don't go left!

Feb. 15

Things i learned:

1. better to take the taxi to Hostería Pilar (but don't use their bathrooms, they do NOT approve) and walk to Fitz Roy from there.

of course it was raining, but by this time, we are so used to it that it doesn't really bother us.

2. make sure you communicate with your traveling partner who has the map because once again, we are mapless. but the path seemed relatively straight forward, so we just followed Rio Blanco. The rain turned a good portion of the trail into a giant moat so soon after the hike began, my feet became soggy.

3. Carans don't always lead you to the right place.

we took a left, following a group of people in front of us but could not seem to find a place to cross the river. after crossing a bridge, we took a left and followed the river for another hour. we followed the carans, but alas, they led us to a dead end. knowing that scaling a wet wall was not at all a good ida, unlike some ambitious overweight 40 year olds, we decided to turn back and try to find where we went wrong. we climbed a hill and spent some time path finding in a beautifully lush forest. we continiued in teh forest, much nicer on our blistered feet, until we met up with the bridge again.

4. be careful what you ask for

we asked another hiker if he ever found the path to Fitz Roy and he looked at us like we were crazy. he pointed across the bridge and to the the right. SO FRUSTRATING. we begin our ascent at 4 pm. the hike turned extremely steep, but since we were crunched on time, we powered through it.

5. Appreciate when the clouds part.

when we reached the top having finally found Laguna de Tres Torres, it was truly spectacular. The sun hit the glaciers just perfectly.

6. watch for fog.

as we were taking in the beauty, fog started to descend. it got pretty bad so we decided it was time to leave. besides, it was now 5:30 and we still had 3.5 hours left.

7. don't forget to look behind you

as we were fast-hiking our way back, the fog let up a little, exposing even more of teh gorgeious Fitz Roy range. we kept looking behind us and the mountains kept becoming more visible. It was really special.