The next part of our honeymoon took us to the promised land – El Chalten. We had long heard tales of its windy beauty, of the granite massifs that encircle town, and of the laidback small town vibes. While I had big climbing dreams, after talking to Marty, we decided we wanted to focus on time with each other rather than suffering on walls, so we ditched most of the trad rack from Frey, and ventured forth!
El Chalten: Mecca
As soon as we arrived, we were struck by the magic of El Chalten; life felt simpler and immersed in nature. We dropped our bags off at our hotel, and immediately ran up the Mirador de Condores hike. The hike kept getting more and more beautiful as you ascended, and you could see the granite tips of the massif off in the distance peeking through clouds. The tallest mountain in the massif – Cerro Chalten was named by the first inhabitants, the Tehuelches, and means “the smoking mountain”. It’s a beautiful and fitting name, as the clouds blow off it as if it were a volcano. Westerners came and renamed it Fitz Roy, but recent efforts have brought back the native name – which I think is much more fitting! We got sweeping vistas of the surrounding desert, and got our first taste of the overpowering wind. It was so strong Marty and I jumped around trying to fly like condores. We came down from our walk windswept and beaming. We had dinner at a small brewery restaurant, and despite Marty’s warnings, I got an entire pumpkin filled with cheese. It was exactly what it sounded like, and I didn’t come close to finishing it. I took it to go, and for the next 3 days we had a room temperature cheese filled pumpkin in our closet.
The next morning we discovered our favorite food in Argentina – tortas fritas! At our free hotel breakfast I asked the manager what the story behind these delicious fried dough bits was, and he told me that gauchos traditionally eat them, and recommended we slather them with dulce de leche. He saw me come back 3 times for more, and I overheard him pointing us out to his coworker as the “tortas fritas personas”. We spent the rest of the day dreaming of the torta frita.
It was a half rain half sun day, so we opted for a nice long hike up Loma de Pliegue. After some forest walking, we schlepped up a rocky red cinder cone and topped out to a fabulous view of Laguna Torre. Marty took a nap, we stayed until the clouds rolled in, then came down quick in the whipping wind. Along the way I’m pretty sure we ran into Rolando Garibotti, a legendary local climber who, amongst many things, wrote the guidebook. Back in town we had a life changing apple streudel, then bought two beers and ran up the Mirador de Condores hike again. The clouds parted, and the glorious sun beamed its golden rays down, and we got our first look at the entire massif. We stayed until the sun dipped below the horizon, drinking our beers and soaking it all in. Later at dinner someone sitting next to us exhaled in Spanish – we hiked all day and only now sitting at the restaurant do we get to see the mountains!
The next day we stuffed our faces with more tortas fritas, then cragged at the edge of town on some chossy volcanic walls. The wind was so strong it swept me off balance at the top of the route! We got too wind haggard, so we wandered into the forest, where we heard there were fun granite sport and bouldering. We found a hard lil sport route, and worked it until my fingers hurt. Having climbed our (my) fill, we decided to hike to a beautiful waterfall. The lower falls was crowded, but a friend we made along the trail gave us the beta of going to the secret upper falls. We did and had a waterfall and crystal blue pool all to ourselves! We jumped in (of course), then lounged in the sun. It started to lightly drizzle, so we got treated to rainbows all the way back into town. We made it to the hotel right as a big storm crashed in, so we were delighted to spend the rainy afternoon in the hotel’s heated pool and sauna. There’s nothing quite like being in a big pool of warm water while a storm howls outside – it was sooo good. That night we feasted on trout and grilled veggies. It had been another perfect day in Chalten.
We had been keeping an eye on the weather, and had been hoping for 2-3 days of minimal rain and wind. This was a very common activity in town – everyone’s keeping an eye out for those sunny, low wind chunks of time when you can really get into the mountains. Finally, having spotted a mini weather window, we embarked on our mini backpacking trip. Starting north of town by Rio Electrico, then hiked our way down through enchanted forests, grassy fields, and rivers lined with brilliant white granite. The highlight of day 1 was the seeing our very first glacier. It hung down over a glistening blue lake, threatening to tumble in, and we were blown away by the electric blue in its icy depths. We sat and admired for a long time.
After a nap and some lunch, we continued along the trail to the legendary Laguna de Los Tres. When I saw the massif for the first time, I said holy shit out loud, and a passerby responded, holy shit is right! We topped out on a rocky hill that overlooked it all. I don’t really have words to describe how awestruck we were.
After a leisurely stroll by the lake, we found a perfect bivy spot to set up camp for the night. Normally people camp further down away from the lake, but this spot was just too good to pass up. We put down our bags, re-enforced the walls, and I painted as we watched the evening slip away. We made tasty tortellinis and ate our last piece of imported chocolate as the sun set behind the spires. After double checking the weather forecast, we concluded that it wasn’t going to rain, and decided this was the perfect evening to sleep out under the stars. We cozied up in our double sleeping bag, and watched as the milky way blinked on above. I was so filled with joy, with beauty, and with love, laying there under the stars. We were together right where heaven and earth touched.
Several times through the night I awoke with a cold nose and eyes full of stars. Each time I awoke, the Milky Way had shifted its position relative to the massif, and it’s a sight I will always carry with me. In the morning, we awoke to first orange light on the rocks. It was very hard to leave the warm comfort of our sleeping bag, but we eventually did, and walked up the nearby hill to join the other revelers.
As the sun rose we were treated to an unreal site – the entire massif lit up in orange so bright it seemed like neon. We later found out this is a relatively rare phenomenon – it has to be perfectly clear out for the sun to light up the rocks that orange. We didn’t see another sunrise quite like this one for the rest of the trip. We soaked it in, I tried to capture the brilliant colors, and painted until my fingers were numb.
Once the sun was fully up we decided to hike to the top of a nearby mountain – Cerro Madsen. It was a fun 3rd and 4th class scramble, and got tricky at times. We almost turned around after lunch, but luckily a nice spaniard came by and encouraged us, and we made it to the top! There was a sweeping view of the Piedras Blancas glaciar below, and a perfect stone ledge to admire the Chalten massif. It was the best seat in the house! The day was perfectly blue, and our spaniard friend put it best – “this one day makes my entire 3 week trip worth it”. We really felt that. After chilling hard, we made our way back down to laguna de los tres and took a cold dip.
That evening we decided to head over to Laguna Sucia (which is not dirty as its name may imply) to camp for the night. It was a beautiful river talus hop, and we kept passing climbers. I felt a little bummed that we weren’t climbing, but remembered that the point of climbing was to be outside in beautiful places, and wasn’t I already doing that? Laguna Sucia felt wilder than Laguna de los tres. It had dark ribbons of water streaming down the rock faces that rose up around the water. We found a cushy looking bivy and made another tasty tortellini meal, taking our meal at sunset by the water.
On the final day of our hike we woke up for the sunrise, which was beautiful but not as spectacularly orange as the day before. We hiked over to Laguna Torre, stopping for a quick swim in Laguna Madres. We chatted with some rough looking climbers hiking down, and it was unclear whether they had had fun or not. We arrived at Laguna Torre, which has brown milky water with glaciers floating in it. It’s the real sucia one! We caught glimpses of Cerro Torre, which is part of another massif that lies behind the Chalten massif. It’s known to be harder, icier, and generally have scarier climbing. We rationed the last of our calories, three oreo’s a piece, and decided we had to make it back into town before we perished of starvation. We somehow made it, and after a shower, nap, and some snacks, we went to a hoppin outdoor bar and had a beer. Marty decided it was time to exploit not explore, so we returned to the restaurant where we had the incredible trout, and got the same exact thing :).
By this point, we had been going hard for several days, and Marty requested/demanded a rest day. So we blobbed around town, visited the one organic foods store that sold tofu (!!!), and ate apple strudel. I felt like a local walking around town doing my chores. We climbed a fun 4 pitch sport route right in town, though I got destroyed by the wind at the summit. We made a tasty dinner, and had white wine at our picnic bench outside our place.
After dinner, we went for a river walk, and we encountered two unicorns in the field! We brought them a carrot, and got a few pats in exchange. Marty would like to note that our rest day still involved a multipitch climb but I think it counts in my book :). I mean come on, we pet unicorns!!!
Fully rested, I decided we were ready for a 15 mile hike. We went back to the northern end of town by Rio Electrico and started walking. We got to a warm green refugio right as the wind and rain started howling. We split a cup of hot cocoa, then ventured back out. We discovered these delicious chaura berries that we stuffed our pockets with, and did a tyrolean traverse over a rushing river that we found. We were trying to get to the third massif that lies behind both the Chalten and the Torre massifs, and we managed to catch some glimpses of it. This one was much more rugged, there was less clean granite, more snow and rock, and wayyy fewer people. We really felt like we were getting the wilderness experience! We had a slightly spooky cold river crossing to contend with on both the way out and in. On the way back, the wind was so fierce I had to walk backwards into it to avoid destroying my face. When we made it to the halfway point of the refugio we were so relieved and a bit dazed. Que aventura we kept saying. Marty kept joking that this was the sort of romantic easy honeymoon you always dream of. Back in town we got incredible pizza at a place called Laborum, and passed out after a 16mile, 2 pizza day.
On our very last day in El Chalten I had a brain blast – what if we went to the mini spa in town? This was possibly the best idea I’ve ever had. For $55 a piece, we got a 30 minute leg massage, 45 minutes in the sauna, and 45 minutes in these jacuzzi’s overlooking the mountains. It. was. divine. We staggered out in absolute bliss, and met up for lunch with our Frey fellows Chris and Annabelle! Lunch turned into a sprawling 4 hour hang where we walked over to the bakery to get strudel and visited two supermarkets to grocery shop. Marty and I filled up on ice cream one more time, then caught the evening bus out of El Chalten. We had some hilarious bus mates, and the 3 hour bus ride passed in laughter and story telling.
El chalten was our favorite stop on our trip. If you’re thinking of going – go! Give yourself at least a week to really soak it all in, and maybe catch a weather window. Sleeping under the stars at Laguna de los tres was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life :).
El Calafate: Big Ice on the Perito Moreno Glacier
The big draw of Calafate is the chance to go see the Perito Moreno Glacier, which is part of the Southern Patagonia Ice field, the third largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth! We had booked the “big ice trek”, which I had agonized over because it was expensive, but supposedly worth it. Spoiler: it was so worth it. They bussed us 1.5 hours out of town to the glacier, and let us loose on the catwalks. Seeing the face of the glacier was unlike anything I’d seen, and while watching it huge pieces of ice would come calving off, creating booms and cracks that echoed through the air. It was addicting to watch, and I’m pretty sure Marty didn’t blink that entire hour.
After that, they took us on a ferry ride across the lake, which also afforded some great views, then divvied us up into groups, gave us some harnesses and helmets, and we hiked off! We hiked through the woods for a while, with a river of ice to our side. When we finally arrived at the ice, they fitted us with some old school rigid frame crampons, and we hopped onto the ice. We had two really great guides, I spoke with them for a while about the climbing that they do in and around Chalten. They pointed out ice holes, ice rivers, ice cream (jk jk), and all sorts of cool glacial features. They set up an ice anchor and a hand line, and we descended into a blue canyon of ice for lunch. We had a relatively fit crew, so we were able to cover some ground! It was so cool being in the middle of the glacier, with mountains all around, and feeling the cool breeze blowing across the ice. It was so worth it, and was such a unique experience. And, on the ferry ride back, they gave us shots of whisky with glaciar ice and little bonbons, so that was reallll nice.
Phew, that was a long post! If you actually read it, wow thank you, you must really love us. We had such a good time in El Chalten, and if you’re planning a trip there any time soon, hit us up! We have lots of restaurant and hiking recommendations, and want to live vicariously through you as you journey to mecca :).
Stay tuned for part 3, where we cross over to the Chilean side of Patagonia for eight full days of Paine!
Have to say I agree with Marty that a rest day that involves a 4 pitch sport climb doesn’t really sound like a rest day…