The Unreal Patagonia – El Chaltén

The two requisite items for photo blog updating — free time and decent internet — were not available during my adventures in El Chalten and El Calafate or my return to volcano country. So, I’m sitting in my hotel room in Santiago, several weeks after the fact, gathering memories of those driving and mountain adventures.

When I initially came up with the rough plan for this trip to Chile and Argentina, heading down to southern Patagonia was not part of it. My key reasons: It would take too long to get there and back, the weather wouldn’t be good in the winter, I had no idea there was good skiing down there. I had two conversations which changed this.

The first conversation was with Jorge when I met up with him after our last trip together to pay the bill. We talked about what I’d be doing next. I told him that I really wanted to summit Lanin if weather allowed, and possibly some other volcanoes on the Chile side of the border. I said I was open to other ideas to which Jorge replied that a trip south to El Chalten to ski Cerro Vespignani could be of interest. He said he’d get me in touch with Max, a local guide, and also mentioned that Jacob was planning on heading in that direction.

The next conversation was with Jacob. To this point I’d only crossed paths with Jacob a few times at Manush apres-ski evenings with Jorge and gang. I contacted Jacob on FB and we agreed to meet up at (surprise, surprise) Manush! Aside from a warning of variable weather and high wind, Jacob had nothing but positive things to say about the south. He and his partner Conny had been visiting there for many years. She had actually just arrived in Bariloche the previous evening and they were wanting to leave Bariloche and head to El Chalten as soon as possible. They also happened to know Max quite well having been on trips and spent time with him and his family over the years.

So it was settled over a pint of IPA. Jacob, Conny, and I would depart for El Chalten on Tuesday, Sept 24th.

Getting There

The drive from Bariloche to El Chalten is over 1300KM on Route 40. In between those two points, Route 40 is in various stages of both construction and deterioration with a mix of nicely paved road, deteriorated paved road (riddled with potholes), and unpaved dirt/gravel (ranging from nicely graded to rutted and rotten). The distribution was somewhere in the range of 1/3 of each type meaning more than half of the drive required a high degree of focus and obstacle avoidance. Another fun factor was fuel. The further you head down route 40, the longer the distances between the towns. Some towns along the way have either shut down gas stations or don’t always have a supply of gas. And to complicate matters further, El Chalten itself was without a gas station due to poor timing in transition between a privately run gas station and a new YPF installation. You had to arrive in El Chalten with enough gas to get back out (124KM back south-east to a somewhat reliable supply at Tres Lagos or 215KM further south to El Calafate with a more reliable supply). We followed Max’ advice and brought a 20L can of extra gas and made sure we didn’t miss any filling opportunity in case it was our last.

I drove until sunset the first evening. We had covered a surprising 3/4 of the distance and most of the crappy parts due to me getting comfortable with Argentina’s apparent complete lack of traffic law enforcement. We all had camping gear so we decided we’d just keep things quick and cheap and camp by the side of the road. We managed to find a nice little sheltered spot in a road construction gravel pit by the fading twilight. We quickly set up our sleeping arrangements and had a quick dinner and some wine. I really wish I’d had a a tripod with me (in hindsight, Jacob did, oh well). The stars were amazing. I lay in my sleeping bag for awhile looking up at the sky. It was dense with stars from bright to countless faint specs that would normally be drowned out by city lights. The milky way stood out as well — a big band stretching across the sky.

We woke up behind the 4Runner and enjoyed a sunrise. I snapped a few pictures before setting up my camp stove to make some coffee with my powder blue Bialetti and a bowl of oatmeal. Yum! After that we were on the road towards Tres Lagos, our last hope for fuel before El Chalten. We had already been disappointed an hour or so before we stopped to sleep at a small town to find they had no gas. If Tres Lagos was empty we’d have to use up the gas can and make the decision whether to overshoot to El Calafate, fill all the way and backtrack, or squeak by with what we had.

Thankfully the green roofed gas station greeted us with gas! Jacob was of the opinion that this was the windiest gas station on the planet. He could be right, and the wind tattered argentinian flag supported it, but it wasn’t very windy that day — the ‘unreal’ begins.

Getting closer to El Chalten, an astounding view was revealed. We stopped at a view point to have a quick stretch and snap a few shots of Fitz Roy and the surrounding peaks. Wow!

That afternoon I checked into a single room at Patagonia (Traveller’s) Hostel. It was a really nice room for the price. The private rooms were nicer than some of the more expensive Hosterias I’d stayed at in the lake district. After settlign in I joined Jacob and Conny at Max’ house to finalize details for the trip to Vespignani tomorrow, and, more importantly, to sample his BBQ! He had a wonderful family and I was honoured to be invited for dinner.

While waiting for the BBQ to finish, I did a poor job of refereeing a full contact soccer game with Jacob, Conny, and Max’ two sons.

After dinner, I waddled home stuffed to the gills and hoping that my digestive system would do it’s job by the 7:30AM start time.

Cerro Vespignani

Up early and on the road by 7:30AM. The drive to the start of the trek was a little over an hour. The first 45 minutes or so was hiking in shoes with ski boots and skis on the pack. That would be a common theme for the ski trips in the area this season.

After hitting the snow line and switching to skis, we followed a moraine and then started climbing towards the glacier. At the transition to glaciated terrain, the harnesses went on. We continued through the glaciated terrain, pausing a few times to catch our breaths and take in the views and glaciated terrain features.

We made the summit after a little over 4 hours. It was a pretty good time, I was definitely in much better climbing shape than at the start of the trip. Probably the best ski touring shape I’ve ever been in. At the top we ate our lunches and I took some time to take some photos and enjoy the views while Max max was chatting with two locals who had made it to the summit at the same time as us. The view was pretty damned amazing. Fitz Roy was clearly visible as was the ice cap and Gorra Blanca.

The ski down was ICY. The sun had not managed to warm the slopes so it was either wind or sun affected icy/crusty surfaces. Every once in a while there would be a small pocket good snow but that usually ended abruptly in ice just as soon as you’d built up a little speed. Fun!

For the post ski re-fuel I met up with Jacob and Conny at Fonda Ahonikenk. It was a nice little restaurant with decent food and good variety. We discussed the plans for tomorrow. It was going to be a lower key day backcountry skiing Loma del Diablo. No glaciated terrain and a nice, open bowl.

Loma del Diablo

Because of the less demanding nature of today’s destination I had an extra hour of sleep! Yay! I picked up Jacob and Conny and we were off at eight-thirty-somethingish. The hiking started off much like the previous day. About 45 minutes of huffing up through the forest before we hit some snow and switched to skis.

We worked our way up the bowl and eventually made it to the high point and rounded a corner for some good views and a nice lunch spot.

The ski down Diablo was far more enjoyable than Vespignani’s ice. It was good spring snow that allowed for some more relaxed, higher speed turns. On the drive back I stopped to snap a picture of some pink flamingos hanging out in the still lake. They were a bit far for the lens I had, but the picture still worked with the pink dots. We were back at the car and back in town by early afternoon. There was time for a nap before visiting Max to discuss a possible last ski trip in Chalten.

Going into the discussion about the plans for tomorrow’s destination, I was thinking of something in between Vespignani and Loma del Diablo in terms of effort. We ended up deciding on something more challenging. I was promised that it would be worth it. I had in fact already snapped an impressive photo of the destination on the way to Loma del Diablo this morning.

Tomorrow’s destination decided, Jacob, Conny, and I returned to Ahonikenk for beer and food. Part way through dinner, a familiar face appeared at the doorway. One of the Alaskans (Nate, the lone boarder) that I’d run into in San Martin walked into the restaurant. He had e-mailed me two days previously, very last-minute, saying he was heading down to Chalten and/or Torres del Paine and recalled that I might be going here. Unfortunately, he was a few days behind my schedule so we weren’t able to sync up on any trips. On the way back to my room I accompanied Nate as he went in search of a guide for his own trip tomorrow. He lucked out and ran into Jimmy at his store so he was set to ease into the area with a trip to Loma del Diablo.

Cerro Electrico

Electrico was a highlight of the trip. A little more challenging and technical than Vespignani, it had epic views, and the ski down was spring perfection. The only downside of the trip was that it had a boot pack as epic as the views. It was a good three hours of walking on flats, hiking across brush, scrambling up rocks (some covered in ice/compact snow), and cramponing up a frozen couloir before we could get our skis off our packs.

After we had the skis on time seemed to move faster. The rest of the trip didn’t seem to take the 2.5 hours that passed. As we neared the top Fitz Roy appeared on our left, up close and personal. Heading to the top, the clear skies once again afforded great views into the ice cap.

As already mentioned, the ski down was great. Even right off the top, on a fairly steep slope, the sun had warmed the snow enough to allow quality turns at a good speed. About mid way down we hit the perfect depth of butter. We capped off the ski with a short but sweet couloir and cruised to the starting point of our skin up. Back to boots for the hike back to the car. It turned out that down scrambling with skis and boots on your pack requires careful management of where your ski tail is sticking out. Turning away from the slope can end up getting you off-balance with your ski tangled in rock so constant mental reminders to turn the longer way around (towards the slope) were necessary.

Far from being original, my last apres-ski meal in El Chalten with Jacob and Conny was at Ahonikenk. I can’t complain, the food there was good and we all liked the atmosphere. Nate dropped by. He had a great day at Diablo and was set for Vespignani tomorrow. For Jacob, Conny, and I, El Calafate was tomorrow’s destination.

During my time in Chalten, I experienced something that apparently very few do — four consecutive days of sunshine, blue skies, and most incredibly, no wind. My experience of the ‘real Patagonia’ (as Jacob had billed it) turned out to be rather unreal. I won’t complain.