Fitz Roy - Cerro Torre: Sand Blasted and Wind Tossed

Ahhh the leasons to be learned.... Number 1, We are not in Canada, we are not in Canada. This is not Canadian camping.

We headed out early the first day of our trek, hoping to beat the crowds and also as we have heard the peaks are clearer in the early morning. This was true in part, we did beat the crowds, or at least for the first part of the trek, we just met them all as they were just leaving from the campground at 11am. The first day`s total of hiking was just under 10km so we arrived at the campground early and were delighted to find a camping spot with a semi view. What luck!

Lesson 2: View is not always a good thing.

The day progressed and the clouds moved in... You see in the southern Patagonias, they have this thing called wind. Not like wind back in Ontario or the Yukon, but wind like the kind of wind where you batton down the hatches, head indoors and cancel all plans for being outside, and as Chris might testify, it is enough to knock a man off his feet. It is that kind of ominous wind that sounds like 10 000 butane gas stoves fired up to maximum while on the back of a giant locomotive flying through the trees, so loud you actually feel like it should have a visual presence. The wind comes out of the west and generally is the least in the morning and the worst in late afternoon and evening. Shelter is key, and the more the better, even though it will still find you. So our campsite with the semi view turned into the wall of the storm. As the night went on winds battered our little tent and it put up quite a good fight, although it couldn´t stop the sand being driven in all directions, it was a little piece of Bolivia all over again.

You see the southern Patagonias, and especially where we are in Glacier National Park, there is a huge chunk of ice called the Hielo Sur. Can´t remember how big it actually is (maybe Chris will fill in the info from the book here), but it is the biggest ice concentration outside of the polar ice caps. Wind comes from the ocean, whips over the icefiels and smacks itself into the peaks and ranges in the park. The mountains actually create their own clouds, as the wind blows against the mountain faces which are really cold, thus causing the air to cool and moisture to condense creating clouds which seem to never leave the peaks of some of the summits. Some of the clouds can be in very interesting shapes and wind wipped designs and it can be quite beautiful.

So Cerro Torre clouded in, and we headed on to Fitz Roy, which also clouded in. We got up before sunrise to hike up to a mirador for a sunrise lookout (The sunrises here are very vibrant and are suposed to light the mountains on fire... all we saw were lots of pink clouds hiding the peaks). We hiked on enjoying busy trails, but with quite moments and wonderful glaciers. Mountaineering parties can be seen mingling on the trails with hikers and it is fun to hear them talking in their mega North Face tents about the days accomplishments shuttling provisions for their climbs.

Our last day, it cleared up so we hiked up again to Fitz Roy for the view and spent our rest day hiking back into Cerro Torre. Needless to say, we are pooped and feeling flat footed. Early mornings and long days are starting to get to us but we are now in El Calafate and plan to join the tourist hords on a few shuttled day trips to a few of the massive and active glaciers sprouting from the Hielo Sur.

Words can´t really describe the Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy mountains, but their jagged and abrubt rock faces, surrounded by glaciers and made all the more mystical by the ominous winds and clouds made for a definite highlight of our travels so far.

Photos to come...(Marco we didn`t tackle Cerro Torre, but have pictures to make you jealous)

Coyhaique-El Chalten: From Low Key to Busy Season

We spent a lazy day which turned not-so-lazy as we ran around Coyhaique running errands, such as weather proofing for rain jackets and boots, a new knee brace and so on and so forth. But the weather was nice and Coyhaique is set pleasantly amidst mountains and rolling hills, so everywhere you look there is a scenic view of snow covered mountains or green hills. The wind really picked up, as we hear it can in the southern Patagonias and we battled against it in the streets.

There were no buses out that day, which is the reason we were somewhat relaxing. We managed to get a micro to the town of Puerto Ibanez (about 30 min from where our trek ended, but we had to come back to Coyhaique because we had left baggage in storage) and from there we caught a ferry to the border town of Chile Chico. The ferry ride was only a few hours, and although it was windy, provided another view of the trek we had just completed and more of the surrounding mountains.

We quickly hopped an awaiting micro across the border to Los Antiguos in Argentina and from there found out there was another bus leaving for El Chalten in 45 minutes. We ran around buying groceries, and Chris calling home and hopped onto our 23 hour bus ride from Los Antiguos-Rio Gallegos-El Calafate-El Chalten.

El Chalten is a small boom town with wind whipped dirt roads and lots of touristy restaurants springing up in its sprawling and spread out streets. Horses still graze downtown and uncontrolled growth has allowed a lot of empty lots and hap hazard building styles. None the less the residents are really friendly and are basking in the tourism industry.

The main attraction (and with due reason) is Mnt Fitz Roy and its surrounding satellites. Fitz Roy is a granite spire which was originally covered in softer rock which has erroded over time and now has left several pointy spires pearcing the sky and rising from shards of icy glaciers and mountains below. As if these sharp mollars aren´t enough, behind Fitz Roy is Cerro Torre, a huge spiky digit of red and grey rock reaching out of massive glaciers. It was originally thought to be unclimbable and was first climbed back in the late 50´s although that asscent was questionable. The whole area now attracts world class mountaineering parties and also offers numerous trekking oppurtunities.

We are planning a 4 day, 3 night trek around these mountains. No hitch hiking involved, the trail head was 300m from the campground we stayed at.