Patagonia Trip Day 10, Mar 2nd, 2008

Headline in El Chalten: Perfect blue sky speared by Fitzroy

8:17am, on bus to El Chalten.

Wendy and I get up at 6:30, and try not to make too much noise as Christine and Victor are sleeping in today. Our stomachs are still full from last night's big BBQ dinner, so we skip breakfast, clean up, and continue to pack in the hallway. A couple other people have their packs in the hallway too, trying to be quiet for the other's in their room. Turns out, it's good we skipped breakfast, cause we needed plenty of extra time to ready our packs, and get our stuff ready to leave at the hostel. We don't leave the hostel til 7:40am, for our 8am bus. I head us down a wrong turn which costs a couple of minutes, and then realize we are going to have to hurry to make it to the bus station by 8am. Plus, we need to hit an ATM, cause there are none in El Chalten too!

We start walking fast, and reach the steps to the bus station at 7:57am. There's an ATM just up the block, so I run there with my pack on, and withdraw another 320 pesos, while Wendy goes straight to the bus. I run back, but need to slow to a walk on the ~40 steps leading to the buses. When I reach the top, I see the bus still there, with a long line of people waiting to get on. We stuff our bags into the open cargo doors, and get on the bus. Our ticketed seats aren't together, but conveniently we switch with some people who needed one of our tickets to sit together. The bus takes off at 8:08, and the sun rises shortly after leaving town.


It was a bit of a sweat to make it to the bus on time. Wendy loads her pack into the bus...

It's now 8:58am, and I briefly catch a glimpse of the 11,171' Fitzroy mountain ~100 miles away! Blue skies today. We should arrive at noon, then need to book our ice trek. Time to get some sleep...


A heavily zoomed in look at Fitzroy, among the clouds, from a short ways outside El Calafate...


8:30pm, Poincenot Camp, Los Glacieros National Park

I don't get any sleep on the bus, cause we soon stop at a cafe (rest area), and after that, the enormous Fitzroy is in view, and we can see it the last 2 hours of the ride. It's too amazing looking from this distance to consider sleeping. The bus even stops at a scenic location for a 5 minute photo op. All blue skies! We got lucky sitting on the left side of the bus, as we get the great views out the window as we arrive to El Chalten.


Our rest stop on the way to El Chalten. Our bus had no bathroom. I almost think the bus companies own these cafes so they can stop and let people buy food on the way...


A distant look at Cerro Torre on the left, and Fitzroy in the middle, through the bus window...


Another distant view from the bus...


A look at the mountain range from our vista point. We were thankful the bus stopped and let us all take photos outside. Everyone on the bus was scrambling to get to the windows before...


A cropped shot of the needle-y Cerro Torre, on the left, and mega peak Fitzroy in the center...


The view of Cerro Torre here shows the Torre Glacier at it's base. That's the glacier we'll be trekking on later. Another look at Fitzroy as we near El Chalten...

The bus stops at the park's information center, where a ranger gives us an overview of the park rules. The water is all drinkable here. Amazing weather today! The bus continues to Rio Grande hostel, where Christine & Victor will be staying tonight, which is also the Chalten Travel office. I inquire about the glacier tour, and indeed they allow us to meet the guide at a camp near the glacier on Wednesday, the 5th (rather than meeting in town and hiking the whole way). It's 220 pesos, ~$70, and they take credit card. We also ask about estancia options, but it doesn't look like there are any in El Chalten, so we'll try one in El Calafate later. Or maybe we'll try some horseback riding here on Thursday...


The view from the park visitor's center. A 3D model of the mountains...

El Chalten is a homey small town with lots of small stores and cafes, a much more intimate feel than touristy El Calafate. The trails to the mountains all start from the edge of town. Around 1pm, we take the short walk from Rio Grande to the trailhead, and pass a store with stove fuel in the window (guess we would have been alright).


The bus drove through town and dropped us off near the north end. Streets are graval, with much more hikers than autos. There was one small grocery store, and tons of little mini-marts...


We're heading for the end of the road, where the trail begins. Prices were steep in a mini-mart, $5 for a large can of tomato sauce. Best to stock up in El Calafate...

We start our hike with perfect weather: sunny blue skies, and a cool easy breeze. The first hour of the hike is all ascent, but not too steep compared to TDP. We see some llamas being led down the trail back to town. There's cool views of a valley to the east. After the main climb portion is over, we see a split in the trail, and opt to take the path towards the Mirador, and later backtrack to reach Laguna Capri. A few minutes later, we get to the first lookout of the day, and it's a mega-beaut! I'll just show pics, as no words can do justice...


The grand trailhead for our 2nd backpacking trek in Patagonia. The trail had frequent views of the valley to the east...


A boy leads a couple of llamas down the trail. An older man followed, leading a more wild llama that had blinders on, and took the turn a bit rougher. Wendy wanted one to carry her pack...


This park had the best signs ever, with funny/cute cartoons for everything. The trail climbed at the perfect slope to not overwhelm us, and there was hardly a rock or root to step over. Perfectly ideal trail for an ascent. Soon the mighty Fitzroy started popping into view beyond the crest...


What a great mirador! We both pose for pics with Fitzroy...


The perfect weather added to the ideal beauty of the view. The very blue glacier on the right was intriguing, and we plan to make a side trip there tomorrow...


Wendy and I looking cool, as another hiker takes our pic. The 2nd highest peak, next to Fitzroy is called Poincenot, which is the name of our camp for tonight too...

After this impressive scene, we continue on the trail until we reach the intersection of the path from Laguna Capri. We stash our packs in the bushes (bringing a small lunch bag), and hike down to the lake, to witness the views from there. Again, Fitzroy is a behemoth and mesmorizing. We eat ham and cheese sandwiches along the lake. BTW, common ham in Argentina is like gourmet prosciuto in the US.


Good views continue past the mirador. The trail flattened out from here. Our packs were quite manageable on this hike, even with our generaous food supplies...


A scenic shot through the trees...


A look at the Piedras Blancas glacier. Notice the waterfall coming down from the upper part. This glacier looked extremely blue...


When we met up with the trail from Capri Lake, we dropped our packs, and hiked back to the lake to check out the view and have some lunch...


A stitched shot of Laguna Capri, and Fitzroy...


The lake is at 2,490', and Fitzroy is over 11,000'. Poincenot, the 2nd highest peak on the left, is 9,500'...

After lunch, we head back, grab our packs, and continue on the trail. Since the first hour of ascent, the trail levels off for the last 2 hours, and is a pleasant, easy, and beautiful trail, even with a heavy pack. We pass an oncoming group of hikers, and I hear someone say, "Better luck next year." I realize I'm wearing my Rockies hat, and these people must be baseball fans from the US.


Pleasant weather and pleasant trails all afternoon...


So many great pics of Fitzroy, and I can't help but put them all up...


...even if they look very similar...


The only comparison I have to a peak like Fitzroy is the Grand Tetons. The Tetons are probably the best the US (mainland) has to offer, and certainly belong in the same category as Fitzroy in my book, but Fitzroy stands all by itself here in its glory...

At 4:15pm we arrive at Poincenot Camp and pick a nice flat spot at the edge of the woods near an open view of the peaks. We setup the tent and find water at a stream below the camp. There's not any tumbling water, so we just dip our bottles into the stream. The water has a strong odd mineral after-taste to it, which isn't that good, but hopefully we'll get used to it. Back at camp, we decide not to make an evening hike up to Laguna de los Tres (the prized Fitzroy lookout, 2 miles, 1400' up), and instead get dinner going so we can go to bed early, as we need to catch up on sleep. Plus we want to be up early to make the Laguna Tres hike at sunrise (which everyone else at camp will be doing too).


Ok, the vivid blue camera setting over did it here, but still an awesome view...


In two days we'll have to come back to this trail junction at the sign, and take the trail south towards Cerro Torre for our ice trek...


Wendy admires the crystal clear greenish stream near the trail, just outside of Poincenot Camp. Our tent (see bottom right) was just a few feet away from views of Fitzroy. Poincenot Camp elevation, at 2,450', is actually a tad lower than Laguna Capri even though it's almost 3 miles closer to Fitzroy...

I get the stove working, boiling water for dinners, as Wendy sets up the inside of the tent. Dinner is tomato lentil couscous, with a packet of lemon pepper albacore tuna, which we eat in clear view of Fitzroy from the open area near our tent. We also make some dehydrated split pea soup. Then we cook some oatmeal cause we're still hungry and curious how the raspberry pudding mix will taste with it (a bit more artificially flavored than we hoped). And I eat some peanut butter after that (I have a new jar for this trip). We packed a lot of food for this "short" trip (compared to TDP), and plan to pig out a bit more. :-)


Prepping for dinner. Our dinner spot this evening, for eating our lentil couscous...

We finish dinner at 7:30, and I'm mega tired. My brain is dead after so little sleep lately. My feet ache too. We brush our teeth while the sun disappears behind Fitzroy, at 7:45pm. However, sunset isn't until 9:30pm! So there will be lots of light for awhile.


You can see how the sun sets towards the south, being in the southern hemisphere. It was really disorienting the first several days in TDP, having the sun in the northern part of the sky all day. Opposite from what I'm used to when I normally hike in the US...


The last bit of sun before it's entirely hid by Fitzroy. It left some weird shades of blue streaks behind the peak...

I hope the weather stays clear for tomorrow morning so we can catch the alpenglow on Fitzroy. Just one good sunrise, please! We'll be joined by Christine & Victor tomorrow at camp in the evening. Yup, Wendy and I will be camping in this awesome area another night, with a few day hikes centered around here for tomorrow.

One last trip to the bathroom and it's time for bed. Still too much light out at 9pm now, and our neighbors that just set up their tent nearby are pretty loud talkers, but tonight I think I could zonk out in any conditions...

Distance hiked: ~6.2 miles

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