A very early morning pic of cloud covering Cerro Torre (used my tripod). Wendy's pic of the early light across the river...
9:57am, Thorwell Camp, waiting for ice trek to start...
After just an hour of sleep last night, Wendy wakes me up and says she hears a scratching sound outside our tent door, like a mouse. I try listening, but have high frequency hearing loss, and can't hear well.. Eventually I do hear some odd clicking noises, and stay alert listening, as I don't want a hole chewed through my backpack. Our food is in thick plastic ziplocs inside my pack (no obvious places to hang it), but I'm not sure if that stops the odors. I bring out my headlamp and look into the vestibule, but see nothing. After moving the small backpack that contains our lunches into the tent, we listen again. My mind exagerates any slight sound, and I still hear the odd noise next to the tent door that sounds too unlike the wind. In fact, my feet, near the door feel as if the wall is vibrating slightly, but I think it might also just be my heightened brain giving me the sensation. I check outside again and see nothing, and try sliding back further from the tent wall to see if it still happens, and keep listening. Eventually, I stop caring, and just want to sleep, but it takes a couple of hours for me relax again (Wendy fell back to sleep long ago).
I wake up before the 6:30am alarm with about 4 hours of sleep for the night. There's just a few stars out. Could it be cloudy this morning? We get up and start packing with our headlamps on. Sunrise is 8:30 and we want everything packed and ready to start hiking at 8:10. I cook up oats for breakfast, and we finish packing at 8am. Clouds cover Cerro Torre, bummer.
We hit the trail at 8:05, and I'm somewhat happy that it's cloudy, since we can't go hang out at the lagoon for sunrise anyway, in order to meet up at 8:45 for the ice trek. While we're hiking out along the stream, the skies turn pink, and we turn around to see a beautiful sunrise lighting up the mountains around Cerro Torre. We catch plenty of views during our hike, and are very pleased. It's perhaps the best sunrise so far, probably due to the clouds adding a reflective red glow.
A very early morning pic of cloud covering Cerro Torre (used my tripod). Wendy's pic of the early light across the river...
I was surprised to find myself in the middle of a spectacular sunrise...
Fortunately we were on a clear part of the trail, and could admire the views...
Beautiful colors looking east...
Here's what was happening towards the west...
The pink glow was fierce! The mountain looked a flame...
I bet Fitzroy would glow wonderfully in these conditions. I'm curious if it was cloud free this morning...
Pleased to get our fill of the sunrise from the trail, we continue on and arrive at the tour camp at 8:47am. I'm not surprised we're the first people there. The trek itinerary begins at 7am in town and isn't supposed to reach the camp until 9am, which still sounds agressively scheduled. ~9:15 the group from town arrives, along with another 2 people who backpacked in, and we all sit on some benches sipping the hot tea and coffee that is offered us, while continuing to wait a long time for reasons we don't know.
The hot tea was pleasant. We stored out backpacks in the green tent for the ice trek...
It's almost 10am, and they are just starting to fit harnesses on us. The skies are clearing (about half blue now). It's looking like more fine weather for our final day here. I'm disappointed with the delay, as this probably means less time on the ice. We're leaving our backpacks at the tour camp, inside the guide's tent.
The 3rd and final guide arrives at 10am, and we begin the hike to Cerro Glacier. Too bad they told us to arrive at 8:45, as we could have used the extra hour sleep... The hike ascends through the forest and arrives at Torre Lagoon up the rim a ways. We hike down along the rim back to where our camp was this morning, and reach a wide bridgeless river, with two 100' long steel cables running across. We get to strap our harness onto the cables, and pull ourselves across! This exciting tyrolean rope crossing over the Fitzroy River is one of the reasons we wanted to do this ice trek.
Our guide explains that the moraine rim was pushed up by the glacier, which marks its past length. As we reach the river opening, the tip of Cerro Torre is almost visible through the clouds...
We get our first glimpse of people crossing the river. Wendy is excited as her turn nears...
Our group begins taking turns pulling ourselves across the river after strapping our harnesses onto the line. There are guides at each side working our harness on and off the rope. I'm careful to have all my articles zipped in my bag and pockets, and put on gloves to use on the rope. Wendy goes first, and looks comfortable manuevering across. Next up is me, and I lean back, grab the rope above me, and pull hand over hand, pinching my hand against the wheel once (good thing I had gloves on) before learning to reach further ahead instead of releasing the rope down over my waist. It takes some strength at the end to pull yourself up to the final rock, but everyone in the group makes it across.
Wendy goes first, and sets a graceful standard for the rest of us to follow...
I get my hand pinched in the wheel at first, but make my way across succesfully. The last few pulls were the toughest. Perhaps I should have zipped my sunglasses in my pockets...
After the break waiting for everyone to cross, we hike the crest of the moraine along the edge of the lagoon until we reach a forest. Here the trail is very steep for quite a while. The guides set a good pace though, and everyone stays pretty close together. There are 8 of us in the group, and Wendy and I look about the most "hardcore" hikers of the bunch, though everyone is very competent (which is necessary for this long hike). We rest occasionally. There are several other guided groups on the trails today, but the guides do an excellent job of spacing us apart so that we never run into each other, and therefore feel more alone with the awesome nature. There is a lot of schedule optimizing here to appreciate, perhaps that was a reason for our delay in the morning.
We march up the left side of the laguna, gaining plenty of elevation. A look back at the end of the laguna, where we started...
We ascend until we reach a water crossing (a big great tasting stream that we saw yesterday from the lookout), and begin a descent on the other side down steep rocks and dirt. We rest half way down, and our guides tell us this is the last bathroom opportunity for the next 3 hours, as we'll be on the glacier. We continue down and reach the dirty edge of the glacier, where our guides begin strapping on our crampons. This hike was very strenous! Much more so than anticipated. It takes us 2.5hrs to cover the ~3 miles from camp to the glacier.
The guides pointed out that this was great tasting water. It was true. A look at the glacier tip from the water crossing. Still a ways to go and descend...
The glacier soon opens up to us. I hike at the front of the line for awhile, keeping close to the guide, who probably picked up the pace, hearing me behind. Looks like there was a big gap between us and the rest of the group. I asked the guide if the glacier was retreating, and he said last year it reached rocky arms in the water. What a fast descent in one year! Each year people are gonna have to hike farther to reach it...
I then went back to the end of the line. The descent was steep. I wondered how tough the return trip would be later this afternoon...
We stop for the last bathroom opportunity before descending all the way to the ice. Women's "room" towards the left, Men's "room" on the right...
The glacier front. Not as tall as Moreno or Grey, but still larger than it looks. We hike across the thick dirt along the edge of the glacier...
Cerro Torre emerges! I wait for my turn to get my crampons strapped on by the guides...
Look at the snowy tip of Cerro. I can't imagine the effort and skill to climb that peak. Wendy poses, ready for the trek...
With our crampons tied tight, we start the ice trek. The clouds continue to melt away from Cerro Torre as we begin. Goreous views!!! It's windy on the ice, so we put on our jackets, but don't need an extra layer over our pants. We follow the guides, unroped, as they navigate a path along the glacier, chopping steps into the steep ice slopes with an axe to give us easier passage. This is my 2nd glacier trek, the other in Norway, and this is the first time being unroped. We traverse some narrow crevasse ridges, and though most seem harmless, a few make me extra careful to focus on my balance each step. Sometimes we need to split our legs, with each foot on an opposing ice slope and small cavity below us. The guides station themselves to be walls in front of steep slopes as we walk by. Wendy has trouble on the 1st downhill slope, digging her heal into the ice, and stumbling as it catches. I remind her of the "10 spike" rule the guides said, basically: point your toe so that it aligns to the slope, and your whole sole touches the ice at the same time. When the entire crampon touches, you stick like velcro. She has no more stumbles the rest of the day.
Our first stop on the glacier, which gave me a chance to take pics. It sure was a unique landscape of sharp, wavy, white terrain...
A stitched pic of our group as we wait for the guides to scout out a path. One of the guides wore shorts! He did have monstrous legs...
Notice that this stitched shot uses the same pic on the right. By coincidence I noticed another pic would stitch nicely, and ended up making our guide appear in the left and right side at once...
We walked along the crest of the crevasses. The guides would stand guard next to the steep drops, acting as makeshift safety walls...
More pics of the glacier surroundings...
Sunglasses are required for this hike. The brightness would be unbearable without them...
A zoomed in look through a gap on the right of Cerro Torre showed another impressive glaciated mountain. I think it's Electrico, another cool destination in the park that we didn't have time to fit in for a visit. I took a self portrait, but had the zoom on, which resulted in this perfectly framed pic of a happy Wendy...
We see some deep blue pools, a waterfall in the glacier, and some decent sized ice walls, but this is a relatively small glacier, so the selection is not that amazing compared to what I saw in Norway. Likewise, the Moreno and Grey glacier tours probably offer more features, though cost twice as much. Still, can't beat the views here (when fortunate with the weather), smack in front of Cerro Torre! Our three guides constantly scout out a safe route for us. The glacier is always moving, and each day they need to find a new path.
A small deep blue water filled hole, followed by a large deep blue hole with water pouring down...
Our guide held us while we looked down the deep hole. Wendy poses in front of Cerro Torre (getting covered by clouds) as a group of trekkers passes in the distance...
Some cool ice slopes and a few more deep blue coolered pools...
A stitched pic of the glacier, looking towards Cerro Torre...
We stop for lunch at our furthest point of the trek, in a somewhat sheltered spot from the wind, and sit down on our empty crampon bags to keep our butts dry/warm. I eat my peanut butter and chocolate sandwich, while Wendy has a ham and cheese. While we eat, the guides find an ice wall and set up a top rope anchor for us to try ice climbing. This is another cool feature of this hike, not available in any others we saw in Patagonia. Wendy bravely volunteers to go first in our group, and heads down to the bottom of the ice wall. The guides strap her harness to the rope, give her two ice axes, and belay her. She successfully makes her way up the wall, having trouble getting the axes to come out of the ice on occasion. I try later, and also succeed. It was pretty easy, but fun to try. Our frequent indoor climbing in Fort Collins gave us confidence trying out ice climbing. Everyone except for 1 person in our group gives it a try, and does well.
We stop for lunch to eat our sandwiches as the guides set up the top rope for our ice climbing...
Wendy climbs first...
...and succeeds, despite some difficulty getting the ice axes to come out of the ice after each hammer in...
I climb up smoothly...
...and belay down. The clouds grew more dense over Cerro Torre throughout the afternoon...
After the climbing, we start our return. We head down some steep narrow ice on the way back which is a thrill. I steal some pics, even though we're only supposed to take our cameras out when we're stopped. The sky is clouding up again over Cerro. We reach the dirty edge, and take off our crampons, and begin the long hike back. It seems easier hiking back in this direction to me, though Wendy disagrees.
Another small blue pool on our way out...
A look back at the steep slopes we traversed down. The guides led us on an exciting route out...
We reach the river crossing again, and after watching several experienced people make their way across, I strap in and zoom across, raising my legs up to keep my body straight, and using much fewer, but longer powerful pulls on the rope. I fly across in no time. It's fun!
Wendy crosses the river on her harness, an old pro at this point...
I flew across so fast Wendy could only manage one pic...
We continue the hike back to the tour camp, and re-pack our backpacks, ready for our final leg back to town. We're served tea and coffee again, along with a bowl full of hard cookies. We both eat a bunch, and chat with some of the people in our group. Someone from Buenos Aires gives us tips on the city, and says San Telmo has the best tango. There was also a solo female traveler from Germany that was spending the month in Argentina. One of our guides, called "Octopus" (in spanish - due to his wacky hair we think), gives all the girls a kiss as he says good-bye. I'm fine with the handshake.
We depart from camp ~4:50pm, and hike the scenic trail back towards town. We reach the trail junction where we arrived from Fitzroy yesterday at 5:23pm, and read a sign that says 2hrs back to town. This is the last segment of our backpacking adventure in Patagonia! The views of Cerro Torre start to clear again as we leave it.
Cerro Torre's tip breaks through the clouds as we head back to El Chalten...
We pass through a forest, and enjoy our last few views of Cerro Torre...
The weather held up for a 4th day for us. Perfect weather again...
The trail is overall downhill, but several uphill portions on the way have us cherishing the end of our trip. We've been backpacking 10 of the last 12 days, and slept in tents 9 of the last 12 nights. We're looking forward to beds, showers, and a rest from hiking. It's been a magnificient adventure, but even I am ready to relax.
We hurry back to town, planning to meet with Victor and Christine for dinner. They were going to book us reservations at the hostel, and possibly get us bus tickets for tomorrow morning. We reach a fork and take the path leading to the north part of town (where our hostel is). Some early uphill portions have us thinking we should have picked the south fork, but soon it's all downhill along a soft dusty trail, and we can see the town. We reach the main street in just 1hr 23min from the 2hr marker. Excellent time!
We reach a crest in the trail, and can see Cerro Torre on the left, and the tip of Fitzroy on the right. The sign post at the trail junction reminded us not to set a tree's crotch on fire...
After a fairly short and easy trail, we can see the town, and know our trek is almost finished...
El Chalten truly does sit at the edge of the Fitzroy-Cerro wilderness. What a great locale...
The trail drops us off close to the hostel, and we head inside to inquire about our reservations and to find Victor and Christine's room number. To our big surprise, we find out that they left town already, and gave us their existing reservation. Presumably they will be taking an earlier flight to Buenos Aires, something they had mentioned at one point earlier in the week. Turns out the hostel is booked for the night too, so we would have had to stay someplace else if they didn't give us their room.
We drop our bags off in the 4 bed room, and head out to find a place to buy an 8am bus ticket. ChaltenTravel, the bus company we used on the way here, has a 6:30am bus, but that seems too unnecesarily early. There are several bus companies running El Chalten - El Calafate routes with various schedules. Just outside the hostel, we run into the Fort Collins guy we saw at camp last night, who gives us some helpful bus info. We head to a bus agency ~200 yards down the road, and sure enough they have an 8am bus.
After purchasing tickets, we begin to peruse restaurants on the way back to the hostel. There are several small places that look nice, and I let Wendy do the picking. She decides on "Del Bosque" (spanish for "from the forest"), a small place with awesome wooden decor, laid back music, quiet and relaxed atmosphere, and as it would turn out, GREAT food. We order a unique salad, a mozzerela, tomato, basil, garlic pizza (with lots of olive oil), and spinach empenadas (small calzonne-ish pastries). The meal is incredibly delicious! The pizza... Man, unbelievable. Heavy garlic and olive oil, but on a non-oily crust. Superb. We deicde to have dessert, since this is a celebratory "end of backpacking" dinner, and order some ice cream for dessert. It's $1 for a scoop, and they have tons of flavors. Wendy gets blueberry cream, I get banana split. They are SUPER GOOD! I'm surprised how good their ice cream is. What the heck, we're still celebrating, so I buy 2 more scoops. Turns out something called "Dulce de Leche" was in the banana split, so after tasting a few flavors, I pick Super Dulce de Leche, and Amarena (a fruity kind). AWESOME! The entire meal came to just $31, and in an expensive, remote town. Wow, I could get used to this. We are both very happy and satisfied with dinner.
I look at pics on my camera in the reflection of the table at Del Bosque. Cool table...
Our salad had only a leaf or two of lettuce, but lots of tomatoes, olives, cheese, artichoke, and bread. A spinach empenada sits in the 2nd pic...
This pizza stands atop the list of all-time favorite pizzas. The heavy garlic and olive oil really hit the spot...
We head back to the hostel next door, and try to book an estancia in El Calafate for tomorrow, but they can't do it, so we'll have to book it when we get there. A BBQ dinner and ranch tour should be a great finish to Patagonia before heading back to Buenos Aires.
Wendy just finished her shower, now it's my turn while she keeps an eye on our stuff. I'm major sticky from lots of hiking today. This hostel is cool. It's very busy and active, noisy too, but has lots of "luxuries". The bathroom is very elegant. It's a party atmosphere out in the lounge and cafe downstairs.
A look at the hostel's lobby from upstairs. The internet was $1.50 for 15 minutes (I didn't use it). I saw our guide from the ice trek hanging out in the lobby in the evening. This must be a popular hostel...
My stomach is heavy from dinner. Man, that dinner was super good. What a fitting end to El Chalten...
Distance hiked: ~12 miles