So, most people know more about the outdoor gear brand Patagonia than the namesake region itself. Fun fact: the place we hiked to on Sunday is the mountain in the Patagonia brand logo, Mt. Fitz Roy.
This blog post will be a lengthy narrative and photo collage about our first hike in Patagonia, and An's first hike EVER! Ava and I were so excited to take her out, and it's kind of crazy that An's first exposure to hiking was in my long-time dream hiking destination. Setting out, we felt so lucky to be here. And that was before we even saw the views!
To get to this area of Argentinian Patagonia, we flew to Buenos Aires and then flew 3 more hours south to El Calafate. From there, we took a 3 hour bus ride to the small, sleepy backpacker town of El Chalten. Inside of Los Glaciares National Park, El Chalten is surrounded by mountains. Driving in, my jaw had already dropped as we sailed past glacial lakes and snowcapped peaks.
We stayed in a lovely hostel called Kospi, and we met some cool people, including a woman from Argentina and another from Finland. Additionally, the hostel clerk had quite an inspiring life travel story as well. We were by far the youngest people in this hostel, as well as perhaps on the trails. I feel so grateful to get to be living this dream of hiking in Patagonia before I even turn 20!
Waking up somewhat early to get ahead of the crowds and clouds, we set our alarms for 6:30am so that we could eat the hostel-provided breakfast of toast, toast, and more toast. Here we are suiting up in the bathroom, excited for the day ahead, and clearly not tired at all :)
An had asked me many questions prior to agreeing to do this hike. Here's an inventory:
How long? 12 miles (20km), could take between 8-12 hrs
How hard? medium/high difficulty according to the sign, I thought more on the medium side. The hike was mostly flat-ish for the majority but then became rather steep in the last kilometer.
How steep? Overall about 800m gain, but 400m of that is covered in merely the last 1 km
Will there be views the whole way or just at the end? So to be honest, I kind of made up an answer for this one, not knowing for sure. I said there would be views the whole way, and man, was that an understatement! Let the pictures begin...
Leaving El Chalten, we got a nice view of the town as we walked a few minutes away to get to the trailhead.
About 15 minutes into the hike, we had climbed up a bit, opening our view to Rio a La Vuelta. The colors and scale of it all were so impressive.
After hiking on a bit more, we reached the peaceful Laguna Capri.
When we saw this rainbow, I was blown away! Not only were we lucky with good weather but also a literal rainbow! Well, Patagonia would continue to blow my mind as we saw THREE more rainbows later that day on the hike.
As the rivers are formed from glacial melt, people actually drink straight from them, without a need to filter or anything. Here is a picture I snapped as Ava leaped across a small branch of the river.
We passed through a marshland of sorts, getting smacked by wind. We ended up having to wear our sunglasses as eye protection to prevent flying debris from damaging our corneas. Little did we know that was just the start of the extreme wind.
The valley was so stunning, with lush low growth, clear blue streams, and soaring snowcapped peaks. As if the perfectly timed rainbow wasn't cool enough, the clouds cleared just in time, revealing the famous Mt. Fitz Roy.
I was so giddy at this point! The fact that we had hiked (and would have to hike) a handful of kilometers was far from my mind. I felt like I could go for days and days and days in this endlessly gorgeous landscape. I bet An and Ava got sick of me saying, look at that mountain! Look at that tree! Wow, a glacier! And on and on... I did the same thing during Spokes as my riding partners Annie, Delia, and Matt can attest to. There's something about nature that literally makes me jump for joy and declare it to the world. There were multiple points during the hike at which I started gleefully skipping down the trail.
Bit by bit, we climbed above tree line, entering a more barren world of rocks and steep slopes.
A sign warned us that the last kilometer has a steep gain and would take at least 1 hour. One hour later, we were standing atop the high point overlooking the lake and Fitz Roy. We had done lots of research, reading other people's blogs about the hike. Suddenly, we were living in the photo we had seen. The sharp rocky peaks juxtaposed with the crisp turquoise water were incredible. But that's enough of me attempting to describe it, here's a picture:
The wind was incredibly strong up there. We had to hunker down behind a rock to eat our empanadas. Speaking of, we chose empanadas as our hiking snack since we liked them a lot and they entail no mess. Also, one of those blogs we had read had recommended that. Eating one about 5 or 6 kilometers in, we had conserved 2 for the top and one for the way back. Chowing down on our empanadas, it felt so good at the top.
After also eating 2 of our 3 cookies allotted per person, we took some photos. This was short-lived, though, as we didn't want to fall off the mountain. The winds went up to about 60 miles per hour, and An's phone almost went flying out of my hand. I love this picture of the three of us... it looks like Ava is hugging An, but really she was preventing her from flying backward off the precipice!
The scariest point of the hike came on the way down. As we descended back down the steep part, I expected the wind to die down. Instead, the direction of the wind shifted just so that it could blow us off of the mountain. Multiple times, my feet were blown out of place and I had to crawl to the ground to avoid being swept away. I turned behind me and screamed to Ava and An, "We're going to have to crawl!" I wasn't joking. For an adrenaline-pumped 30 seconds, we crept along as low-profile as we could to lower our centers of gravity. We were hollering in joy after making it through this part, and the rest of the trail felt easy from there on out.
I'm a big believer that there are 3 (not so secret) secrets to a good hike:
1) Food: We had this covered with dried fruits, nuts, empanadas, and cookies. Food always tastes so good out on the trail.
2) Gear: We layered well, staying warm and wind-proofed. Plus, good hiking boots came in handy on slippery and loose rock.
3) Friends: The most important of all. This hike was made all the more fun by An and Ava. We passed the time by asking each other questions, ranging from silly to deep. It's a great feeling when your feet are hiking and your mind is busy taking in the company and the views.
By the time we returned to the trailhead and ate our last cookies, it was hard to believe we had spent a whopping 9.5 hours out on the trail, taking our time and enjoying the beauty. As cheesy as it might have looked to those at the trailhead, our 3 person group hug was really a wonderful end to a wonderful hike.
Below, you can see a slideshow that we had a lot of fun acquiring pictures for. The trail had handy kilometer markers, and to celebrate our process, we took pictures at each sign. I didn't bother uploading them all because there were quite a few, but here is a sampling. The upside down numbers indicate that we were on our way back. See if you can find the time Ava messed up :) Apparently she was ready to be done... We hope you enjoy this silly summary of our day and have fun clicking through!
Thanks for reading!