The Amazing Hike from Hell

As I was saying,

    The real adventure in Bariloche hadn´t even begun. Carl and I had been a little down since we came to Bariloche, as we discovered it would cost over $200 US currency to take a 28 hour bus  (one way) to see the Perito Moreno glacier and the famous Monte Fitz Roy. We both thought it was too much for such a dreadful trip (did I mention this bus would be on gravel road the entire time, and would have no bathrooms?). We decided it would just be fine to stay in the lake district in Argentina and then move up north, however you could hear the regret in our voices when we talked about it. Luckily I found out about a ridiculousy cheap airline called LADE, and while their website wasn´t working, I managed to find their office in Bariloche and discovered that for the same price, we could hitch a ride to El Calafate (right next to glacier) and be there in 2 hours instead of 28!

 

     The plane was only once a week on Thursdays, and Niki decided it was worth the bus ride to get down there sooner. We said farewell and decided to pack a trip inside Parque Nacional Nahuel Haupi. We knew it was short notice but the weather has been PERFECT here. The trees are also changing color for autumn abnd we knew this would be the best chance to see them.... it might already be too late by the time we made it back from the south (this place becomes a ski resort in the winter, surprise surprise). We were recommended a trip that was supposed to be ´fairly easy´ which had Refugios (log cabins) that we could sleep in and eat breakfast and dinner at on each night. We planned a two night trip, grabbed some food for lunches and were off!

 

      After an hour bus ride we made it to the foot of Cerro Catedral Norte. The mountain seemed nice enough and this part of the trip was supposed to be fairly easy. We left some of our stuff at the hostel so the load was much lighter than usual. The trail was nice enough, with small waterfalls every 15 minutes or so. We had started late so needed to move quickly to make it to the refugio by nightfall. As we finally turned the ridge of the mountain, I understoond why this trip was recommended. We were in a forest of brightly colored orange-yellow leaves that covered the valley we were in. The mountains around us were humongous and the the vistas were truly majestic. We were enjoying our nice trail and the great views, but the going soon got tough. It seems that by an easy hike, what the guide from the park really meant was ´climb up one of these mountains to get the refugio´ I can only imagine him laughing at us from the distance, seeing us lumber up the route as night began to fall. The sunset was incredibly beautiful but the last hour of the hike was constantly uphill. I hadn´t conserved my energy before this part and could barely make it up the mountain! I realized this 3-day trek was going to be much much harder than I expected.

 

   Refugio Le Frey, our first stop, was in the perfect spot. Placed on the lip of two peaks, overlooking a high-altitude lagoon on one side and the valley we had climbed out of on the other. This place was exactly what I needed. A few mountain climbers and the caretaker of the hostel were there. And my spanish had gotten good enough that Carl and I could manage a long conversation with these friendly travelers. We shared a Mate (that they spiked with rum) and gobbled down our dinner (it was simple, but we were both famished). Outside it got so cold that the lagoon froze over partly, but there was no urban light and you could see dozens of stars. We shared a wine while shivering and enjoying the view and soon called it a night.

 

     In the morning I was slightly worried, as today was supposed to be the hardest part of the trek. The distance on the map looked very short so I knew there would be some extreme elevation changes. Carl and I decided to check out another lagoon that two hikers we had crossed yesterday had recommended. It turned out to be a big climb and I decided to head back about half way and save my strength for later in the day. It turned out that it was exactly the same path to the next refugio, and to our dismay, we had to repeat the 1st hour of the trek (not to mention it was one of the hardest parts). We slowly made our way up hundreds of feet, and came across another even more pristine lagoon. We saw another ridge we had to climb and trudged on. The going was grueling, but we worked fast and we were getting over the mountain in no time. The lagoons looked beautiful from up here, and after another hour of climbing, we finally made it to the first peak. The view was absolutely incredible. A sweeping valley below with a river and ridges of enromous mountains all around us. We stopped for lunch and try to gain some energy, we still had a long ways to go.

 

   While this first part of trail was demanding, it was far from the hardest, we had reached a desert-like part of the mountain, the markers were almost impossible to find, and we eventually realized we had to slowly make our way down the sandy side of the mountain, which was far steeper than the one we had climbed. Carl and I had to move one at a time on certain parts of this insane terrain, as we were worried about all the loose rocks falling on either one of us. This part of the trip took at least an hour, constantly stumbling down sandy terrain and hoping no huge rocks would come loose. We saw the valley and the trees far below us and hoped we´d be there soon. As we made our way down the rocks became more frequent, which turned out be a bad thing, they were just a loose and hurt our feet even more. When I pulled off my shoes near the bottom at least 5 rocks had found their way into my boots, and one even in my socks! We finally reached the beautiful valley below. When I looked back up at our mountain, it was clearly the largest and steepest one around. It was ridiculous what we had done and I sure as hell didn´t want to do it again.

   Despite this hard task, I was extremely proud that I had done it and enjoyed the more or less flat walk through the small valley. Down here ther were more waterfalls and beautiful trees with autumn leaves. The peaks surrounded us on every side and we let the endorphins carry us along. Eventually we started our way back up the next mountain. This one did not look nearly as hard as the last, but we were much more tired this time around. As we slowly made it pass the treeline the rocks came back in full force and my feet were howling with pain. We got one more look at the nice valley but the rugged dark mountain loomed ahead of us. It was getting late (we really regretted doing that first mini-hike) and the sun was going behind the mountain. It was cooler but I had to stop many many times to make it up the next mountain. Constantly out of breath and soaking my shirt with sweat, I wasn´t sure I´d have the energy to make it, and only the fact that the next refugio was downhill was what gave me the strength to trudge on. When we finally made it to the top it was as beautiful a view as the last, another sweeping valley (much longer) and even larger mountains surrounded us. The sun was still high enough to enjoy a few more minutes of sunlight and we enjoyed the rest of our food at the top of this peak.

    What I hadn´t mentally prepared for was how much farther downhill we would have to travel to reach the refugio. Although this second mountain was less steep than the last, this side of the mountain was even worse than the first! We again had to clamber our way down and down and down and down and down with more loose rocks to hurt our feet and hit the person below. I was so tired at this point I kept making mistakes and scraping my skin on the rocks. I was reaching my limit and knew I wouldn´t last much longer. Finally we made it below the treeline but the rocks didn´t stop we kept going until finally dirt was the main thing below our feet. Just when I thought it was easy sailing, the mud and swamp starting to come up around us. I didn´t have the energy to keep my balance across the muddy streams and got my shoes and sock covered it cold water. It was an extremely unpleasant way to end the day, and the frost forming on the ground did not bode a warm night for us. We finally after made it to the refugio and managed to wash ourselves off a little in some cold war. I felt disgusting and exhausted, and almost fell asleep while eating our dinner. I was extremely proud of what we had done, but this was close to the limit for me.

   The next morning we scarfed down breakfast and headed out on the last part of the trail. This one was much easier, although my legs were so tired it hurt to go downhill at all (still do). We trudged along the valley back to Bariloche. The trail soon became mostly flat and went beside the river. It was very nice and relaxing and I had more time to reflect on how amazing an opportunity this was. We had the most perfect weather to see some extremely beautiful sights, and if Carlton had not convinced me to follow him into the backcountry, I would probably never have seen something like this on my trip (or at least felt the experience was so rewarding).

   We were in a rush on our last leg of the hike as we had to make sure to get back in time to prepare for our flight to El Calafate the next day. We eventually made it off the path in under 5 hours (the time should have been 6!) and made our way along the road. To our dismay the road was closed to cars, including the bus we needed to get back. We were lucky enough to hitch a ride from one lone car one the road. The woman turned out to be a scientist who was supposed to pick up the other people who were staying at the second refugio, but they had taken too long. She gave us a ride to a closer bus stop and we caught the bus right on time. Whoever is looking out for us, and is wishing us well, it´s been working so far! We made it back and at this moment I´m waiting at the airport for our flight to leave (it is 4 hours late, as we kind of expected given the price of the flight). I´m excited for our next part  of the trip as it is most likely to be the most epic. We have been going non-stop except for last night and this morning, but I hope to have more stories from the REAL deep south soon!

p.s. Really sorry if there´s lots of typos in this. Didn´t have any time to edit!