Preparations:
During our last hikes in Peru we were extremely annoyed at the bad food that we had to eat constantly, but weather conditions didn't allow us to take a lot of variety or fresh food, since it was hot during the day and below freezing point during the night. But Patagonian weather is different and along with a lot of pasta we packed zucchini, carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes and pumpkin and even cheese, cream cheese and eggs for breakfast.
We took the bus at 8 a.m. to El Chalten and arrived around midday. We bought a last commercial meal in a bakery, a massive, great sandwich with was enough for the both of us, and started heading towards the entrance of the trail to Laguna Torre. Already in Chalten we experienced the infamous patagonian winds for the first time: strong gusts of wind tug and tear at our backpacks and try to knock us over.
With heavy backpacks we slowly walk uphill until we reach the Mirrador del Torre, where we have a great view of the magnificent Cerro Solo, but see no sign of Cerro Torre. Downwards we continue, through living and burnt woods and after a short while reach Laguna Torre, where we errect our tent at a cute campground in the woods next to a stream fed by Glacier Grande and Glacier Torre. Afterwards, we climb over the glacier moraines and reach Laguna Torre. The sky is grey, the wind comes in hurricane-like gusts and the surprisingly large waves on the small Laguna Torre break against icebergs shoved towards the beach. We see the two glaciers that flow down from different mountains and both merge together into Laguna Torre. In the far distance we see some jagged mountain peaks. Is one of them Cerro Torre? It is so far away and a bit small...
Day 2: Exploring Laguna Torre
Since our hiking guidebook mentioned that the sunrise at Laguno Torre is one of the most beautiful things to be seen in Patagonia, we set the alarm clock for 6 a.m. However, the sky is still clouded over and, to Claudis delight, we do not leave our tent but continue sleeping until 8.30 a.m. After a quick morning stroll to Laguna Torre we prepare breakfast and then return to the lagune. Now we can see a massive mountain that sits at the end of the Laguna, the source of Glacier Torre, but the peak is still hidden in clouds. We walk around a bit and soon realize that a river impairs our way towards the glaciers and can only be crossed using a climbing harness. Instead we hang around and watch how the clouds pass by the mountains. Do they seem to get thinner? Suddenly a narrow peak emerges from the clouds and during the next hour we see how Cerro Torre ejects its cloudy coat and comes into full view. What a maginificent ice-encrusted mountain. Can this things really be climbed? After countless pictures, we walk around the right side of the lagune towards the glacier, but once we arrive at the last viewpoint, Cerro Torre is covered up again.
Since it is already early afternoon, we decide to stay another night at the campground and continue the next morning.
Day 3: From Laguna Torre to Acampamento Poincenot and Laguna de los Tres
Again the alarm clock rings at 6 a.m. Domi actually manages to get up, but for Claudi it is too early and too cold, so she continues sleeping cuddled up in her oh so comfortable and warm sleeping back. Later, Domi tells her that the sunrise just showed that it could have been magificent, if the conditions were right, but of course, they weren't. Nothing missed then....
We have breakfast, pack up and make our way towards Acampamento Poincenot near Fitz Roy. Uphill it goes through another great patagonian wood until we reach Laguna Hija were a strong wind greats us. Onwards it goes and we soon glimpse a first sight of massive Fitz Roy, who apparently is too shy to take off his hat of clouds.
We set up tent and are a bit disappointed that the campground is not as nice as the last one. However, our tent has Fitz Roy view. We then start to climb up the extremely steep way towards Laguna de los Tres at the foot of Fitz Roy. Once we leave the woods, we are exposed to the patagonian winds again. The further up we go, the more severe they become. It starts to rain, no wait, is this hail? Or snow? Once we reach the lagune, we cannot see Fitz Roy at all and also the surrounding lower mountains are hazy behind a wall of rain. A few times, the gusts of wind nearly tip us over and after a quick snack we descend rapidly.
Arriving at our campground, we notice that all the trees surrounding us are shaking badly in the strong winds. It sounds like a mad train is driving around our tent. Cooking dinner is a challenge, since sudden gusts of wind try to spoil it with dirt and we soon hide in our tent. This night is the most uncomfortable one, since the wind is blowing the whole night and it seems like we were camping next to a motorway. We do not get much sleep...
Day 4: From Acampamento Poincenot to Piedra del Fraile
Happy to leave this place, we pack up, but not after a quick glance at Fitz Roy, who says good morning but is too shy to be photographed and has his cloudy had back on once we get the camera. Our guide book suggested a path along the left side of Rio Blanco which gets very close to Glaciar de las Piedras Blancas, but the guy at the park entrance told us, that this pathway is closed. So we take a longer one, which leads us through beautiful, fairy-tale woods and we even get a nice view of the glacier. After a couple of hours walking we arrive at the camp Piedra del Fraile, which costs a lot but at least offers hot showers. It feels good to be clean again.
Day 5: Into the valley towards glacier Marconi
Piedra del Fraile is located halfway up a beautiful valley surrounded by high rock cliffs which are probably perfect for climbing (if it weren't for the winds) and we decide to stay one day to explore the valley and make our way towards glacier ??, who is one of the easier entrances to the southern patagonian icefield. We start during a light drizzle and massive winds and soon reach Laguna Electrica, where we first have some pathfinding difficulties but then continue over the foots of the mountains. We arrive at the end of the trail and decide to try and continue towards the glacier, but find no way to cross a river (except wading through it). In the short time that we explore this spot, the wind turned hurricane-like again and it was raining/hailing heavily. We are soaked in seconds and the gusts of wind shoots icy needles of rain into our faces so we decide to turn around. What a pity, this valley is so beautiful and we would have loved to explore it further.
We hang up all of our wet clothes and spent the rest of the day in our tent reading.
Day 6: From Piedra del Fraile to El Chalten
Luckily, all our clothes have dried over night and since the rain stopped, also our tent is dry and we pack up quickly. Since we met some other hikers the night before who told us the the closed-off path along Glaciar de las Piedras Blancas is quite fine, we decided to take it on our way back since it saves us 4 to 5 km. The beginning of the trail takes us through cute woods again until we emerge at Rio Blanco. Here we realize that the light drizzle that started during our way through the woods has again turned into heavy rain and strong winds, namely a storm again. Once we arrive at the glacier, where we have to cross the glacier river, we realize why the path was closed by the park rangers. There seemed to have been a massive rock slide and huge boulders are lying around on gravel. What would have been a fun and easy climb during nice weather turned into a little hellhole, since the strong winds tore at our backpacks and tried to tip us over. We quickly maneuver over the wet rocks and find a way to cross the river. After half an hour we had managed to leave the glacier area and were on a safe path again. The storm is so strong that we don't have eyes for the magnificnet glacier hanging down from the mountain and of course do not visit the glacier lake for a quick break.
Since we are completely soaked, we decide against our initial plan to spent another night in the park and start to make our way towards El Chalten. We meet a lone hiker at Acampamento Poincenot who tells us, that there might be a bus to El Calafate at 4 p.m. 2.5 hours for about 10 km. We start to walk as quick as we can and after a while the weather turns and a bit of sun comes out. We even enjoy the beautiful sight again, but do not linger since we really want to catch that bus. Arriving at the bus station at 3.30 p.m. We learn that the bus leaves only at 6 p.m. Not too bad, we think, since this leaves us time to change out of our wet clothes and get a nice dinner. Oh, how marvelous are pizza and beer!!!
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