Thursday 9 February El Chalten
Yvonne put on a late but spirited bout of sleep apnoea. Gordon wandered through in mid bout and ignored her. We turned up for breakfast – this time the bread was totally hard/stale so I took the basket to the front desk and left it there with the manager. We didn’t leave until 10 and had a 3 hour drive to El Chalten. The mountains loomed ahead of us - up to 10,000 ft on the Chilean border.
We drove into town and there was a prolonged scrum as everyone jockeyed for private rooms. We ended up with a double bed!!! In a room with Dan the Sax. We had a quick briefing at the ranger station for advice about the various hiking tracks. After a DIY avocado and tomato roll, we decided to get on with it and headed off about 3.30 to try the Lake Capri walk, labelled as steep and 1.75 hours each way.
The wind had come up very strongly and the mountains were hiding. Rain or snow was a distinct possibility. We headed out on our own, very conscious of the Japanese and Germans who wade into our oceans or our outback with no idea of what they are heading into.
Steep it was and we were soon sweating in our layered gear. After some time we bumped into Stewie on his way back. He told us we had done the worst and that the lookout point was only 20 minutes ahead. That was as encouraging as it was misleading. The trail was very well marked and there was a stream of hikers on the way home. We came to part where the track crossed a ridge fully exposed to the wind and we nearly got blown off. Back in the forest the path was not quite so steep and we just kept plodding along. Then we met the boys with Koen and Peter, followed shortly by Danny T and the Americans.
We had glimpses of mountains but the tips proved elusive. Eventually we made both objectives – the lookout and the lake, and turned for home. The return trip was much quicker and generally easier except that it was a bit hard on the joints. We made it back pretty much on time – 3.5 hours. Tired but feeling quite pleased with ourselves. We had also scored some cred with the rest of the group for getting out and handling quite a reasonable hike. Apparently the weather should be better tomorrow, particularly in the morning, so we will see what we can do.
El Chalten lies within the borders of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. It is Argentina’s youngest village having been created in 1985 to counter Chile’s claims to the territory. Nestled between two rivers with the granite spires of Cerro Fits Roy (3405m) & Cerro Torre (3102m) protruding from the backdrop of snowy mountains. A very picturesque location with many easy day treks.
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