Mount Fitz Roy

After a little more than a week in Chile, we crossed the border back into Argentina for our final stop in Patagonia, El Chalten.  Eleven hours later, after breakfast in Puerto Natales, Chile and lunch in El Calafate, Argentina, we arrived in El Chalten. 

Driving into El Chalten, I felt like Dorothy arriving in Emerald City.  The skyline of El Chalten is magical.  There are rocky, snow covered mountains, and lower, rounded, red rock hills, and then there is Mount Fitz Roy - exaggerated, definitive, and abrupt - in the middle of it all.

Mount Fitz Roy shoots straight upwards, towering over all of the other mountains.  It stands tall and proudly boasts its beauty.  It is the main attraction, the show stopper.  It is like nothing you have ever seen before.  When you lay your eyes upon Mount Fitz Roy for the first time, you don't ever want to look away.

The next morning, we were up very early to rearrange our big packs, rent tents, and repack our smaller packs to hike to Fitz Roy.  After trekking the Torres, we knew exactly what we needed.  We split up into two groups, Sinead and I in charge of food, Michael, Nadav, and Amir in charge of renting equipment.  

Since the trek was only overnight, we decided - to save money, time and weight - that we didn't need to rent stoves or cook any meals.  However, unlike Puerto Natales where we grocery shopped for the Torres, the grocery stores in the town were almost empty, lacked any decent food for hiking, and were very expensive.  We ended up spending as much money on food for three meals as we did for our entire five days in the Torres.

Our menu was as follows:
Lunch: Ham and cheese sandwich
Dinner #1: Ham and cheese sandwich
Dinner #2: Ham and cheese sandwich
Breakfast: Sandwich roll with dulce de leche and frosted flakes sprinkled on top
Snacks: Two vanilla flavored muffins

With our gourmet menu and newly rented tents, we finished packing our bags and headed straight to the mountain.

One of the best parts of Fitz Roy is that it is so close to town.  We literally walked out the door of our hostel, walked along the main road for a few minutes, turned onto a side street and walked up the trail. 

The trails of Mount Fitz Roy are supersaturated with nature.  There are forrests and lakes and rivers and lagoons and glaciers and many different types of mountains. 

Our first destination was Laguna de Torre.   As we walked through the forrest, it was like walking through a tree graveyard.  Though many of the trees are alive and healthy, there are massive limbs and branches and trees uprooted from the ground.  There are trees that are literally broken in half and others that are split into two straight up the trunk.  The visual scenery of these forrests is a vivid testament to the extreme weather conditions - primarily insanely heavy winds and snow - that Patagonia faces every winter.  

When we arrived at the Laguna, we finally got a taste of some of the wind we had heard so much about.  We had been warned that both the Torres and Fitz Roy have extremely unpredictable weather and that the main injury when hiking these trails is a broken wrist from trying to catch yourself when the wind knocks your over. We had heard a first hand account from a friend who had hiked the Torres - a 6 foot tall man wearing his backpack - who was picked up, blown into his girlfriend, and then carried five feet in the air before the wind dropped them both. 

So far, though, we had been lucky with the weather - both at the Torres and Fitz Roy.  As we walked up to the Lagoon, the wind began to pick up.  There were sand storms and little pebbles that were picked up and sent crashing into our bare arms and legs.  We had to put on our sunglasses to protect our eyes and to see. 

We stood at the top for a while, looking at the beautiful lagoon and snow capped mountains.  Our feet were firmly planted in the ground, and we leaned into the wind so that we weren't blown over by its force. 

We trekked back down a bit to an area with less wind, ate our lunch, propped ourselves up on a rock took a quick power nap, and were back on our way. 

Our next stop was at Lago Madre y Hija where we stopped for a swim.  We were hot from trekking, but still couldn't manage to stay in the extremely cold water very long.  When we got out of the water we realized that the small black snakes we had seen swimming were actually leeches and helped each other scrape them off our skin. 

We stayed here a bit longer and ate our first dinner sandwich.  The monotony of the food doesn't bother you at all when you're surrounded by some of the most amazing scenery in the world.

We went back on our way and came face to face with the stunning Mount Fitz Roy for the first time.  Though the top of Fitz Roy is rarely seen due to cloudy skies, we were extremely lucky to see the entire  mountain towering above us. 

After seeing the Torres, I didn't expect Fitz Roy to impress me as much as it did.  I had seen Fitz Roy in many pictures before and it never had the same draw.  But seeing Fitz Roy in person literally blew my mind.  It is the most stunning mountain I have ever seen, even more so than "my mountain."

We bypassed the first camp we saw and instead camped that night at the very bottom of the steep trek to the viewing point where we would watch the sunrise the next morning.  The five of us were the only campers there, and it felt special to have a piece of the forrest to call our own. 

After setting up our tents, eating dinner #2, and refilling our water bottles at the nearby river, we crawled into our tents... exhausted from a day of trekking in the hot sun.

Our 4:15 alarm came much too soon, and if it wasn't for Sinead making sure we all woke up, I would have rolled over and gone right back to sleep.

We piled on layers of clothing... My trekking tank top, a thermal spandex layer, a fleece, a jacket, two hats, a neckwarmer, and gloves.  After the Torres, I knew full well that I'd be peeling these layers off as soon as we started climbing the steep uphill, but leaving the tent without them seemed more than impossible.

By the time I reached the top, I was wearing only a tank top and my thermal leggings, and I had to quickly put back on all of my layers.  Within minutesI was freezing cold again as my body temperature dropped. 

The trek to the view point was very steep on very loose, rocky terrain.  We began the trek in pitch black, with our head torches lighting the way, but as we walked higher and higher the sun began to peak out and illuminate the horizon.  An hour later we finally reached the top.  We were rewarded by the most spectacular sunrise I have ever seen in my entire life. 

"Aren't you happy you woke up now?" Sinead asked Michael, who was tough to coax out of his sleeping bag at 4 am.
"I'm happy I was born," he told her.

As you scanned the horizon the colors painted the sky.  First in pastels - blues and pinks and yellows.  Closer to the sun the colors became more vibrant, oranges and reds and fuscha.  And directly where the sun rose, the sky shined gold - lighting the lakes below on fire.  In my mind, I kept hearing the quote from The Outsiders "stay gold, Ponyboy," and thought about how I have never identified more with the meaning.

As the first light of day reached Mount Fitz Roy, its peaks were illuminated and its tips were turned a fiery orange for a few quick moments - just as the ones on the Torres had been not even a week before.

When the sun rose, we explored the area a bit more and discovered a second lagoon and waterfall which had been hidden between two mountains.  When we couldn't stand the cold anymore, we headed back down to have breakfast, take down our tents, make our way back into town. 

By the time we got back, we were all very sore.  Our feet and ankles had taken a serious beating from the rocky climb and in just 24 hours, the Fitz Roy trek managed to destroy us and cause more pain than the five days on the Torres.

After two weeks in Patagonia and the most beautiful scenery of my life, we packed our bags again  and headed back north on a 28 hour bus to Bariloche. 

Photos:
(*All photos credited to Michael Lande, due to a broken camera on the day of the trek)

1 - Where we had dinner our first night
2 - Fitz Roy
3 - Swimming with the leeches
4 - Fresh water fill up from the river
5 - Sky on fire. Sunrise at Mt. Fitz Roy
6 - Fitz Roy illuminated by the first light of day
7 - Mountain and lagoon at the viewing point
8 - Stunning Mt. Fitz Roy
9 - El Chalten valley

The Torres del Paine

PREPARATION

We spent the entire day before the trek comparing prices, attending an  information session, planning a menu, grocery shopping, and renting and buying equipment.  Prepping for a five day trek is no small feat for a group of eight and to say it was chaotic may be the understatement of the century. 

After the information session and comparing prices we actually started making moves in the right direction at about 5pm.  We decided to rent most of our gear from the hostel with the information session.

After two hours, we had finally set up our tents in the park across the street - both to make sure we knew how and make sure they didn't have holes - and settled the argument over how many pots and stoves we needed to rent (we decided on four, one pot for every two people.)

Worried that the grocery store and equipment shops may close we split into four groups: two people renting the tent, two renting sleeping bags, two buying sleeping mats and walking poles, and two going food shopping. 

Nadav and I were in charge of the food situation.  We were a good team to go together and kept each other balanced.  Nadav kept me from buying too much and weighing down our packs while I convinced him to keep everyone from starving and buying more food.  We got into small arguments about comical things - like whether to splurge the extra dollar for the ham that wasn't purple (I won,) or how we'd be able to keep fresh bread rolls soft for three days instead of buying whole wheat bread in a package.  In the end we came to a decent menu - though there wasn't much variety - always keeping in mind that our goal was to be full, not to eat gourmet meals. 

Our menu was as follows:
DINNER
1: Spaghetti and tomato sauce
2: Spaghetti and tomato sauce, vegetable soup
3: Rice with ketchup, boxed mashed potatoes with ketchup, cream of chicken soup
4: Spaghetti and tomato sauce, tomato soup, and ketchup

LUNCH
1: Ham and cheese sandwiches
2: Trail mix, and peanut butter and manjar (Dulce de Leche) on a roll
3: Peanut butter and/or manjar on a roll
4: Manjar on sliced bread, remaining bits of peanut butter with peanuts on top
5: Trail mix

BREAKFAST
1: Instant oatmeal
2: Instant oatmeal
3: Instant oatmeal
4: Instant oatmeal

SNACKS:
Chocolate bars, cakes, cookies, crackers with raisins on top (desperate times), vanilla cake

Knowing what we'd be eating the next five days we had a HUGE dinner the night before the trek and then came back to the hostel to destroy our rooms and attempt to pack for the Torres. 

In addition to clothing, each person had to carry a sleeping bag, sleeping mat and 3 kilos of food and each team of two had to carry a cooking stove, pot, and gas can. 

Packing was extremely stressful.  We finally managed to get to bed at 3am with a total of three hours to sleep until our 6am alarms. 

THE TREK
We had decided to hike the W trek from West to East which meant taking a ferry over to the West side of the park to begin the trek. 

Immediately the scenery was among the most gorgeous I'd ever seen.  From the boat you could see dramatic snow covered mountains and jagged outlined peaks.  The water of the lake we crossed was a pristine shade of aqua marine that you've only ever seen on a paint pallet and the mountains reflected mirror images in the still water. 

Though I was stunned by the scenery, I embarrassingly didn't realize at the time that I was staring directly at "my mountain." THE mountain that brought me to South America.  I spent the rest of the five days hoping it would be the day I saw my mountain.  I knew I was looking at my mountain from a different angle on days 3 and 4, but I wanted to see it the way I had always pictured it.  The view that is the wallpaper background on this blog.  On day five, I finally saw my mountain... From Mona's camera screen on the bus home.  Everyone kept asking me if I could have missed it.  "There's no possible way," I told them.  "It has an incredibly distinctive landscape.  I've been staring at it for years." I was wrong.  My mountain was the first thing I saw and though I was astounded at its beauty, I failed to recognize it at the time.

Throughout the park there are jagged, snow capped, slate covered mountains.  There are copper and amber stone mountains with an almost round facade that recedes layer upon layer into one another.  The are the beautiful towers that define the Torres and stand tall and erect, made from granite that has consistently resisted the forces of nature over thousands of years while everything else around them has been worn down.   In the park you can literally be standing in one place and turn around for a 360 degree view and see amazing, yet completely different scenery in each direction.

On our first two and a half days we walked through many acres of burned forrest.  Last year, 17 thousand acres of the park were burned down in a fire started by a tourist's stove.  There is a stark contrast of the burned, dead trees and the more resilient bushes that have come back to life and grow around them.

Because of fires like this the park has very strict guidelines about using gas stoves and it is only allowed in small, confined areas.  We quickly realized what a blessing these rules are as one of our own started a fire in the designated cooking area on the first night. 

I was in the bathroom changing and cleaning up when a man ran in with a bucket, turned on the shower and frantically ran back out spilling half of the bucket on the floor.  "Fire!" he screamed.  Knowing our group was in the kitchen cooking dinner, I asked Shani, "That can't be us, right?"

By the time we got out of the bathroom 30 seconds later there was a crowd on the deck outside the kitchen.  The fire had been put out by a fire extinguisher and the entire room was now covered in the white foam remnants.  Shortly after, Nadav and Sahar walked out. Both looked shocked. 

It had been our stove that started the fire.  Unbeknownst to us, one of our gas cans didn't fit the stove properly and when they turned on the second stove it ignited the leaked fluid.  As Nadav later retold the story he was "holding the fireball in his hand," and as he went to drop it he realized someone was below him so he held onto it for a couple seconds before throwing it onto the ground. 

Luckily there were the proper safety tools at the facility and someone was quick to find and use the fire extinguisher.  Except for some burned arm hair, eye lashes, a bit of hair from Nadav's head, everyone was safe and there were no serious burns.  After our first evening, our cooking adventures went more smoothly.

On the third day we hiked to a beautiful mirador.  The view was 360 degrees of unbelievable panoramic scenery.  On one side was a beautiful glacier with waterfalls and ice avalanches, the next side was a beautiful valley with lakes, if you turned even further there was jagged, snowcapped mountains.  Depending on the direction you looked, you felt as if you could be in four different quadrants of the globe.  

The colors in Patagonia are spectacular.  The sunsets, the lakes,the glaciers, the mountains, and the rivers are all incredibly vivid, they proudly boast colors I never realized existed in nature.  It is as if Crayola came to Patagonia when they decided to make the box of 540 Crayola Crayons and needed to create new colors. 

As we'd walk by different lakes we'd create our own names for the colors we saw.  "Patagonian blue," "Roswell grey," "The color of a dream," were some of the ones we came up with.

The Torres are known for unpredictable, dramatic weather, and very strong winds, but we were extremely lucky with the weather.  While the nights got chilly, we spent the days sweating in tank tops.  One day, Sinead and I even braved the
freezing temperatures and went for a swim in the lake for as long as our bodies would allow us, which was about one and a half minutes.

The hole in the ozone is directly over the Torres, so we were extra paranoid about sunscreen and reapplied almost every hour.  Somehow, I managed to make it out of the park five days later without a sunburn. 

On our last day we woke up at 4am to see the sunrise from the towers.  (Torres literally translates to towers.) It was freezing cold.  I layered on my tank top, my thermal shirt, my fleece, my wind breaker, two hats, gloves and a neck warmer.  We began walking in the dark, and  joined the other gringos as they walked the same path.  In the dark it looked like a line of ants, each person indistinguishable - a dark figure - headlamps lighting the path ahead.

We walked quickly and soon enough we were peeling layers of clothing off.  By the time we reached the top we were sweating and had to quickly change out of our tshirts and layer all of the warm gear back on.  Within minutes we were freezing cold again.  We had brought our sleeping bags with us and crawled into them as we waited for the sun to rise. 

I had expected the sun to rise behind the towers, but as we reached the top I realized it was rising in the opposite direction.

Grumpily I wondered what the point of waking up at 4am was to see the sunrise from the towers if you ended up turning your back away from them the whole time.

Soon enough I had my answer.  As the sun begins to rise in the sky, there is a quick moment when the first light of day reaches the tip of the towers.  As this happens, the peaks are illuminated and for a brief time, the Torres appear to be on fire.  When this happens, it's magical. You feel lucky to be able to experience it, and then realize how amazing it is that this spectacular occurance happens on a daily basis.  We were truly in awe. 

Walking out of the park later that day, I was sad.  To me, the five days we spent hiking flew by. Though we walked all day long, there was never a point where I got bored or wished to be at the campsite quicker.  The Torres had been my number one travel dream for the past four years,and the reason I ultimately came to South America on a trip that has made my life infinitely more amazing. 

In total we walked more than fifty miles with our packs.  By the third day we were all in pain and we felt old.  We had bruises on our hip and collar bones where the straps on our packs were tightly fastened to keep the weight off our backs.  Our knees and ankles hurt.  Our backs hurt, both from carrying our packs and sleeping on uneven, rocky ground. 

But I relished every minute I spent in the park, every step I took.  I raced along the paths conquering uphills that I would have thought challenging when I arrived in South America a few months ago.  As Sinead says, I was "high off Torres adrenaline." 

Though the trails varied from grass to rocks to pebbles and gravel, my favorite trails were the dirt paths.  As I walked along the loose dirt, I could see the imprint of my shoes, and for a brief moment, before the wind blew or another traveler walked the path, I left my mark in a place I had dreamed about over and over. 

Pictures:
1: Me at the Torres right after sunrise
2: Day one before we started hiking.  The group "before" picture.
3: Day five after we finished the trek
4: Scenery from the trail
5: Me in my gear
6: More scenery
7: Me with "my mountain" in the distance
8: The Torres on fire with the first light of day
9: Sunrise
10: Sinead, Mona, and I conquering the mountain
11: The Cuernos (horns,) my mountain from a different angle