El Chalten 5-7 February
El Chalten, a very new town, established in 1986, is a rapidly expanding hikers paradise with beautiful mountains and the ultimate in rock climbing conquests - the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Never before have we seen so much gortex, waterproofs, fleece and stinky hiking boots which lined the hostel passages.
Spent Monday with Lindsey and Chantal, trekking up to Cerro Torre mirador and had lunch at an awesome waterfall, Salta Chorilla.
Tuesday - Supertrek started
We did an overnight supertrek with Lindsey (a very cool American we met at school). This involved a 20km hike over two days, walking to the base of Fitz Roy, through valleys, up mountains and camping at the base of Cerro Torre.
Before starting the hike we met our fellow group members, were given instructions and packed lunches for the two days. As our back packs were already absolutely jam-packed, we had to gorge ourselves with Day 1`s lunch pack at 11am. We also had to fill in an idemnity form and questionnaire, with the classic question "Are you on a diet? Do you need to go on one?"
Group members included:
Purple Pants - a kiwi in his mid 60`s who hiked in fleece tracksuit who we were concerned was going to have a heart attack after being out of breath merely walking on the flat to the start of the trek.
Mr and Mrs Useless - an Argentinian couple who carried a humungous backpack while everyone else had a small overnight day pack. We´re not really sure what they had there, but to give them credit, they let us try some of their mate (Argentinian tea) as well as Jack Daniels on ice when we were on the glacier. They also took photo`s of each other in every possible pose, in all different places. Mrs was definitely out of her comfort zone.
Scruffy Creepy German man - with a long lense on his camera who we were convinced was taking photos of us.
Jolly Belguim Lady - who we think was with Scruffy Creepy German man
Mr and Mr Holland - Dutch ?gay ?couple (Mark and Patrick)
Day 2 of the trek, we crossed Fitz Roy River suspended on a harness attached to a wire (according to Lindsey, the experienced mountaineer out of us, it`s called a Tyrolean-transverse) We then hiked to Cerro Torre Glacier, where we strapped on our crampons and 
went stomping across the glacier for a few hours. Incredible blue and white hues of the ice, and some pretty hair-raising moments as we walked along narrow ridges, with deep crevasses on either side (we had to learn to trust our crampons). This was followed by ice climbing with ice picks up a cliff face of the glacier, before heading back to camp for tea and then home to El Chalten.
When we got back to El Chalten, and were boarding the bus to Calafate, we discovered that the tour operator had not booked us on. This was a problem as all hostels in El Chalten were fully booked, however our gorgeous guide, Paulo, kindly offered to put us up at his house. Fortunately (or unfortunately) there was space on the bus, so we bought tickets and went down to Calafate.
As we left El Chalten, the clouds cleared exposing the spires of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre for the first time in 3 days...
El Chalten, a very new town, established in 1986, is a rapidly expanding hikers paradise with beautiful mountains and the ultimate in rock climbing conquests - the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Never before have we seen so much gortex, waterproofs, fleece and stinky hiking boots which lined the hostel passages.
Spent Monday with Lindsey and Chantal, trekking up to Cerro Torre mirador and had lunch at an awesome waterfall, Salta Chorilla.Tuesday - Supertrek started
We did an overnight supertrek with Lindsey (a very cool American we met at school). This involved a 20km hike over two days, walking to the base of Fitz Roy, through valleys, up mountains and camping at the base of Cerro Torre.
Before starting the hike we met our fellow group members, were given instructions and packed lunches for the two days. As our back packs were already absolutely jam-packed, we had to gorge ourselves with Day 1`s lunch pack at 11am. We also had to fill in an idemnity form and questionnaire, with the classic question "Are you on a diet? Do you need to go on one?"
Group members included:Purple Pants - a kiwi in his mid 60`s who hiked in fleece tracksuit who we were concerned was going to have a heart attack after being out of breath merely walking on the flat to the start of the trek.
Mr and Mrs Useless - an Argentinian couple who carried a humungous backpack while everyone else had a small overnight day pack. We´re not really sure what they had there, but to give them credit, they let us try some of their mate (Argentinian tea) as well as Jack Daniels on ice when we were on the glacier. They also took photo`s of each other in every possible pose, in all different places. Mrs was definitely out of her comfort zone.
Scruffy Creepy German man - with a long lense on his camera who we were convinced was taking photos of us.
Jolly Belguim Lady - who we think was with Scruffy Creepy German man
Mr and Mr Holland - Dutch ?gay ?couple (Mark and Patrick)
Day 2 of the trek, we crossed Fitz Roy River suspended on a harness attached to a wire (according to Lindsey, the experienced mountaineer out of us, it`s called a Tyrolean-transverse) We then hiked to Cerro Torre Glacier, where we strapped on our crampons and 
went stomping across the glacier for a few hours. Incredible blue and white hues of the ice, and some pretty hair-raising moments as we walked along narrow ridges, with deep crevasses on either side (we had to learn to trust our crampons). This was followed by ice climbing with ice picks up a cliff face of the glacier, before heading back to camp for tea and then home to El Chalten.
When we got back to El Chalten, and were boarding the bus to Calafate, we discovered that the tour operator had not booked us on. This was a problem as all hostels in El Chalten were fully booked, however our gorgeous guide, Paulo, kindly offered to put us up at his house. Fortunately (or unfortunately) there was space on the bus, so we bought tickets and went down to Calafate.As we left El Chalten, the clouds cleared exposing the spires of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre for the first time in 3 days...
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