Eric and I just got off the trail yesterday from I think the consensus toughest hike in our lives. According to my plans this was supposed to be the cake walk hike but a combination of weather, overpacking, and me not reading the description close enough made it otherwise. Although instead of a lazy walk through summer lake country we got a difficult, but rewarding hike continuously up and down mountains with a story to tell.
Day 1 started with a cramped ride up a cable car to the near peak of Bariloche's local ski mountain - Cerro Catedral. We had the pleasure if being sandwiched in with a couple from Washington on their second lunamiel on the same hike. All campsites were next to refugios - we had full camping gear but a lot of people we met were hiking hut to hut with daypacks. The hike was tougher than expected, but well marked and only slightly cold.
The next morning we awoke to frost and decided to get a late start to let the tents dry. The hike was tough. More or less straight up and down a couple mountains, but we made great time an introduced our friends to Pass the Pigs (easily the greatest travel game of all time - packable, a huge hit on the trail, and probably my best pre-trip purchase behind my hiking boots).
Another freezing cold night, I didn't sleep much but we awoke to great weather and word that the Refugio administrator had cleared us to attempt the next section of the hike. There were sections bordering on rock climbing that aren't safely traversed in wet or icy weather, much less with a full pack, and the route is poorly marked so good visibility is key. The hike was brutal gong from valleys to hiking 2000+ meter ridge lines and back again, but we could see for miles including their mammoth Mt. Tronador and Chile's Volcan Osorno. Photo from the peak of Cerro Navidad:
Made camp at a great sheltered site which was key because the wind was gusting and it was getting cold. Only enough energy to make dinner and fall asleep. Woke up at 3:30 am to freezing rain. We had discussed a rest day or half-day if needed to let our legs rest since we had extra food, but upon waking decided it didn't matter how our legs felt - the toughest day was behind us, but this one would take the silver and freezing rain and wind strong enough to blow me over weren't ideal conditions to hike in. We sat inside the tents till lunch to see if we could attempt the first half as there was actually a park site en route. The second half of the day was spen inside of the refugio laughing at the horizontal winds, rain and snow while playing cribbage and trying to freeze slower...even inside we could see out breath. Eventually we actually decided to head to the tents to warm up - at least we had sleeping bags there. I crawled in with about every piece of clothing I had with me. Made a terrible dinner and went to bed hoping the weather would pass and we could finish the hike.
Well sleep is a strong term, it was more like tossing and turning. I think I was more sore from all the laying around than I've been from hiking around this whole time. We woke up to a few inches if snow covering our tents, again straight-line winds and drifts up to my knee. This completely axed our plans and on top of that I was pretty sick from my dinner although I'm not sure what I ate. At the time of writing this I'm just starting to feel better 2 days later. We packed up in the snow and hiked out an alternate route at much lower altitudes and camped at the Swiss Colony. Here is a sight I hope to never see again:
Added photos:
Picture of the sites at Refugio Jakob. High exposure to the wind and too rocky to properly stake the tents - glad we didn't get bad weather here.
Picture of the ice needles we woke up to each morning it was freezing cold, but not snowing. I'm not sure on the physics here, but these needles would grow overnight - pushing the top layer of dirt up with it. Its not a race, but the winners measured up to 2" long. Pretty impressive.
Day 1 started with a cramped ride up a cable car to the near peak of Bariloche's local ski mountain - Cerro Catedral. We had the pleasure if being sandwiched in with a couple from Washington on their second lunamiel on the same hike. All campsites were next to refugios - we had full camping gear but a lot of people we met were hiking hut to hut with daypacks. The hike was tougher than expected, but well marked and only slightly cold.
The next morning we awoke to frost and decided to get a late start to let the tents dry. The hike was tough. More or less straight up and down a couple mountains, but we made great time an introduced our friends to Pass the Pigs (easily the greatest travel game of all time - packable, a huge hit on the trail, and probably my best pre-trip purchase behind my hiking boots).
Another freezing cold night, I didn't sleep much but we awoke to great weather and word that the Refugio administrator had cleared us to attempt the next section of the hike. There were sections bordering on rock climbing that aren't safely traversed in wet or icy weather, much less with a full pack, and the route is poorly marked so good visibility is key. The hike was brutal gong from valleys to hiking 2000+ meter ridge lines and back again, but we could see for miles including their mammoth Mt. Tronador and Chile's Volcan Osorno. Photo from the peak of Cerro Navidad:
Made camp at a great sheltered site which was key because the wind was gusting and it was getting cold. Only enough energy to make dinner and fall asleep. Woke up at 3:30 am to freezing rain. We had discussed a rest day or half-day if needed to let our legs rest since we had extra food, but upon waking decided it didn't matter how our legs felt - the toughest day was behind us, but this one would take the silver and freezing rain and wind strong enough to blow me over weren't ideal conditions to hike in. We sat inside the tents till lunch to see if we could attempt the first half as there was actually a park site en route. The second half of the day was spen inside of the refugio laughing at the horizontal winds, rain and snow while playing cribbage and trying to freeze slower...even inside we could see out breath. Eventually we actually decided to head to the tents to warm up - at least we had sleeping bags there. I crawled in with about every piece of clothing I had with me. Made a terrible dinner and went to bed hoping the weather would pass and we could finish the hike.
Well sleep is a strong term, it was more like tossing and turning. I think I was more sore from all the laying around than I've been from hiking around this whole time. We woke up to a few inches if snow covering our tents, again straight-line winds and drifts up to my knee. This completely axed our plans and on top of that I was pretty sick from my dinner although I'm not sure what I ate. At the time of writing this I'm just starting to feel better 2 days later. We packed up in the snow and hiked out an alternate route at much lower altitudes and camped at the Swiss Colony. Here is a sight I hope to never see again:
Added photos:
Picture of the sites at Refugio Jakob. High exposure to the wind and too rocky to properly stake the tents - glad we didn't get bad weather here.
Picture of the ice needles we woke up to each morning it was freezing cold, but not snowing. I'm not sure on the physics here, but these needles would grow overnight - pushing the top layer of dirt up with it. Its not a race, but the winners measured up to 2" long. Pretty impressive.
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