They call El Chalten the national hiking capital of Argentina. There are two basic hikes: one to The bottom of Fitz Roy (I did it yesterday) and second to bottom of Cerro Torre – a needle-like mountain. Today I took the second hike. Strong wind was blowing since the morning. After an hour of climbing I reached great view point. In the distance there was snow-covered Cerro Solo (2121 m high) then there were large glaciers in the end of the valley, but sorry, all Needle Mountain was covered by clouds. Locals say that the days when you can see it are very rare. I was going up the valley anyway – along the thumbling river. The front wind was stronger and stronger. When I reached the moraine (km 9) it was so strong, bringing sand and drops of water, then is was hard to take the pictures of the Lago Torre – big lake formed by nature below the glacier. Cerro Torre was still not visible… Bad luck! But it was still an interesting experience. And on the trail I met the charming young lady who reminded me Juliette Greco – famous French singer, star of the Paris boheme from 60-ties. Initially I didn’t’nt even know she is from France… It was nice to walk back to El Chalten with her and Andrew from California, talking about the world and travelling… Andrew didn’t know that tomorrow is St Andrew Day – celebrated by all Andrews in Poland as their name-day…
22 kms on Sunday, 12 – yesterday, 18 – today. Walked on the flat terrain it is not much, but in the mountains it requires an extra effort. Tomorrow I’ll have a break 🙂 I’ll go by bus to Calafate.
