Arrived in El Calafate after flying in from Buenos Aires, which is the gateway town for the Park National Los Glaciares. Stayed in a nice hostel called Los Dos Pinos and went shopping for all the food etc. that we would need for the trek. After leaving all of the stuff we would not need for the trek in the hostel and packing the extra room in our bags with the food, they seemed to weigh and absolute ton. We were planning to walk for up to 5 days with a little bit extra, just in case.
We then had to make our way to El Chalten, which is a little touristy town which has been built at the start of the treks. As we arrived on the bus to the town, the coach was stopped and we were taken into the National Park office for a talk on how to look after the park. I got the feeling that a lot of the people on the bus hadn't done a whole load of trekking before, so I thought it was a really good idea that they went through the basics of how to look after wild environments, including "How to shit in the woods". We had thought about starting the walk as soon as we arrived in El Chalten to save a bit of money. but when we got off the buss there was a gale force wind causing a dust storm, so we made a bee line for one of the hostels.
We set off the next day into the park, and as soon as we were out of the valley, the wind dropped and the sun was out. We went up the side of the valley to a plateau that led to the base of a Glacial lake, formed by a glacier coming down from Cerro Torre. Cerro Torre is the moutain which introduced me to Patagonia and made me want to come here....
....A couple of years ago, I was on a first aid course in Plas y Brenin where an instructor happened to be giving a talk about his recent trip to climb Cerro Torre. For about 30 years the best climbers in the world thought it was unclimbable, until a French guy came along with an air compressor and drilled bolt holes all the way up the sheer face of the mountain. He left the compressor on the climb (which is now used by climbers to stand on and take a break from the climb) but apparently he couldn't be bothered walking the final short distance to the summit.
Anyway, the photos from this trip were responsible for making me want to come to Patagonia (although I would never dream of actually being able to climb to the top of it), and we arrived at the lake after climbing over the last glacial morraines to be greeted by the fantastic sight of lake and glacier backed by the formidable peak. After pitching the tent in a nice little grove of trees and spending the night there, we got up in the morning to watch the sunrise turn the Cerro Torre ridge to yellows, pinks and a range of other colours....Fantastic.
Most people walk here as a long day walk and return to El Chalten to stay in one of the hostels, but it was well worth the wild camp for the sunrise. Next day we continued the walk by heading around to the front of Fitzroy which is the other highlight of this areaa of the park. It was another short day (only about 5 hours walking) and another lovely campsite at the end of it. Only problem with this one was the spiky caterpillars which disagreed with Alison, giving her a huge rash when she grabbed one while lifting her rucksack.
Next morning was really clear for the sunrise, and we got a fantastic view of Fitzroy Mountain (photos on this site also) as the sun came up again. Well worth the effort of getting here and camping. Again, most visitors do this as a separate day trip, but we turned it into a longer trek by going all the way around to the other side of this mountain ridge on the third day. This was a much quieter trek as it took you out of the park and off the routes that the national park guards advertised. In fact, on the next two days we saw a sum total of 9 people!
After starting the walk, we arrived at another glacier and lake, but had to cross the stream coming down from the lake with no bridge. We managed after about an hour to scramble over huge boulders without getting wet or removing our boots, and got back on the track. We then followed the valley around into a wide open plain flanked by mountains, which looked like something out of a spaghetti western.
After about 6 hours we arrived at the refugio where we had planned to camp. It was in the lee of a huge glacial boulder which kept us out of the wind, but it appeared to be abandoned and closed up for the end of the season. It felt almost like a ghost town. The only information we had about camping was a sign that said among other things "no acampar". We had some food and then decided to pitch the tent anyway, hoping that we wouldn't be booted off by an angry farmer and have to walk 6 hours to the next nearest campsite.
After a couple of hours, two gauchos arrived on horses with a dog and two kittens, saying that camping was no problem and trying to sell us beer and wine. A couple of other trekkers arrived soon after also, and made the place feel much more like home (and they turned on the hot water so we could have our first shower in 3 days!)
Everyone had been talking about which campsites had rats, but by all accounts the Fitzroy area was fine. You are supposed to hang your food in a tree rather than have mice and rats eat holes in all your equipment looking for any food they can smell. I thought we would be fine so didn't do this, but at about 2 a.m. I heard a strange noise rustling in the front of the tent.
"Alison....ALISON.....I think I can hear rats outside the tent!"
I really didn't want to have to get out of my nice cosy sleeping bag and deal with this at 2 a.m. Next thing I heard was the "thing" ran up the side of the tent and was sat about a foot and a half above our heads! I grabbed my head torch and shone it at the top of the tent. It was definately not a rat I was looking at, but couldn´t figure it out for a minute.....One of the kittens had found the warmest spot on the campsite in between out fly sheet and inner tent!
Worried about sharp claws putting holes in my nice tent, I got out of the tent and gently removed it, chucking it out unceremoniously. However, it was back within half an hour, so thought it was best to leave it there. At least there were no rats.
Next day we headed back the way we had come and then most of the way back to El Calafate, after getting slightly misplaced in the forest at one point. Was amazing to see so many people once we rejoined the main trail. We had to queue behind day walkers at one bridge, while some of the less confident people crossed it on their behinds! That just left a very short walk the next day back to El Calafate, where we got some nice food, showers and well earned beds!
