After an another day sorting out all our stuff to go hiking - packing, shopping, laundry and food loading including a massive, great value steak at the Map Room - we headed out to Villa Cathedral early on thurs morning. Well early being 10am which is very early in Argentina! Villa Catherdral is a little ski village just outside Bariloche and it must be fantastic for skiing in winter. Loads of lifts, runs, etc .... well compared to NZ/Australian ski fields it looked massive anyways. Got the chairlift upto Refugio Lynch (slightly cheating to start a hike on a chairlift but beats a 3 hour climb up a snowless ski run) which is just above 2000m. Its very strange to be on a ski lift with a backpack and not a snowboard. The legs still did the automatic swing the board out of the lift safety bar way and all like. It was a pretty chilly ride up but very scenic.
The view at the top was tremendous. Could see all the way to Volcan Lanin (which is miles away) and all the mountains in between, including the massive Mount Tronador which looked incredible, and many more volcano and mountain peaks. Really beautiful clear day once again so off we set up and over the ridge from the refugio towards Punta Nevada. The hike leads along above really steep scree slopes over a beautiful valley and under the craggy, ice beaten mountain tops. Some rock scrambling was required but nothing too serious or dangerous (even with my feeble head for heights)We stopped in a sheltered saddle for lunch (about an hour after we started - very cruisy day really) which had good views over the rock spires of Cerro Catherdral (very aptly named). After that we continued just above the scree for about an hour to the Cancho De Futbol ... a sandy kind of depression on a saddle which has lots of really square, tall , funky rock slabs and boulders. Messed about on these for an hour with stunning views to the west over the valley towards Mount Trondor, over to the peaks of Torre Principal and down the valley we were headed to refugio Frey.
Headed down steeply to Laguna Shmoll and then onto Laguna Tonchek where we camped on the western shores. The hike down was steep but fun and even in areas there was still ice from the previous night. Now we could understand why this hike is closed until end of Jan some years. There was still many large patches of snow and ice. The hut (at 1700m) was nestled on the eastern end of the lake and once again very scenic. There´s fantastic climbing in this area and lots of cool photos in the hut of the area in the winter. We got our first frost of the year that night - still managed to stay sitting out in the dark for a few hours watching the night sky which was just beautiful.
Next morning we headed back up to the Cancho de Futbol past the lakes and over some icy rocks and frozen track. Pretty brisk but when we were in the sunshine it was very pleasant. From there we headed down a very steep scree slope into the valley below Brecha Negra. The descent was more like skiing rather then hiking as we slide down metres with each so called step. Had a dusty bum and stone filled boots at the bottom. From here we hiked up the lovely beech filled valley. The trees are just beginning to change into their autumn reds and yellows and it should be spectacular in another couple of weeks. At the head of the valley we followed a ridge that lead us up onto the rocky Paso Brecha Negra. Steep enough just before the top of the pass but the views at the top were incredible. The next valley which has Laguna Jakob at its head is very spectacular. Surrounded by very high, rocky, harsh mountains with a very deep valley and the really deep blue of the lake with Mount Tronador off in the distance it was probably one of the best views we have seen all trip. Perfect blue skies and just a little breeze allowed us to sit around and soak it all in for awhile.
The descent to the hut (Refugio Jakob 1600m) was pretty steep but not so loose as the previous descent. Hard on the knees tho but the scenery was a good distraction. Its a great little hut again (altho think it sleeps upto 100 people in peak season so not that little) just sitting on a rock above the lake. Put up the tent and then headed up onto the massive, glaciated rock slabs behind the hut to Laguna Los Tempanos. This is a dramatic lake surrounded on 3 sides by sheer cliff and rock with a tiny little outlet. We sussed out the route for the next day`s hike and it looked pretty exposed but doable (obviously people do it all the time). Once again we could see why this area is closed until late in Jan as its really high, exposed, steep and harsh. To be honest I wasn`t looking fwd to the clamber up the steep (almost vertical seriously) slope the next day. Dinner was a soupy tuna gnocchi (I am so over eating camping food especially when I stuff up and add too much water) - filling I suppose but enough tuna pasta for awhile.
Woke the next morning to heavy cloud cover. Ohhh nooo .... we could barely make out the lower ridge we had to clamber up to the start of the hike. Packed up and consulted the hut warden about the weather forecast. She reckoned it might clear in an hour or so so we hiked up to another little valley towards Cerro Celia. Was good fun clambering up a rocky waterfall with nice views across the lake to the hut. By the time we got back to the hut it was 12 and the clouds had come down further so we had to pike and not go over the top. The route requires good weather to be navigable (as the maps here are not detailed enough) plus not much point wandering around in cold clouds at the top of exposed mountains half the day. We decided to walk out along the Arroyo Casa de Piedra and end the hike a day early. We could have sat it out at the hut but not really in the form for hanging around plus we didn´t have enough food for an extra day hiking.
The hike out was interesting tho. Its about 18kms (not 13kms which the LP says), starts with a steep descent and massive views of the valley before descending more gently all the way down along the valley thru beech trees and bamboo. Towards the end its a bit monotonous. We then spent 2 hours waiting for the bus which never showed and eventually managed to hitchhike (6 of us by that stage) back towards Villa Catherdral and get the bus back into Bariloche from there.
All in all this was a superb few days out on a really high and exposed walk. It would have been great to do the full traverse but hey the weather has been great to us for the last 3 months so we are content to get one day against us. Not bad going really. Would highly recommend doing this walk at this time of year or even later as the trees are just turning colour. Its a very spectacular hike, the refugios are well managed, the track is well marked and easy to follow and its good and challenging with many steep ascents and descents. The scenery in this area is outstanding and in our view this is the equal of the more famous Torres del Paine and Fitzroy.
We could easily spend another 2-3 weeks walking in the Bariloche area (eg return and finish the traverse above, hike to Pampa Linda via Laguna Negra, return to El Bolson, do some of the lower level but very beautiful hikes to Lago Mascardi amongst a few that just pop to mind). Its absolutely fantastic here for hiking and in a way we wish we were here earlier when we had more enthusiasm and walking beans left. This would be a great 3 week trip from Europe, easy to get to, good food and well organised and many options even if the weather was poor. March and April is prolly the best time as hardly any people, stable weather, autumn colours and no horseflies or mossies.
We´re now 99% sure that this is the last overnight hike of our travels this time around. We´re pretty jaded of packing, shopping and getting organised for hikes. Altho we are now really fast at this its just becoming a tedious pain in the ass and we don`t have enough enthusiasm for it. Once we´re out on the hike its all good but the burden of getting there is now outweighing the buzz of the hikes. Dunk´s boots have also more or less died despite the miracle patching by the guy in Puerto Natales. The holes at the toes of his boots are nearly bigger then the one to put his foot in so we would need to splash out and buy him new boots (and since its mostly Asolo here then this is not an option) so bit late in the travels for such an expense. Our knees and backs are also suffering a little and need to be rested (when the stairs in the backpackers hurts then thats not a good sign) plus another little bonus from wearing hiking boots lots is cracks in my feet that you could fall into. Looks like we might head north to Mendoza and Salta before heading back to Buenos Aires.
Will be sad to leave Patagonia as we have had the best 3 months here but time for a change of scenery and travel style!
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