El Chaltén 

Appreciating Why We Came Here (In Spite of the Dust)

Sunday February 3, 2008

As anticipated earlier in the week and promised in the last journal entry, we managed to drag ourselves out of the hotel and brave the dusty streets of town a few more times during the last week. Not only did we go out for lunch and dinner, but we went on a few more decent hikes as well.

Wednesday we repeated the Monday "hang around the hotel and do schoolwork" routine from Monday, although this time we were sore from hiking instead of just riding cramped in the truck for too long.  Thursday we headed out for another hike. 

El Chaltén sits just north of the confluence of the two rivers Rio De Las Vuelas and Rio Fitz Roy. On Tuesday, we had hiked westward along Rio Fitz Roy until we came to the glacier-fed lagoon that spawns the river. Thursday, we followed Rio De Las Vueltas northward for about 40 kilometers (by car) to where it is born at the southern end of a narrow finger lake  called Lago Del Desierto. After parking near the guy who sells choripan (grilled sausage in a hard roll) and cold drinks, and then paying our 15 peso entry fee, we headed westward on foot following a small stream up to another glacier and lagoon, both named "Huemel" after the local species of deer. We had to pay the fee because we were now on private estancia land outside of the national park, and while the landowners have a progressive attitude towards non-harmful, moderate levels of tourism, they need to be reimbursed for the inconvenience nevertheless. 

Views from the side of road following Rio De Las Vueltas to the north.

The stream we followed up to Laguna Huemel.

This is my attempt at proving that I can take pictures of birds, too.

Looking back down the river valley towards Monte Fitz Roy.

Ho hum, another glacier lagoon...

Posing in front of the Glacier,

and blowing on dandelions in front of the horse corral (back near the parking lot).

After returning from the walk to the lagoon, we headed northward a few hundred yards until we came to Lago Del Desierto, and then walked up on a small rocky point in order to enjoy the view. 

Lago Del Desierto.

A cool rapids just a kilometer or so south of the lake.

The hike on Thursday was tame enough that we could recover and go out walking again the very next day on Friday. This time we headed westward on a trail leading towards Monte Fitz Roy. We got a fairly late start and then stopped for lunch at a lake located near the half-way point of the trail to the base of the mountain, then after enjoying a rest and our lunch, we headed back to town. As wimpy as this may sound, there was plenty enough walking to stretch and exercise our tired-out legs - and for sure the scenery was just as spectacular as ever.

Looking north up the Rio De Las Vueltas valley from the trail - a "higher up" perspective than the one we got driving along the river on Wednesday.  

And turning around to look south, we could see the steep canyon that contains the city of El Chaltén. In the far distance, the combined Rio Fitz Roy + Rio De Las Vueltas (named ???) runs onward down into Lago Viedma. 

Tuesday, the hike gave us fantastic views of Cerro Torre. Today, Monte Fitz Roy was the primary viewing attraction.  

A description of the various peaks along the ridge line (most named for mountain climbers with the exception of Fitz Roy, of course), and the family photo that proves we were, indeed, here. 

A couple more of my favorite pictures (taken by Lynn). I believe the glacier on the right is called "Piedras Blancas" (white stones). The hanging ice transforms into a flowing liquid waterfall about halfway down the cascade - an incredible thing to see and watch. 

And yesterday, our last full day here in El Chaltén, we did nothing more strenuous than to walk a few hundred yards from a parking lot by the side of the road north of town in order to see a waterfall. The falls are on the stream that leads from Glacier Piedras Blancas over to the Rio De Las Vueltas. Being a warm sunny Saturday, a lot of people were hanging around on the rocks below the falls enjoying the afternoon.

"Chorrillo del Salto" (it means "trickle of the falls"...  Is that redundant or contradictory?)

"Old man's beard" lichen growing between a couple small fingers of false mistletoe (the little yellow branches) - all hanging from the branch of a Leña tree.

Important family discussions caught by the lens of Lynn's camera.

Today we re-crammed the truck and headed back to El Calafate. Geoff leaves for home tomorrow. He's looking forward to getting back to school and his "normal" college routine. We'll miss him for sure, but appreciate the extra space in the truck.

Driving along the eastern shore of Lago Argentina - a cool turquoise sea of pure melted glacier ice interrupting an ocean of dirt.

-Rolf