El Chalten, Argentina
Kara says:
El Chalten. A very small and very new village in Argentine Patagonia near some of the pointy-ist (and therefore most alluring to mountaineers) peaks in the Andes. Only founded in 1985 making it considerably younger than me, which is a funny feeling, never been in a town I was older than before.
It's a town where trucks, boats and tiny chapels can live side by side in perfect harmony. A town of old pick-up trucks. A town of sad (or angry?) looking hotels. And wind. Lots of wind. Photos of both myself and a cloud testifying to the strength of the wind.
What's there to do here? Sit and contemplate the vast emptiness of Patagonia (see photo of Karl) or give in and go hiking. So we gave in and went hiking.
Beautiful, beautiful scenery. El Chalten is in a U-shaped valley (that geography's coming in useful again) with low, rounded hills and just behind them snowy, pointy, rocky peaks. We thought we'd stick to the low, rounded hills for the hiking (which we decided differed from walking by requiring the use of - and not just for show - walking poles).
As we walked, sorry - hiked, higher it got snowier and snowier. We found lots of little streams where all the plants were covered in icicles (see photo). All the water's potable so every time you come to a little stream you can refill your water bottle with icy cold, clear, scrumptious water straight from the melting snow up top.
Then we got to the steep bit where the trail was covered in ice (see photo of Karl's boot and icy trail) so I chickened out and Karl conquered the last couple of hundred metres alone while i sat on the mountainside, got the thermos out and had a coffee while admiring the view. Karl made it to the top, and like any true mountaineer didn't forget the importance of photographic evidence. On the way back down we became quite the celebraties, as the first to have "summited" that day everyone we met was asking about the conditions further up. While we were having lunch someone approached Karl saying "I was talking to two French guys who said you'd been to the top, what's it like?", Karl's crowning moment, he loved it, it was all he could do to not say "well, nothing like the time I hiked 96km".
Last day we had a short walk to a waterfall.
El Chalten. A very small and very new village in Argentine Patagonia near some of the pointy-ist (and therefore most alluring to mountaineers) peaks in the Andes. Only founded in 1985 making it considerably younger than me, which is a funny feeling, never been in a town I was older than before.
It's a town where trucks, boats and tiny chapels can live side by side in perfect harmony. A town of old pick-up trucks. A town of sad (or angry?) looking hotels. And wind. Lots of wind. Photos of both myself and a cloud testifying to the strength of the wind.
What's there to do here? Sit and contemplate the vast emptiness of Patagonia (see photo of Karl) or give in and go hiking. So we gave in and went hiking.
Beautiful, beautiful scenery. El Chalten is in a U-shaped valley (that geography's coming in useful again) with low, rounded hills and just behind them snowy, pointy, rocky peaks. We thought we'd stick to the low, rounded hills for the hiking (which we decided differed from walking by requiring the use of - and not just for show - walking poles).
As we walked, sorry - hiked, higher it got snowier and snowier. We found lots of little streams where all the plants were covered in icicles (see photo). All the water's potable so every time you come to a little stream you can refill your water bottle with icy cold, clear, scrumptious water straight from the melting snow up top.
Then we got to the steep bit where the trail was covered in ice (see photo of Karl's boot and icy trail) so I chickened out and Karl conquered the last couple of hundred metres alone while i sat on the mountainside, got the thermos out and had a coffee while admiring the view. Karl made it to the top, and like any true mountaineer didn't forget the importance of photographic evidence. On the way back down we became quite the celebraties, as the first to have "summited" that day everyone we met was asking about the conditions further up. While we were having lunch someone approached Karl saying "I was talking to two French guys who said you'd been to the top, what's it like?", Karl's crowning moment, he loved it, it was all he could do to not say "well, nothing like the time I hiked 96km".
Last day we had a short walk to a waterfall.
Comments
Post a Comment