) down the Charterhouse, it’s probably a range he knows about, being a keen climber. The small town, built around one main street is Argentina’s newest town and is where many cool climber types settle to wait for a good day weather wise to attempt the 3500m climb up the biggest peak in the range. The town is situated immediately under this monstrous peak, making it one of the most spectacularly situated places we’ve been to, whilst also being totally at the mercy of mountain weather. Named Argentina’s trekking capital, we were looking forward to hitting the trails, poles in hand and with wet weather gear at the ready! The plan was to do a few day hikes possibly a 2 day hike and then we were going to attempt the adventurous border crossing into Chile, which apparently uses a combination of hiking trails, buses, horseback and boats. Disappointingly however it appeared the boat that was needed for part of the journey was broken and the remoteness of this place meant finding an engineer was a time consuming process, so was the latter process of then fixing it. We held out hope though and at the end of each day went back to the tourist office to check on updates, but uncertainty prevailed and it seemed it was too much to risk 2 days hiking with all our stuff to just be stuck on a shore waiting for a non-existent boat, and what’s more, we realised we only have a month left to get up to Santiago to meet my sis – which I’m crazily looking forward too, so we decided to bus it further north and cross the border at Los Antiguos / Chile Chico, a little town further up to then get onto Chile’s Carretera Austral – the only road, and gravel at that in places, that services southern Chile. In fact, I’m on that bus right now, having endured 9 hours already and hopefully with only a few more to go. 

In regards to the hiking here in El Chalten, I can see the draw and it is pretty special, but obviously very dependent on the weather. In the end we did 2 single day hikes, eliminating the need to take any more than lunch and cameras.

The first day, we hiked up into the foothills on the Fitz Roy range. Being fresh footed, we sprung about in the sunshine. I even just wore a t shirt at one point. However, we soon realised that calm sunny conditions brought forth horrible mountain flies. Not quite sure if this is the technical term for them, but they’re like horse flies but bigger and have an obsession with flying into your face, hair, buzzing and chasing you until you look like a mad person, flapping around and running in circles, sometimes not even looking where you’re going, risking impending death on cliff edges, all due to bloody flies. So I spent much of this walk dressed up with hat, snood, jacket, sweltering in the heat, but safe from flies. The 3 peaks we were headed too could be seen from afar and the mountains and mountain glaciers were beautiful. However, on approaching the peaks, the cloud started to appear and unfortunately we weren’t able to get a clear view of them on arrival. It was still beautiful and the wind at this point kept the flies away. What was weird though was at the foot of the lagoon, the wind dropped to a minimum, allowing us to sit in the peaceful tranquillity of a glacier within a beach like environment. It was still cold, so I kept dressed up, but I snoozed peacefully for an hour or so whilst Tim chucked rocks into the lake and tried to sink the lonely blue floaters. We waited for the cloud to lift but it wasn’t going to happen, so we did the 3 hour return journey and chilled out with a few beers at the hostel for the night. 

The Fitz Roy mountain range in El Chalten

Beautiful glacier lake under the Fitz Roy range

Sink the floater. Good game!

A bit of iceberg

This part of Patagonia is still incredibly windy and that night the wind howled through our dorm window and the driving rain actually penetrated the whole side of the building soaking the gear of anyone who was unfortunately sleeping on that side of the building. We’re not sure if this was commonplace but I think the winds had been uncharacteristically strong that night given the amount of fallen signs and broken doors about town the next day. The weather was a bit better in the morning, the rain had cleared but it was still really windy. We nearly wussed out of our planned trek, but thought we’d head on up and see how it went. We could always turn back if it was too bad. The trek was to another lagoon, but it was a much harder trek in terms of distance and the amount of climbing we had to do. Given a total headwind in places, it was near impossible sometimes but we kept going. I sometimes thought I was going to be blown away, especially when the wind got into my waterproofs and ballooned me out like a parachute. After a 3 hour stint and bit of lunch in a semi sheltered wooded part, we reached the start of what appeared to be a pretty horrendous climb up a mountainside. The path was marked out with little yellow stick markers and came with the warning, only for people in good physical condition and proper walking boots. It also mentioned that risks were increased in windy and rainy conditions. It was now currently raining and windy. I also was a bit perturbed by the fact that it wasn’t clear what they meant by risks. Injury? Death even? 

The path that steeply traversed its way up the slope was combination of gravel and big boulders and steps. Each step took its toll on energy levels and the wind added even more trepidation in places. I was taking no chances. I shortened my walking pole to ‘Gollum’ mode – a mode I’ve made up so I can keep low to the ground in windy conditions. I end up looking a little bit like the hunchback of Notre Dame but it keeps me safer. You can actually hear the gusts coming too. They start out as a faint roar from the top or side of the mountain and usually result in me hitting the deck for shelter and shouting ‘Tim get down, it’s coming’. God, it’s so scary. Basically, we spent 30 minutes climbing like this. We met 2 really nice Israeli guys half way up who just increased my fears even more by saying, it’s pretty windy up at the peak. Hold on tight, keep low and use the rocks to grip onto. What the *uck?! I said to Tim that I was unsure if I could do this and we agreed that he’d go in front and check things out and beckon me on if all was safe. There were 2 peaks to overcome, all made of loose gravel and boulders. They weren’t pointy peaks, more like broad wind smoothed ascents marked with larger boulders in places. Some of which I would hide behind when gusts came. I climbed the last 10 meters on my belly, until I saw out the corner of my eye this deep blue sapphire lake just over the top of the last flat peak. It was mesmerising and I knew we had made it. We’d made it to the high up lagoon in the sky. 

We were now a third of the height of the enormous Fitz Roy peak. We couldn’t see the peak coz the weather was too bad and to add to the scariness of the situation there was also no one else around. But we could see the lagoon and I could feel the wind in my face, together with all the bits of snow and ice is was driving into us from the tops of the mountains. I took 2 photos and hid behind a rock for about 3 minutes and then yelled at Tim, who was a little further down towards the lagoon that I think we had to get out of there. I couldn’t go any further and I was worried that the cloud would lower and we would get stuck. I was in a bit of a frenzy, but I’ve never done anything like this before. Tim held more composure and I only learnt later that this can be the typical kind of weather you can come to expect up a mountain. I however just thought I was going to die. I retreated from my hiding place just below the second peak using a great pose. I was lying on my back but also crawling backwards propelling myself back up the mountain using my arms that were bent and behind me. I don’t know where this pose came from but it made me feel safer and we had soon got back down and over the 2 peaks. Then came the slow descent down the rest of the mountainside. This took a further 20 minutes and was gruelling on the knees, included a few ‘get down’ moments behind big rocks. The only mad person we saw going the other way was some crazy guy all dressed in day glow orange with all the gear you could imagine, 2 walking poles and a determined look on his face. He didn’t even acknowledge us as he glided up across the boulders. I still wonder what happened to him and I hope he was safe. I’m sure he was. He was just a nut job. I kept an eye out for him in the sky nonetheless that night but didn’t see anything!

2nd day hiking. Worse weather conditions. Incredibly windy. We climbed THIS high!

The prize for the climb - the hidden lagoon in the sky

Amazing clouds on the way back down

Photographer in action

At the end, in full on gear!

Once down, I was in a very happy place, so happy to be alive that I didn’t care about the 3 further hours we had to trek through driving rain and wind to get back to the town. In fact, I loved it. I was spurred on by being dressed from head to toe in impermeable rainproof gear and I knew there was beer and chips on the horizon. In fact, even better than chips, I had one of the best steaks I have ever eaten that night in a restaurant we were lucky to have sampled on our first night in El Chlaten. It’s called El Muro and it’s absolutely beautiful. Great mountain kitchen food – locro, typical Argentinian stew, speciality lamb dishes, chicken with wild mushrooms, lovely homemade pasta and a fantastic range of wines. So yes, tonight was the night to sample the steak, rare to medium and it was so soft it was like pate. Served up with half a baked onion and a few other whole baked vegetables, washed down with 2 beers and a great local wine, desert and coffee. Such tasty food and all the better having looked death in the face 5 hour previous. 

Rewarding and well earnt food

Homecooked salmon filled Raviolli. Find.

I’ve since seen photos taken of this lagoon on a sunny day. What a peaceful place it looks. That’s not the lagoon of my memories. And even though I only have 2 photos of this place, the feeling of being so exposed on that mountaintop and trying to hold myself steady in the sustained winds with driving icy rain, 1000s of meters up in the air and looking at this sapphire blue lagoon created from the combination of 3 melting glaciers up in the mountains will never leave my memory. Awesome hiking. Thanks El Chalten and thanks weather gods. It wouldn’t have been the same without the fear of death!

So that was El Chalten and the last time we’ll be in Argentina for a while as the plan is to now travel up through southern Chile for a bit more trekking, adventuring, beers and still the wind I think. It’s now 8:30pm and the bus must nearly be in Los Antiguos up near the Chilean border. We think however that the border is closed so it looks like we’re trying to find somewhere to pitch the tent tonight and will try to cross the border tomorrow. I wonder if during this next border crossing we’ll meet any more Louis-like characters in their Scooby doo vans. I’ll let you know.