Here is the progression of the sunrise colors on Fitzroy this morning...
"Oh Su-Su-Sucia" in the morning. Laguna Cerro in the evening, with a preview for tomorrow's ice trek...
10:32pm, De Agostini Camp, near Cerro Torre...
Sleep goes well. I hear loud Israeli campers at 5:30am (no doubt planning a trek up to Laguna de los Tres for sunrise), but go back to sleep. I'm awakened twice by roaring thunder, and know that it has to be avalanches, since I've never heard cloud thunder in Patagonia yet, and it was clear last night. The alarm goes off at 8am. Wow, lots of sleep! Almost 9 hours...
I throw on my glasses and clothes, and head out for sunrise. The skies are clear except for a small patch of cloud right in front of Fitzroy. Victor and Christine come out and join us to watch sunrise. Last night wasn't as cold as the night before, much to Christine's dismay, as she says she's been too hot each night, and was hoping to finally feel comfortable in her sleeping bag after we told her how cold it was here at night. The red and pink color appears, and lights up Fitzroy's tip and the clouds, but then disappears. There must be some clouds on the horizen this morning. The sun comes back out in a bit, with orange/gold light.
Here is the progression of the sunrise colors on Fitzroy this morning...
The lone clouds sat right in front of Fitzroy's tip...
Red to orange to gold to yellow...
Wendy and I cook up lots of oatmeal for breakfast, then prepare for our morning hike to Laguna Sucia before heading to Cerro Torre. Victor and Christine will be hiking straight to Cerro Torre this morning, as they also need to hike back to town for the evening. They'll reserve us a room at the hostel they're staying at for Wed night, and might reserve us a Thurs morning bus if they have time.
We start our hike to Sucia at 10am, and take the familier trail down to Puente bridge (1 person at a time), and this time take a secret blocked off trail at the edge of the woods that heads south. The trail is on our map, but I don't know why there aren't any signs for this hike, and why the trail is obscured. Once on the path, it's very clear cut, and runs through the forest before coming to the rocky stream bed that feeds down from Laguna Sucia. We follow the cairns along the creek bed for ~45 minutes, including a brief steep climb around a huge rock, a minor stream crossing, and plenty of boulder hopping. There is only ~500' gain on this hike, much less than Laguna de los Tres, but the trail seems a little longer.
The 3rd time we've crossed this "one person at a time" bridge over the past 2 days...
The side trail to Sucia heads along the creek. The clouds seem to be burning off of Fitzroy in the upper right...
The trail ran through the forest briefly, then hit the rocky stream bed...
A scramble up some steep rock to get around a big boulder along the stream...
Me posing along the trail that continues to traverse the creek...
More boulder hopping, as Fitzroy draws nearer...
The views keep getting more impressive. Almost there...
After a bit of tricky trail finding, we reach a gorgeous green lake at the base of a huge cliff with a glacier hanging off, and Fitzroy towering above on the right. Dropping from the glacier is a waterfall decked in a feint rainbow. The lighting is excellent, and it's good we decided to do Piedras Blancas yesterday afternoon and Sucia this morning. The place is all ours too. We both like this place better than Laguna Tres, and don't understand why it's not advertised much. Sucia and Piedres Blancas are hidden gems. We catch a couple of avalanches here as well.
One last semi-challenging stream crossing, and we arrive at Laguna Sucia!
What a stellar view of the lake, with waterfalls tumbling down the far side...
A pic using my tripod of us and Sucia...
I capture a small avalanche just above the waterfalls. A close-up of Fitzroy's peak...
We hang out here for ~40 minutes, before heading back, as we do need to pack up camp and hike to a new location still. We see a few people coming as we begin our return. We must have been the first people up today. As we hike back I have a melody in my head with, "Su-su-sucia" (to the tune of Phil Collins "Sussudio"). In fact, whenever I go hiking, a song is always running through my head. In Chile, early Foo Fighters tunes were the apparent popular choice streaming through my head (had it on the stereo a bunch when packing at home the previous weeks). The music aligns to the rythem of my legs, and I take the liberty to create my own renditions and re-mixes as I have plenty of time to work with the songs. No ipods for me.
I fill up our water bottle from the steam. What a scenic spot to gather water. Very pure water way up here. Then it's time to head back...
More boulder hopping on the way back...
Back at camp we pack up the tent, ready our bags, and hit the trail at 1:10pm. No lunch yet, due to our large, late, breakfast. I carry all the remaining food and the whole tent (usually Wendy carries the poles and ground cloth). Our packs are pretty light with just one night left (Wendy's especially!). We hike back on the trail out of camp for about 20 minutes, and then take the fork south towards Cerro Torre. There are brilliant skies and views as the trail gently climbs into a forest on the side of a hill and overlooks two lakes as we pass them by.
A final view from camp before leaving this awesome site. Piedras Blancas glacier, which we hiked to yesterday, appears on the left of Wendy...
Fitzroy, Piedras Blancas, and me...
Wendy stands next to the trail we will take to Cerro Torre. Mighty Fitzroy is so impressive...
A stitched shot of Fitzroy as we head along the trail to the left. So gorgeous...
Another stitched pic...
The trail continues on the left, and will soon carry us out of site of Fitzroy. Gotta appreciate our last views...
A lake appears in the valley, as we hike above...
A second lake appears ahead...
We stop for lunch at the shores of the 2nd lake, eating hummus and peanut butter with bread. The only water available is from the lake, and it looks dirty and stationary, so we use my water pump/filter for the first time here. I could see small minnows in the water. Further up the lakeshore there's a group of noisy guys laying out and singing songs in another language together.
Fitzroy appears above the 1st lake, looking back. We eat lunch at the second lake at one of the few shady spots in the area...
The trail continues past the lake into some open glassland before ascending briefly to a crest in the mountain arm. Past the crest the trail descends steeply for 10-15 minutes, leading to our first views of Cerro Torre. The peak is draped in cloud pouring from the glacier on its left. They say it's rare to have clear views of Cerro Torre.
The trail led to this rocky beach, but none of the stones were worthy enough to try skipping...
After leaving the lake, we entered some flat grassland stretches...
After crossing a small ridge, we got our first views of Cerro Torre. The tip was covered in cloud arising from the nearby glacier...
We head to Cerro Torre, our last destination in this backpacking trip...
The trail continues a short ways and connects to the main trail from town. It's 2hrs back to town from here, 1 hour to Camp De Agostini (our destination). We make the right turn and continue on a beautiful dirt trail with plenty of views of Cerro Torre. We reach a fork in the path for De Agostini and Camp Thorwell (the meeting place for our ice trek tomorrow). I set my watch timer to give us an idea how long it will take to hike back here tomorrow morning. 7.5 minutes from here we see a great view of Cerro Torre (a possible sunrise spot tomorrow morning), and reach camp in 23 minutes from the trailhead after following a rocky path along a wide, green/grey, stream.
An open view from the trail...
An open view from the trail, with Wendy in it...
Closer looks at the Cerro glacier, and Cerro Torre. The peak looked to be fighting it's way through the clouds...
The path entered a particularly green forest, lit up by the afternoon sun...
I love this "black lit trees" shot, with the sun illuminating a bright spot of grass. Seems out of a fairy tale...
The path continued back along the stream as we neared Camp De Agostini...
At camp we debate between picking a spot near the river, or a spot with more wind protection. We pick the protected area, and set up camp. We're then ready to explore Cerro Lagoon at 5pm, which is just a 5 minute hike across rocks from camp. From here we can see the glacier we'll be hiking on tomorrow. We also see a trail rising along the rocky moraine ridge to the right along the brim of the lagoon. The map says it's a 50 minute hike to reach the mirador up there, and we decide to hike it.
Laguna Cerro in its entirety...
There's a few small people on the trail up the right. The Mirador is a 50 minute hike off in this direction...
The trail is very steep in parts, but this is our last side excursion of the trip, so we take the trail all the way around the lagoon. The clouds have been thickening over Cerro Torre, but we get great views of the glacier we'll be hiking on. We have the whole trail to ourselves here. At least the heavy cloud cover keeps us from stopping too much to take pics (actually we still take a ton of pics). The view here is not that more impressive that at the bottom of the lagoon, and isn't a must do hike, but it's an enjoyable last side quest for us. We're still amazed at the overall great weather so far. We head back down the rocky ridge trail, and the wind is very strong as we reach the bottom. The clouds are even more dense over Cerro Torre now.
We pose in front of Cerro glacier...
We've come about halfway across the lagoon so far...
A look back at the river crossing we'll have to make tomorrow. There is just a metal cable tied across the river that we'll use to cross, with a harness. Also I see a stream on the far mountain side, and wonder how we'll be crossing that tomorrow to reach the glacier...
The full Laguna Cerro. We'll be hiking on the opposite side tomorrow to reach the glacier...
More glacier shots...
Cool grooves in the glacier...
Wendy and I were wondering how we're supposed to come down this mountain side to reach the glacier tomorrow. Looks steep and full of loose tallus. We'll find out tomorrow...
Self portraits, no tripod necessary...
Views of the glacier as we start to head back. More clouds are gathering...
The clouds are really foaming off of the mountain tops...
Back at camp, I go fill our water bottles from the roaring stream next to camp. I'm extra careful to keep a strong grip, cause the stream is gushing and could easily strip the nalgene bottle from my grasp. We cook up some dehydrated corn chowder, split pea soup, and throw in some sliced sausage to eat outside our tent. A guy comes over asking for a can opener. Turns out he's from Fort Collins! He works at CSU, and says he met a group of 8 older ladies from Fort Collins yesterday. We Ft. Collins folk are represting well in Patagonia.
The clouds seemed to thin a bit, showing more of Cerro Torre. A look at our camp site...
After our soups, we discover that the clouds are parting over Cerro Torre, and bring a Teriaki Tuna pack over to a nearby lookout point to sit, eat and view. Cerro dances in between the clouds, and I take many pics, happy to see the pointy tip.
Wendy holds the tuna pouch in front of a mostly clear view of the ~10,000' Cerro Torre next to camp...
I scampered up to a nearby rock for a better view (turns out this was the hill leading up from just past our tent in the pic above)...
More views of Cerro Torre. As the sun got lower, it lit up the clouds surrounding the peak...
The cloud seemed to wrap around Cerro Torre, like whipped cream...
The latrine outside of camp, with Cerro Torre in the distance. More golden sunlight lighting the clouds around Cerro Torre...
A great view for our final evening camping in Patagonia...
After spending two nights around Fitzroy, one night here at Cerro Torre seemed too little to gain equal appreciation of the area...
After dinner, we pack our bags as much as possible to be ready to pack out early tomorrow and meet up for our ice trek. It's a bummer that sunrise is so late, as we need to be at the tour camp at 8:45am, and sunrise is 8:30am. We might miss sunrise while hiking there. We want to be hiking out tomorrow morning by 8:10am.
This is our last night camping in a tent for our entire 2 week trip! The camp is unique, with sandy ground, and great views nearby. Wendy calls it her favorite of the trip. I wish we had another night here to really get more intimate with the area, like we could at Poincenot. One more day of adventure before returning to the hostel tomorrow night, then we bus back to El Calafate Thursday morning. We're planning to sign up for an estancia outing Thursday evening, and then we'll have one last night in El Calafate before flying back to Buenos Aires Friday at noon. It will be sad to leave such a beautiful wilderness, but legs need a vacation, and bodies need some showers. Just need one more day of amazing weather for tomorrow...
Hopefully our noisy neighbors will be quiet soon. It's much warmer tonight, no need for extra layers. Can't believe our luck with the weather here. Looking forward to the ice trek tomorrow to cap off our Patagonia backpacking adventures...
Distance hiked: ~12.5 miles
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