Mount Tronador

First things first! I want to welcome my two newest friends into the world - Reuben and Meridian Cloniger. They joined us yesterday morning. Love to the entire Martin and Cloniger clan. I am so happy for you all.

Now, what an incredible weekend. Easily the highlight of my trip, thus far.

(If you are interested, here´s a link to a map of the area, so you can see where we hiked - http://www.bariloche.com/parques_e.asp . Day one, we hiked from Pampa Linda to Refugio Otto Meiling. Day two, we retraced our steps from Otto Meiling, then walked north, along Rio Frias. Day three, we continued north along Rio Frias to Puerto Frias, where we boarded a boat across Lago Frias, then a quick bus to Puerto Blest, then another boat to Bariloche.)

Friday morning, I, along with six others, boarded a small bus (more like a van, really) around 8:30 AM. My traveling companions were Elian and Phillipe from Switzerland, Peter from Germany, Angie from Argentina, Sabrina from Switzerland, and Quirin from Lichtenstein. The bus carried us to Pampa Linda - about a two hour ride. It was slow going because the roads were small and covered with dirt and gravel, but the scenery out the window was gorgeous. I could just feel myself getting farther and farther away from the man-made world.

Pampa Linda is a little area, mostly serving as the jumping off point for trekking around Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. There´s a park office there and a little lodge and restaurant. We hung around there for about an hour, registering our names with the park office, studying the map, having a snack, and generally getting organized. And then, around 11:30 AM, we were off!

We had about a five hour climb ahead of us to Refugio Otto Meiling, most of which was up, up, up. The first two hours were mostly in the forest. It was partly cloudy and cool - perfect weather for working up a sweat. It wasn´t what I would call extremely difficult, but it was difficult, it was work, and we were all carrying huge backpacks full of tents and sleeping bags and food and whatnot. I´ve done a bit of day-hiking but never real backpacking like this, so it was a totally new experience for me. One that I´ll definitely do again.

About halfway up, the clouds started to part, and we had our first glimpse of Tronador! I saw it about every five minutes for the next two or three hours, but every time was like the first time. Wow! LOOK at THAT! I took about a million pictures, which I am working on uploading at the moment. We had a short pit stop for lunch - cheese and sausage and crackers and chocolate and hot tea - and then it was onward.

The second half of the hike was out of the forest - the terrain changed from trees and dirt to just rocks, everywhere. Rocks and beautiful views. You could see the entire glacier, the waterfall cascading down from it, Pampa Linda below, and mountains, and skies.

At one point, I saw a large shadow pass over my head, and when I looked up, there were about six HUGE condors circling above. I have never seen anything like it. I took many pictures, but the essense of the moment does not come across at all. I just stood and stared for about ten minutes.

After about five hours of hiking, we spotted the refugio ahead. The refugio is situated at the bottom of Tronador, about 2000 meters up (which is 6500 feet). It was a bit bizarre to be in the middle of nowhere and come upon a little house. How did that get there? you wonder. Did they heliocopter the building materials in? Must have. It looked like just a little metal shack, but was actually quite modern and cozy inside. There was dormitorio on the second floor, that was basically just a big room with wall to wall mattresses on the floor, a small bathroom (just sinks and toilets), a kitchen (yours to use for a small fee), and a little eating area. All around the refugio were these little circles of rocks, where people had previously set up camp outside. We decided we´d camp it, so we went about having a beer and setting up camp. And then there was a good bit of laying on the rocks, relaxing, looking out at the mountains. It was much cooler up there than down in Pampa Linda, but the sun was strong and warm. Quite comfortable.

We took a short trek up onto the glacier before dinner, drank some pure glacier water, and watched the sun disappear behind Tronador. When it started to get cool outside and stomachs started rumbling, we headed inside to prepare dinner. Pasta and vino.

When I finally headed out to my little one man tent (borrowed from my friend Simon), I was pooped, and I thought I would be asleep in no time, legs tired and stomach full of pasta and wine. I was wrong. I laid there about three hours. Just laying. My face was freezing and I just couldn´t relax. Somebody outside started snoring, I started to feel dread at the thought of having to go to the bathroom, I couldn´t get comfortable, the wind was rustling the tent and making me feel like there were little somethings trying to get into my tent. My mind was not allowed to turn off. So, after much debating, I decided that being a wimp and going inside (taking refuge in the refugio!) would be better than starting the next day having had no sleep. So I unzipped the sleeping bag, unzipped the tent, flicked on my little flashlight, and walked down to the refugio. This was about 3 AM.

(I should note here, that the stars were just perfect. I can´t describe them. I was at the end of the world, no sign of the real world anywhere, and the sky was lit up so brightly, illuminating the shapes of the mountains around me. It was incredible. I need some new words to describe these things.)

In the refugio, I climbed up the stairs to the dormitorio, but I could not see a thing. Pitch black. And I didn´t want to turn on my flashlight and wake up everyone, trying to see if there was an available mattress. So I just felt around at the top of the stairs, decided there was enough room for my body on the floor and just plopped down right there. The floor wasn´t exactly any more comfortable than the bed of rocks and mud I´d had outside, but my mind finally did shut off. At least for a few hours.

I was exhausted the next morning, but after two cups of coffee and some jam and bread, I was, more or less, ready to go. So we headed back down the mountain, the way we came, around 11 AM. We left Angie and Quirin and Sabrina at the refugio - they were going to head back down to Pampa Linda a bit later, and then head strait back to Bariloche.

Downhill hiking is cruel. Cruel! But we made it. Feet and thighs and knees on fire.

When we got back down, we took the trail towards the Paso de las Nubes (Passage of the Clouds). The first several hours of the new trail were just heaven. The forest was totally foreign to me. All along the path were these magnificent bamboo-like plants, which gave everything a very exotic feeling. I´d peer upwards and see these amazing mountains overhead, see the turquoise rio running next to the path. It was so lovely and new and strange.

When we first left Pampa Linda, the ranger had told us that there was a new refugio somewhere past the Paso, but to use extreme caution because the river we had to cross to get there was unusually high after Friday´s rain.

We walked along the Rio Frias for some hours before finding the spot where, indeed, we were supposed to cross. We scoured the area to find the best way across, but there was really no way. Just had to hitch up the pants and go for it. Peter, the 47 year old German guy, threw his shoes across the rio, so that they´d be there when he got across. Great idea, I thought. When he looked at me, getting ready to follow his lead, he said, want me to do that for you? Ummm, no. I´m not some dumb girl who can´t throw! As it turns out, I am some dumb girl who can´t throw. The moment the first shoe left my hand, we all knew it was not going to make it. I am laughing out loud in this internet cafe thinking about it. Hilarious (now). My shoe rested for about 2 seconds on the very edge of the river bank. Is it going to make it?! we all were wondering. Nope, it rolled off, into the water, and then on down the stream. At the moment I threw my shoe, Elian was in the process of crossing the river, which turned out to be a bit more difficult than it looked. She was petrified, stuck in the middle, my shoe was floating down the river - who to save first?

Luckily (pure luck!), my shoe got caught on a rock, and did not go very far. I have NO idea what I would have done if I had lost my shoe, especially after experiencing the hours of hiking to follow.

The boys said, might as well just walk across in both your shoes since one´s already soaking, and it sure is slippery and dangerous in there, so that´s what I did. So I emerged on the other side, pants hitched up around my thighs, feet drenched and FREEZING. This is glacier water, after all. We sat there on the other side for several minutes, laughing, hugging, drying off.

Then Elian said, Let´s have a vodka. Let´s have a vodka? I said. What does that mean? You know, she said, let´s have a vodka. You mean let´s take a shot? Do we have vodka? And then, little German Peter-Pedro pulled a water bottle full of clear liquid from his backpack and smiled. It´s from my best friends, the Russians, he said. We´ll mix it with water! (I wish you could hear him. His accent is so thick, and his English is fairly bad, so I just adored talking to him.)

A (teeny tiny) sip of vodka later, we were on our way. It was 5:30 PM when we finally left the rio, and none of us knew exactly how much further it was to this new refugio. (That, of course, is where the sun going down at 9:30 PM is very helpful.) I think we all were feeling relieved to have crossed the river - oh, the worst is behind us now. But within minutes, we were staring out across this huge field of just marshy muck. I stopped feeling so completely stupid about my soaking shoes because by the time we got through the muck, everyone´s feet were soaked. There was just no way through but to just step in it. Or, if you tried to avoid it, chances were good that you were going to lose your balance and then REALLY be covered with mud.

Once out of the marsh, it was straight up, about two hours, to the Paso de las Nubes. Our guide book said that there was a campground nestled in a valley, about an hour after the Pass, but we were growing skeptical. Feet were wet and muddy and tired. We were all just done. When we finally emerged out of the forest, we saw a huge glacier to our left, a beautiful valley down below with a river running through, and a steep, rocky descent down. What we didn´t see was a refugio or a campground. We all knew that if nothing else, we could certainly just camp out down in the valley somewhere, but I think we were all hoping, praying, for that refugio to magically appear.

And it did!

About halfway down the mountain, I heard Elian say, I see a human being! (We had seen no one else since our descent from Otto Meiling). And sure enough, there was a woman in a red skirt, just sitting down in this little clearing in the trees. Bizzare! But wonderful. She stood up to welcome us as we came down, and just a few feet behind here was an impromptu refugio - just a few large tents - hiding down in the trees.

We were the only campers there that night, which was just fine with us. Elian and I set up our things in the "dormitorio" which was just a big tent full of thin sleeping mats, and Peter and Phillipe set up a tent outside. Then we had a beer (courtesy of the refugio, of course), and got busy cooking dinner - risotto with sausage - on Elian and Phillipe´s little burner. That night was just such a happy night - for all of us, I think. We had had such a long, funny, hard, frustrating, exhilarating day. And finally, we were rewarded. Take the shoes off, put on the flip flops, comb the hair, change shirts, sit down, take in the beauty of the surroundings, watch the stars, enjoy the company of your friends. Peter said, This is happiness. The simple things. And I couldn´t have agreed more. Food and friends and beauty.

I slept like a rock that night. Elian said she was still talking to me, as she was getting ready to bed, but I was just gone. Nothing like exhausted sleep, is there?

The next morning, we made coffee, had some bread with dulce de leche, and set off for Puerto Frias, around 10:45 AM. The woman at the refugio said the hike to Puerto Frias was anywhere between 2 and 5 hours, our boat was leaving at 3:30, so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time. Yesterday´s hike was hard on us all, I think. Physically, bodies were tired and muscles were aching. Mentally, we were all still recovering from the day before. And the path we had to take yesterday was almost entirely muddy puddles with sticks laid across, as some form of help through. So the whole day was spent standing at the edge of a puddle, trying to decide what the best footing was, balancing on sticks, falling into puddles, laughing, groaning. By the time we FINALLY emerge to Puerto Frias, after a little over four hours, we were all splattered in mud from the knee down. Each one of us had slipped into the mud at least once (some of us, more than once...me and Elian).

We walked up to Puerto Frias, just a dock, a few directional signs, a bathroom, and a kiosco, sat ourselves down, took off our shoes, had a fizzie. After about twenty minutes, a boat pulled up (not ours, as it turned out), full of tourists. After three days of hiking, these tourists seemed to me just about as bad as they get. They got off the boat for five minutes, hats on heads, cameras around necks, look at this, look at that, take a picture, get back on the boat. What on earth were they taking pictures of? I have no idea. There was nothing at Puerto Frias. We were all filthy, of course, without a shower in three days, and I just felt like those tourists were another species entirely. Not part of my family.

We finally got onto our boat around 4:45 PM, and it was also full of tourists (including one American lady that I wanted to tell to SHUT UP), but that was just fine. Twenty minutes on the boat, ten minutes on a bus to Puerto Blest, an hour wait at Puerto Blest, then 1.5 hours on another boat to Bariloche. It was around 8 PM or so by the time we got in. Phew! What a weekend. We parted, showered, and then regrouped for a big steak dinner.

Elian and Phillipe and Peter all left early this morning for Puerto Montt, Chile, where they are then going separate ways. I will probably manage to meet up with them all at some point along the way, as they´re all traveling for the next few months, but who knows. But I am so thankful to have known them all and to have spent such a weekend in their company. They are all fantastic.

I have spent almost all of today working on my pictures and on this post. I am now going to go do a little shopping for some new gear for my jaunt to Chalten on Friday. I think it´s time for some new hiking shoes. And then I am going to go for a long walk because my legs are incredibly sore, and I think some stretching them out will do them some good.

And, if you have actually read all of this, I will reward you with pictures of the weekend, so you can see everything I described. It was an amazing weekend. Time of my life. http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy