• About Me
  • OTHER WORK

One Foot Out the Door

~ Adventure at Home and Away

One Foot Out the Door

Tag Archives: Los Glaciares National Park

Frustration at Fitz Roy

07 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by lexklein in Argentina

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

adventure, Argentina, disappointment, El Chaltén, hiking, Laguna de los Tres, Los Glaciares National Park, Mount Fitz Roy, mountains, Patagonia

I am obsessed with mountains. Many of my travels are fueled by a desire to trek or just lay my eyes on a specific mountain, and our first trip to Patagonia was no exception. My goal was simple – to get as close as I could to Mount Fitz Roy in Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina. I have no technical climbing skills, and it’s too late to start, but my fascination with the world’s most difficult ascents can be satisfied with circuit treks, base camp visits, and partial climbs. I am willing to hike for weeks on end, up and down, through heat and cold, to glimpse the heights that stir men’s souls.

Version 2

Fitz Roy drew me because it is so extreme. Not the highest of mountains – the Himalayan peaks have double the elevation – Fitz Roy is still considered one of the world’s toughest climbs. The sheer verticality turns away most comers; in some years, more people summit Everest than even attempt Fitz Roy. Fitz Roy also attracted me because it is so fearsome-looking. Its stony gray face looms threateningly over a remote and barren landscape, raising goose bumps on my skin even from a distance – even from a photo! Often sheathed in cloud cover, the pillar pushes dramatically upward, a knife piercing the usually leaden skies above. The mere thought of clinging to its wind- and rain-lashed face brings shivers.

As we approach the small town of El Chaltén for the first time, our driver pulls over and suggests a photo of the spike and its neighbors from afar. In a hurry to get to our lodging and dinner after a long day of travel, I demur at first, saying that we are hiking to a better vantage point the next day. He pulls over anyway, looking at me pityingly, obviously more aware than I that this may be my one and only shot of the unobstructed peak.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 094

We meet briefly with the guide we have hired for the next day and he lays out three hiking options. The longest (estimated at 8-10 hours round trip) is a trek to Laguna de los Tres, a high-altitude glacial lake with the most spectacular view of Fitz Roy. We will not be dissuaded from taking this route, even when he warns us that tomorrow’s weather will be atrocious. We fortify ourselves with the coziest dinner ever – thick local stew and dark home-brewed beer at La Cervecería, a warm cocoon of rustic wood benches and tables crammed together in one snug little room.

Version 2

Our trek day dawns gray and foggy, as predicted, and we pile on warm and waterproof layers for the hike.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 103

My spirits are already sinking, but we try to stay upbeat and optimistic as we walk, first through gently rising lenga forests, then past ice-cold streams and glacier tongues, and on up to the barren flanks that house two base camps for real climbers.

Copy of Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 123

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 110

Copy of Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 130

Copy of Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 135

The closer we get to the lagoon, the denser the fog becomes and the more heavily the rain falls. We are now fully draped in rain ponchos, our hoods and hats and headbands underneath deadening the senses. Our pants are drenched; there is no sheltered place to stop and eat, and our legs and lungs are burning as we near the apex of our climb.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 119

We stumble over slick rocks, seeing nothing but our own boots and the back of our guide. He suddenly halts and points ahead. We are on the shores of the lagoon, a murky pool of dull liquid, topped with a gloomy mist so thick it hovers mere inches from the surface. Behind the lagoon and the damnable vapor lies the best view of Fitz Roy in the world, but it is not for us to see today.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 134

I am not a good sport about this. I have tears in my eyes and sulky words for my family and the guide, who is cranky himself at our insistence on completing the hike. We yank our lunches from our backpacks, eat soggy sandwiches in disagreeable silence, straining for a tiny gap in the murk that never appears, before turning helplessly downhill for the five-hour trek back to El Chaltén. It is the most disappointing day of my travel life, and even my strapping son collapses in exhaustion and frustration at the end of the day.

Version 3

Like many disappointments, however, the day allows us to focus on smaller scenes of beauty, like the delicate calafate berry below, and serves as motivation to go back to this enigmatic mountain and charming frontier town at the bottom of the world someday.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 109

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Perito Moreno

24 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by lexklein in Argentina

≈ 54 Comments

Tags

Argentina, glaciers, ice arch collapse, ice hiking, Los Glaciares National Park, Perito Moreno

Surely the date function on my camera had malfunctioned. Last week I read about the collapse of a famous ice arch at the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina, a place we had visited back in … I thought 2014, but apparently 2012! A review of my travel documents convinced me that yes, it has been over three years since our wide-ranging trip to Argentina and Uruguay and, to date, I have written very little about that journey.

Why not begin with the glacier in the news and our trek there? Almost two weeks ago, on March 10, an ice bridge on the glacier collapsed for the first time in four years. Enormous chunks of ice fell into Lake Argentino, producing huge waves and a thunderous blast. The passage forms and collapses every three to four years, with the most recent rupture before this being in March, 2012, which must explain the shallowness of the arch when we saw it in December of that year. By the time it collapsed this time, the ice bridge was 250 meters wide and 70 meters tall.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 326

Our excursion to the glacier was an active one. First, we traveled by boat across the lake, from which the massive front wall of the Perito Moreno glacier is visible. From afar, it looks like most other glaciers (ho hum),

Copy of Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 247

but up close the scale is mind-boggling. The face is riddled with deep fissures, jagged points stretch up like veiny fingers, and the entire mass groans and creaks as if it’s alive. In fact, it is alive; scientists believe Perito Moreno is one of only a few Patagonian glaciers that are growing, and nearly all glaciers are constantly moving.

Copy of Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 313

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 259

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 321

We were lucky to see and hear several large chunks calving from the face while we were there; I can only imagine the boom when the bridge finally ruptured.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 322

Once on shore near the edge of the glacier, we walked a short distance to the ice itself, where we donned our crampons for a hike on the frozen surface.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 262

Copy of Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 264

For several hours, we trekked this otherworldly landscape – white, as expected, but also every shade of blue, gray and even black. We jumped over thin rivulets of water and avoided plunging into larger lagoons in the ice.

Copy of Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 271

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 283
Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 292
Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 304
Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 299

Gullies and crevasses crisscrossed the route, and the going was more up and down than I had expected. Ascending was exhilarating – it felt like mountain climbing in miniature – but descending was a little scary until we got the hang of the crampons.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 284

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 291

In addition to the trek, there are also large viewing platforms and walkways for those who don’t want to see the glacier from atop. This structure affords the best view of the ice dam and bridge and provides another perspective on the size and shape of this massive and impressive glacier.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 333

Until this outing, I never saw the appeal of glaciers; they were dirty and boring, I thought, but Perito Moreno was both a marvel and an adventure – a highlight of our time in Los Glaciares National Park in Argentinian Patagonia.

Argentina & Uruguay Dec 2012 310

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow One Foot Out the Door on WordPress.com


I’m a restless, world-wandering, language-loving, book-devouring traveler trying to straddle the threshold between a traditional, stable family life and a free-spirited, irresistible urge to roam. I’m sure I won’t have a travel story every time I add to this blog, but I’ve got a lot! I’m a pretty happy camper (literally), but there is some angst as well as excitement in always having one foot out the door. Come along for the trip as I take the second step …

WHERE I’M GOING

Colorado, Fall 2020

Follow me on Instagram, too!

No Instagram images were found.

Recent Posts

  • Road Trip to the Border
  • A Better Kind of Isolation
  • Hello from Houston
  • Where Ruins Rule
  • This is Not Thailand!

WHERE I’VE BEEN

  • Argentina (9)
  • Australia (2)
  • Austria (4)
  • Belgium (1)
  • Bhutan (2)
  • Bosnia & Herzegovina (4)
  • Canada (1)
  • Chile (6)
  • China (7)
  • Colombia (3)
  • Costa Rica (3)
  • Croatia (6)
  • Cuba (3)
  • Czech Republic (1)
  • Ecuador (2)
  • England (1)
  • Estonia (3)
  • Finland (2)
  • France (8)
  • Germany (3)
  • Ghana (5)
  • Greece (9)
  • Guatemala (2)
  • Himalayas (11)
  • Hungary (1)
  • Iceland (8)
  • Ireland (4)
  • Israel (4)
  • Italy (6)
  • Jordan (4)
  • Madagascar (2)
  • Mexico (6)
  • Mind Travels (7)
  • Mongolia (9)
  • Montenegro (1)
  • Nepal (13)
  • Netherlands (1)
  • New Zealand (3)
  • Nicaragua (1)
  • NORTH AMERICA (1)
  • Norway (1)
  • Peru (8)
  • Photos, Just Photos from All Over (21)
  • Poland (4)
  • Russia (3)
  • Slovakia (5)
  • Slovenia (7)
  • South Africa (2)
  • South Korea (1)
  • Spain (2)
  • Switzerland (1)
  • Tanzania (6)
  • Thailand (1)
  • Tibet (18)
  • Travel – General (122)
  • Turkey (6)
  • UAE (1)
  • United States (34)

Archives

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    %d bloggers like this: