Around-the-World with Drew & Erin: Argentina

Join The Blogging Post as we head around-the-world with our friends Drew & Erin. They’ll be sending us regular dispatches and updates from around, across, and all over the globe. This is their first post from Argentina…

Adventures in Patagonia, Part II

After an amazingly rewarding and challenging trip to Torres del Paine, Erin and I set our sights north on the other gem of Patagonia, Los Glaciares National Park. We took a several-hour bus ride from Puerto Natales, Chile, across the border and windswept grassy plains of Patagonia to El Calafate, Argentina, admiring the stunning mountain vistas to the west on a clear blue-sky day.

In the southern part of Los Glaciares National Park, the star attraction is the Perito Moreno Glacier. We took a day trip from the town to the snout of the glacier where we spent a few hours taking in this amazing natural feature. It’s a huge glacier that stands nearly 200 feet above the waters of Lago Argentino and is even greater below. Beyond just taking in the beauty of the scene, the spectacular phenomenon for visitors is watching huge chunks of the glacier calve off and drop into the lake. The event starts with a huge cracking noise, then a large chunk of ice drops from the glacier, and finally ends in a great splash with rippling waves emanating through the lake below and a newly formed iceberg floating in the water. It’s a breathtaking sight.

After our brief visit to El Calafate, we traveled north to the real center of our attention which was the northern portion of Los Glaciares National Park. That’s this section of the park that allows the visitor to hike in among the lakes, valleys, glaciers, and peaks of the park. The tiny, but rapidly growing, town of El Chalten provides a pleasant staging ground for trips into the park. It is a town that was only created in 1985 by the government to ensure there would be no encroachments from Chile across its claims of their nearby border. It has since grown into the trekking capital of the country and was changing rapidly before our eyes, with the main roads getting paved and new buildings going up everywhere. But for now it’s a great, mellow place to prepare for, and recover from, trips into the backcountry. It even offers free camping on the outskirts of town.

Having gained a newfound respect for the conditions of Patagonia from our first trip in Torres del Paine, Erin and I set out eagerly for another multi-day trekking adventure. Our plan was a big circuit of the park’s trails, taking in the main features of the park. Several hours into our first day, the overcast weather turned into an all-out downpour. By the time we made it to Camp De Agostini, we were drenched. We set up our tent and retreated inside to try to warm up and dry off. Right off the bat, we were getting spanked by Patagonia again. We passed a long, arduous night in the tent, managing to stay warm and dry in the constant rain while also fighting off the voracious mice who were attacking our tent. Our mindset was not great, but we were hoping for a break.

Amazingly, we woke the next day to a crisp, clear morning. Immediately, we put on some warm clothes, grabbed our camera, and scampered up to the end of Laguna Torre to catch our first views of Cerro Torre and watch the sun rise and paint the mountains pink. Cerro Torre is one of largest and most dramatic rock spires on earth, and we had the morning all to ourselves as apparently all the other trekkers we scared off by the weather. I was astonished that we could claim such an amazing morning all to ourselves in one of the most heralded mountain ranges in the world. In my mind, this morning and following day were the reward for the price we paid the previous day and night. In Patagonia, the challenges are great but the rewards can be even greater.

That second day turned out to be one of our best in the park. We took a morning hike to Mirador Maestri for a better viewpoint of Cerro Torre and Glaciers Torre and Grande which sprawl out on its flanks. Then we returned to camp, packed our bags, and started off for our next campsite. We made our way through pleasant birch forests that were all shades of red, orange, and yellow in their autumn best and also filled with Magellanic woodpeckers. After passing a few lakes, Fitz Roy, the dominant rock feature of the whole park, came into view. Shortly thereafter, we reached Camp Poincenot, which sits just below the range of rock spires that include Cerro Saint Exupery, Cerro Poincenot, and Fitz Roy. We considered ourselves lucky for the unforgettable day we had and went to bed that night with visions of catching Fitz Roy at dawn in all its splendor.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not have the same plan. We rose the next day to gathering clouds and set off for the one-hour hike to the viewpoint above Laguna de Los Tres with an uneasy feeling about the day. Our premonitions proved true as the clouds continued to gather, the mountain views were mostly obscured, and the wind and sleet commenced. We had a rather disappointing morning hike and were bummed and wet when we returned to camp. To make matters worse, upon our return we discovered that one of the two food bags that we’d hung to foil the mice had been found by some birds and all its contents were lying on the ground torn to shreds. It was not a fun morning. We spent the rest of the rainy day and night tent-bound, hoping for better weather the next day. The better weather we hoped for turned out to be snow and colder temperatures. With the weather deteriorating, our food supply diminished, and ourselves generally beaten down, we turned back for El Chalten, knowing we could recuperate for a few days and come back out for a second trip. Our trip had times of brilliance and times of bitterness, but we wouldn’t have expected anything less.

We regrouped for a few days in El Chalten and enjoyed all that it had to offer. After a few days out in the elements, we were extra appreciative of nice restaurants, daily showings of free movies about local mountaineering history at the national park office, and – as much as anything else – dryness, warmth, and the conveniences of indoor living.

Our second trip into the park proved to be just as rewarding as the first – but without the suffering. We did a four-day circuit that took in the northern highlights of this region – the gorgeous waterfall called Chorrillo del Salta, Rio Electrico Valley, Laguna Piedras Blancas and Glacier Piedras Blancas that spills into it, and a return to Camp Poincenot and Fitz Roy. Along the way, we enjoyed the amazing mountain vistas, the radiant autumn colors, and the empty campsites and solitude afforded by hiking in the park in the late fall. The weather was cool, crisp, and clear.

While at Camp Poincenot, we plotted for a second attempt at sunrise on Fitz Roy. This time we got our wish. The morning dawned clear and cloudless, and our return hike to lake Laguna de Los Tres was doubly satisfying. We caught an incredible sunrise on Fitz Roy and its brethren and had ear-to-ear smiles as we drank our coffee and ate our hot breakfast in this extraordinary corner of the world. Like our visit to the Torres in Torres del Paine, sunrise on Fitz Roy was the culminating moment of our trip to Los Glaciares National Park. Our adventures in Patagonia stand out as some of the most rewarding and challenging backcountry trips ever. As I said before, in Patagonia the challenges are great, but the rewards are even greater.

PHOTOS

Photo #1 – Culmination of our Patagonian experience
Photo #2 – Perito Moreno Glacier
Photo #3 – Cerro Torre and its flanking glaciers
Photo #4 – Fall colors and Chorrillo del Salta
Photo #5 – Sunrise on Fitz Roy