Los Glaciers

After a quick picture with a couple of St Bernard dogs in the square in Bariloche, and Nicole deciding that she couldn´t quite fit the pup in her backpack, we jumped on the plane and headed south to El Calafate. El Calafate is a long way south, 50 degrees south actually, which is a bit further south than the bottom of New Zealand. As you can imagine the weather is a little on the cool side. On the upside the town is surrounded by the biggest low altitude glaciers in the southern hemisphere, outside Antarctica anyway.
Like every other tourist in El Calafate, and there are plenty of them, we quickly organized to head out to Perito Moreno glacier about 80km from town, for a day visit. Unfortunately the tour operator we booked with neglected to mention that a few days a week they do a bit of a milk run around the park dropping hikers off. Hence our 80km, 1 hour journey turned into 3 hours of bumping along dusty back roads before we finally arrived, all thoroughly pissed off. Pissed off enough that they organized another bus to take us home so we didn´t have to do the 3 hour route in reverse as well. Aside from the ride out there, the glacier was amazing. One of the most spectacular things we have seen – and that is saying something on this trip! We took a one hour boat ride along the north face, about 2.5km long and 60m high watching chunks of ice constantly dropping into the lake and floating around as ice bergs. Even seemingly small pieces of ice still make a pretty good noise as they break off and fall into the lake.
The following day we headed out on the early bus to El Chalten to do some hiking, setting off straight from the bus to Cerro Torre, a spectacular mountain above Glacier Grande, which we had booked a trek on the following day. Walking in to the camp ground the view was totally hidden behind clouds, with strong winds and rain at the base of the mountain so we were pretty much confined to camp for the rest of the afternoon (it is light until 10.30pm here at the moment). We were a bit concerned about the weather for our glacier trek as if it was too windy it would be cancelled. We needn´t have worried as we woke the next morning to perfect clear skies and a totally amazing view of Cerro Torre. The glacier trek kicked off on schedule, with a leg busting climb up the side of the valley to get around the lake to the glacier. Once on the glacier we strapped on crampons and headed off. Crampons are amazing, it is like having gecko feet! You can walk up nearly vertical slopes and your feet just stick. Way cool. We crossed a few small canyons, which didn´t do much for Nicole´s hips, and then did a bit of ice climbing, before having to call it a day. A bit longer on the ice would have been good, but it really was fantastic. The walk back was less fun though….
Being masochists, we decided to up sticks that afternoon and move across to the base of Mt Fitzroy, the highest peak in the park, to maximize our chances of getting a good look at it. As it turned out, the weather took a turn for the worse and we only got one look at Fitzroy the next afternoon despite camping at the base for 2 nights. The second night, particularly, was an experience. The wind just kept cranking up, and up and up until it was absolutely screaming. Luckily our camp site was in a grove of trees which broke most of the wind, but the sound of it roaring through the tree tops just over our tent kept me awake half the night waiting for the tent to disintegrate. We had pitched our tent behind a pile of logs for shelter, and stacked logs around the base to keep the dust and cold draughts out, so we fared fine but it is without doubt the loudest wind that I have heard and was pretty unnerving. The next day we walked out and the wind was still strong enough that it would pretty much push you over with the gusts. It was strong enough that it blew my large (15kg+) hiking pack along the track when I put it down for a rest. They weren´t lying when they said it was windy here. It also didn´t help that the gale was ripping down off the Southern Continental Ice Field, just behind Mt Fitzroy, and was a touch on the chilly side, aided in no small part by the small chunks of ice that pass for rain here. After that I have decided that Gore-Tex was actually invented by God when he was resting on the 7th day and I may never leave home without it again….
Of course, once we had walked out (still with enough food left for one more day) the weather immediately improved and the next morning was clear and afforded a great view of the mountains from town (actually I think the best view was from town so I don´t know why everyone bothers to hike in to the base when you can sit by the sidewalk, eating bacon and eggs with a cappuccino and take in the view over breakfast?!) Anyway, we are dumb enough to be planning another hike in Torres del Paine in a few days time. All jokes aside though, when the weather is good the scenery here must be some of the most amazing anywhere and 3 days of arse kicking by the wind and cold is totally worth it for just one clear day.
We have today to chill in El Calafate, having come back down yesterday before taking the bus to Puerto Natales in Chile tomorrow morning. We will spend a couple of days there to gear up and then start out Torres del Paine hike just before Christmas, so who knows, with a bit of altitude we might even manage a white Christmas as the snow here isn´t very high up the mountains!
As my next post will be after Christmas, best wishes to all for the festive season and I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year. If you want to know if we are frolicking in the sun, or cowering in our tent on Christmas day, then you can check the Puerto Natales weather on the web.