We had got back to Bariloche in the central lake district of Argentina after a 27 hour bus journey! Bariloche was hit badly by a volcano eruption in April. Luckily it was only an ash cloud but it scattered across the entire area leaving fine ash everywhere, 6 months on it still leaves the airport closed and most days views limited.
Luckily the Nauhel Haupi national park finds itself in a valley that seems to be less impacted by this and views are good most of the time.
So we again went to the supermarket and bought our rice, dried potato, porridge and frankfurter sausages, rented a tent and headed out in to the wilderness.
This trek is a 5 day trek however at this time of year only half the traverse is open as snow and ice leave high sections dangerous without ice axes and crampons and harnesses. Now, I (James) is definitely brave enough and wanted to do the entire traverse anyway, but I was not stupid enough! So we decided that the 3 days chico circuit was ok.
The first day saw us winding up through valleys with spectacular views over beautiful blue lagoons and white snow capped mountains. Bariloche is a ski town so we could make out all the ski runs and dream of being here in winter for some snow action!
After about 2 hours we arrived at what could only be described as an Indiana Jones style bridge. It said 'one at a time' and with good reason. It had broken slats, slats missing and it creaked and cracked with every step!
As we approached the camp site at 1700 meters the wind started to pick up, this made pitching our tent difficult, then the rain started and then it got heavier. The howling wind and rain did not stop for 8 hours, this meant James had to get out and re pitch the tent at midnight in his boxer shorts and rain jacket to re pitch the tent in the wind and rain!
Waking up the next morning we tentatively pulled back the tent door to look.,.......but all we saw was pure blue sky and shinning sun!!! Result!
Today was a big day, we needed to climb up to over 2000 meters, then descend in to the next valley floor at around 1300 meters followed by a climb back up to 2000 meters followed by a descent back to 1600 meters..... ouch.. feel the burn!
It started with a small boulder scramble up to a stunning blue lagoon, from here we had a large section of snow and ice to traverse. This led to Sarah having hysterics / panic attack half way up on a precarious ledge and unable to go on or turn back. After a rational conversation 'f**king get a grip woman' we continued along the ledge. Once in a suitable location we had a calm (ish) chat about going on or turning back.....
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| Sarah nervously looking at our first climb- (no finger nails left at this point) |
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| The Ice traverse (over the peak) |
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| see our footprints on the bottom right |
Once we reached the aptly named futbol the views in to the next valley met us and left us speechless, there was a reason this was one of the best walks in South America, and we were the only people doing it!
The rest of the day was a blur of sliding down steep side valleys then climbing up the other side through ice and snow, at each pass we were treated to a new stunning valley to marvel at.
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| Sarah scree skiing |
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| That's right Sarah- all the way to the top again.... ;) |
The end result was James screaming like a girl that his feet felt like he was being stabbed with daggers! It was so funny! He also almost fell over with all our kit in his bag!!!
Once we got over the river we were treated to a better nights sleep without the howling winds however.
Now we plan to stay in Bariloche until saturday 3rd, we'll get the bus hopefully back into Chile!!
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