Bariloche

"If we're not supposed to eat animals, how come they're made out of meat?"
~Tom Snyder

Friday , December 26th 2008

San Carlos de Bariloche is located in the heart of Argentina's lake district. An unashamedly touristic town, it's only manufacturing industries are chocolates, ice cream and steaks. Almost the entire town in employed in catering for visitors such as myself. Hearing so much about the place, I was full of high hopes but when I finally arrived from Pucon via Osorno, I quickly found that Bariloche was not entirely for my taste. What can go wrong in a touristic heaven you ask? well for first it's was so damn packed with tourists... arriving between Christmas and New year's eve, the town was packed and only grew more crowded as the time passed. The second bad thing was the hostels. I stayed in 4 different hostels during my short stay - a definite bad record. (compared to 2 hostels in places I spent a lot more time in..). The first hostel was a drug lair (getting off the bus penalty), the second was a shabby building without hot water, the third was noisy with a kitchen that was a certified health hazard and the forth was reasonable but not much more. But even with all the people and bad hostels I got to enjoy my stay, after all a place that sell great ice cream and thick steaks on every corner can't be all bad.. other than the culinary highlights I got to enjoy the city itself with the great views to the lake and surrounding mountains, the place looks like an ancient European ski resort although it was founded less than a 100 years ago and scenery around it is magnificent. I used my time to go on two short one day treks in the neighbourhood, one to Cerro Otto and the other to an observation point call the 17th kilometer- both offered great views in return to very little effort from my side. In the rest of my stay I went for a 3 day trek in the nearby national park, dined in the fine restaurants and ice cream parlors and shopped around for a place to rent a car into Chile's Carratera Austral, the next stop on my adventure...

Villarrica Traverse

"So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending."
~J.R.R. Tolkien

Monday, December 22nd to Wednesday, December 24th 2008

In the Villarica national park I understood how much my physical fitness has improved. I knew that I´m in good shape after the last few treks racing with Harel up mountains, but I was never big on aerobics and my only measurement was Harel - who was still in better shape than I was. So when I decided to hike across the Villarica park together with Harel and Gili just two days after my climb to Cerro San Sebastian, I opted for the shorter easier route. We set put from Pucon with a large group of about 20 Israelis that headed for the same park after the storm that raged on Saturday was replaced by a clear blue sky. Although we all shared a van, we were separated into smaller groups. I continued walking with my two friends quickly loosing the sounds of the others in the trees behinds us as we climbed to a saddle in a thick forest. We stopped briefly at the top to eat some cookies and continued down the marked path that led to Laguna los Patos - our planned campsite for the day. The forest quickly gave way to snow laden lava rocks as we approached the foothills of the small Quetrupillan volcano making us cross snow fields and small streams. Walking on snow was not as fun as it looks though, it´s cold, slippery and worst of all, hinder your steps, especially after the weekend storm who renewed the top layer. Still, we enjoyed the views and the new experience and even stopped to make a small snowman and take pictures with it - leaving him as a sign for those behind us. After about 3 hours we stood above the Lagoon with it´s clear blue waters and in less than 4 hours of walking we stood on the shores realizing that we have 8 more hours of daylight! We setup our tent, ate lunch and sunbathed on the beach waiting for the others. Since we hit the campsite at around 14:00 I figured that we should see the first bunch at around 16:00-16:30, but in reality the first couple showed up on 17:45 and people were still wandering into the campsite after 20:00 full 6 hours after we got there. I used the time well though taking a short hike on the surrounding hills. At around 22:00 it got darker and colder and after we lit Hanuka candles we all withdraw to our tents for a very cold night.

We woke up late on the next day figuring that since we walk fast we don't need a head start. In fact the campsite was long empty when we left after breakfast at around 11:00. We started walking north through a lava field and quickly found out how disorienting this landscape can be. Holding a map with 100m difference between elevation lines I had to count on my experience and common sense. After crossing 2 lava fields we found ourselves below a small saddle where we met part of the group that spent the night with us - apparently lost. I insisted that the correct path is to cross the saddle to the west and then search for a way out of the valley to the north. The other were not convinced, so I continued up with Harel and Gili. On the top we saw no path and Harel wanted to head back east. I convinced him to try it my way, since if I was wrong we will still hit our campsite but using a harder longer route. We descended into a bleak valley with a small stream in the middle and headed west along the north bank looking for a way out. after about 20 minutes we found both the exit and the trail and saw others way behind us going down from the saddle. We had a saddle of our own to climb, one that gave us a good view of Laguna Blanca and we rested and ate a snack watching it. The trail was well marked from this point taking us through a broad empty valley and up a small ridge that although unmarked, was also the Chile-Argentina border at that region. We ate our lunch after a hard climb to a viewpoint overlooking the majestic volcano Lanin and walked another two hours back to the forests and down to the sandy beach of Laguna Azul crossing several waterfalls along the way. We were surprised to find the beach empty at 17:00 but we enjoyed it all by ourselves for another 3 hours when it started to fill up with our friends telling long tells about hard walk and harder navigation... We lighted the candles again and went to sleep waking for a short 3 hours walk through the forest that took us to our waiting transportation back to Pucon which we reached just in time to be invited to a Christmas Asado by our friendly hostel owners...

Cerro San Sebastian

"Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on earth, with a top speed of 120 feet per second, is a cow that has been dropped out of a helicopter."
~Dave Barry

Friday, December 20th 2008

Sometime you get to the most amazing places without planning for it. I wanted to set out to the Villarrica traverse trek but the Internet promised a stormy Saturday so I had to change my plans. Not wanting to spend the day doing nothing in Pucon, I remembered the Huerquehue National Park ranger suggesting to a local hiker a trek up to the summit of Cerro San Sebastian which can be completed in 8 hours. A quick check with the local bus company revealed that the bus can drop us off at 10:00 in the park entrance and pickup for the return trip is at 17:10 leaving us almost one hour short... ho well, I guess I will had to walk faster... Gili elected to stay at the hostel for this one, leaving me with Harel who is a Soccer couch and in fantastic shape... ho well, I guess I will had to walk faster... I packed a light pack with water, food and a good jacket and boarded the bus at 8:30 in the morning. The sky already showed the signs of the storm yet to come, and as we drove though the dense fog to the park we actually thought about aborting and returning to Pucon. The fog cleared by the time we arrived to the entrance, but the sky was still grey and cloudy and the rangers didn't look happy with the idea that two gringos will try to tackle the mountain all on their on and tried to persuade us to do the normal route (the one we already visited) under the pretence that it will take us 9 hours to get to the top and back. Again we almost returned to Pucon, but the bus already left so we decided to give it our best shot - worst case we´ll return before hitting the summit.

Feeling that we are racing against the clock we set an aggressive pace walking up the wooded ridge on a trail that zigzaged with moderate grade. I prefer steep grades and a good view of where I´m going so I didn´t like that part. After about an hour and a half we found ourselves in a small clearing seeing the summit above us for the first time as well as a nice panoramic view of the surrounding volcanoes and lakes. After the strong opening and seeing that the sky has cleared we felt more confidence in our abilities. We stopped shortly to eat a quick breakfast and continued up the trail that soon turned into an almost vertical climb that forced us to grab the trees and pull ourselves up to make any progress - exactly the way I like it. To make a long story short, I found myself on the summit in two hours and fifty minutes. Looking back to the tiny cubes that marked the beginning of the trail I understood for the first time how much I have improved my physical shape in the last 4 months. The climb was hard and fast, yet I almost didn´t stop and gained 1300 meters of altitude over 8 kilometers in less than 3 hours! It felt good... What made it feel even better was that the climb was really worth it. Being the highest peak around, the view was panoramic 360 degrees of the staff legends are made of. I rested on the summit and enjoyed the view for almost half an hour before we started to descend. Since the trail went into the forest again, we were bored and adopted an aggressive pace again.. You can imagine how surprised (and relived ?) were the rangers when we showed up after a little more than 5 hours... Since we had 2 hours to wait for the bus, we heeded their advice and walked 5 minutes down to the lake shore for a well deserved rest...

Climbing Volcan Villarrica

"Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
~J.R.R. Tolkien

Wednesday, December 17th 2008

An adventure sometimes puts you in unexpected situations. I never thought that an ice axe will be my most precious possession, but for a few hours, it was, mainly because as the guide put it- if you lose your balance only the ice axe can stop your fall into certain death hundreds of meters below. The above seem even more unusual as when you climb an active volcano, the last thing you expect is ice... But things does not always go the way you expect as I discovered the day before when I woke up at 4:30am only to get the volcano base to find a cloudy sky. After hearing the guide estimation that the climb has only 50% chance to make it to the top, I returned back to Pucon to try another day (As it will turned out later, the group did made it to the summit, but could not look into the crater due volcanic activity). The day after I got lucky twice, once for the clear blue sky and second for the chance to start the climb at 7:00 instead of 5:00 earning 2 extra hours of sleep. The climb itself was a straight forward business, a tight switchback climb on the steep snowy mountainside from the parking lot to the summit and all you need is equipment, guide and reasonable physical shape. The equipment consisted of warm water proof clothes, good snow shows, crampons and the aforementioned ice axe.

The guide started us walking in one group from the base of the volcano to the cable car station which marked the snow line and where we were divided into sub groups according to our walking speed. Surprisingly, I found myself in the strongest group directly behind the guide. As we started to climb, the snow was still a little frozen and slippery but it will get softer and easier to climb as we progress. The climb was also amazingly easy with the guide walking in moderate pace and stopping for 5-10 minutes breaks at more or less regular intervals. We followed the route carved into the ice by hundred before us and made our own trail only in one place where our guide preferred to walked around a covered crevice rather than to risk walking on top of it. Although I walked on snow and ice most of the way, it was hot enough to climb only with thin thermal shirt, putting on a warmer jacket only before the final summit accent. As I gained altitude, the entire region started to unravel below me with green mountains,blue lakes, and white volcanoes on the horizon. Finally I made it to the summit after 4 hours and the sky were blue and clear. Luckily the volcano was also dormant allowing me the rare experience to walk all around the crater peering deep into the sulphurous gases spawning hole that someone called the asshole of hell - to which we all agreed. Every few minutes the volcano made a deep gurgling sound followed by a stream of sulphuric gases that stung my eyes and lungs, but the experience was so cultivating that I could not walk away. As it turned out I didn´t need to walk away either as the way down was not by walking but by sliding on my ass down the entire mountain side using the ice axe as brakes! . Due to the conical shape of the volcano the ride started very fast with snow and ice shreds covering me as I sped down the slope and ended with a crawl down near the cable station where I stopped to exchange my clothes and clean out the frozen snow that somehow made it into every possible place on my body... Short walk later I was safely in the van feeling the fatigue of the climb overtake me on the way back to Pucon.

After seeing the volcano from so many angles in the last few days it felt good to finally climb it and make it to the top. Until my last day in Pucon I looked up and told myself that I was there, on the summit of this amazing snow capped volcano one of the few who peered into the bowls of the earth and lived to tell about it...

Huerquehue National Park

"The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday, December 12th to Sunday, December 14th 2008

One of the most noteworthy features of Huerquehue Park are its millenarian forests of Araucarias, which are the perfect backdrop for the small lakes and ponds that dot the park. Those strange trees that have an even stranger English name, monkey puzzle trees, are not the only reason to visit the park though. It´s easily accessible from Pucon, has great scenic hiking routes between forests and lakes and some incredible views, like the Pucon river to the Villarrica volcano. I set out with a group of four others to explore the park, Gili, Harel, Shaked and Ela. We bought our supplies in Pucon and got off the bus at the park entrance at about 10:00 in the morning. One of the great things about Chile is that during the summertime the sun sets at about 10:00pm so we had plenty of time to reach our planned camping site deep in the park and since we were walking with heavy packs - we were in no hurry... The trail from the entrance took us to a nice view point over lake Tilquilco and than continued into the forest starting on level ground but than climbing steeply to an unseen pass above. Luckily the climb was interrupted every hour or so by a short detour to a waterfall or a view point over the Pucon valley and volcano Villarrica allowing us to put down the heavy packs and enjoy a snack and the scenery around us. This was also the first time that I found that the walking sticks, that did me no good in the high Andes, are actually helpful when walking in lower altitudes with heavier packs.

When the climb ended we found ourselves amongst the park lake sector which consist of three small lakes surrounded by Araucaria trees and the snowy Andes. We leisurely walked amongst the lakes resting on their shore and dipping in Lago el Toro. When we had enough we shouldered our packs and headed up to cross another pass and down a dusty descend into our camping site where we setup our tents and ate a hot meal before retiring to sleep. In the next morning we woke up late and climbed through the forest out of the valley we camped in and down to the Rio Blanco valley on a well marked although a bit boring trail. We stopped in a forest clearing for lunch and 2 hours siesta before arriving to the San Sebastian hot springs at around 14:00. At the springs we got a camping site with bathrooms and running water on soft grass and free access to the hot pools as well as found a local family who agreed, for a small fee, to take us to Pucon on the next evening saving us 5 hours walk and the need to hitchhike. Since we had arranged transportation, we found ourselves with nothing to do but to rest, enjoy the hot springs and eat for a day and half. In fact we ate so much that we run out of the food we brought and paid for a mediocre asado. After an exhausting day in the springs (including a late night deep under the stars), 5 of us climbed to the back of the pickup for the drive to Pucon, to which we arrived tired and very dusty (the road was unpaved..) just in time to visit the local supermarket for supplies and cook a great Spaghetti Bolonese...

Pucon

"Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is."
~Thomas S. Szasz quotes

Wednesday, December 10th 2008

Pucon is one of those place I´ve heard about before I started my adventure. I heard about how lovely the town is and how impressive is the local volcano Villarrica looming overhead, and all the stories turned out to be true and than some. I again found myself in a new town late at night, but this time was different. Instead of frantically looking for an hotel for hours, we accepted the offer of an elderly lady to checkout her hostel which was near the bus terminal. We were taken to a small clean house where we had the first floor (including a kitchen and a living room) all to ourselves, the Seniora did our laundry for free and the price was dirt cheap. As an added bonus we were also invited to a Christmas asado and found a friendly bunch to play cards with on the second floor. My party was also expanded a little as a new couple which I met on the bus joined me for the first half of my stay in Pucon. The couple in question, Shaked and Ela might not stuck for long, but will be always remembered for the trekking cooking tricks learned from them and that improved my diet while on the road. I stayed with the friendly company in the friendly hostel at the friendly town for more than two weeks. During this time I hiked in nearby parks, peered into the mouth of a volcano and strolled the picturesque streets between wooden houses on the shore of the lake with a great white volcano billowing smoke above me. I also cooked a heck of a lot of spaghetti bolonese which was a great success in the hostel dining room. It was only after Christmas that I packed my bags again and left for the Argentinian side of the border...

Radal Siete Tazas

"A strong man and a waterfall always channel their own path."
~Anonymous

Monday, December 8th to Wednesday, December 10th 2008

The Radal Siete Tazas park was a detour on my way to Pucon. It´s a one day trip between amazing waterfalls and clear rivers that was extended to 3 days of camping due to irrational public transportation. To get there I took with Gili and Harel a 4 hours bus to the small town of Molina and continued with another one that left at 17:00 to the park itself. The bus actually didn´t made it to the park entrance and dropped us off near the tiny village of Radal where we camped near a small clear river and shared a conversation with 2 more Israelis and a Chiliean\American couple. The next day we had a 6.5km to climb to reach the park main attraction, a series of 7 linked waterfalls, but after 30 minutes we caught a ride on the back of a local police pickup that toke us almost to the entrance. Few more minutes of walking took us through the ranger booth into a wooden boardwalk that descended to the Claro (clear in Spanish) river and the famous falls. Inside a narrow creek we found what we came for - a loud clear series of seven consecutive waterfalls falling into amazingly clear and colds pools of water. We spent almost an hour admiring the sight and climbed around to find better angles before we left. Continuing 400 meters down the trail we found ourselves looking from above at a 40m waterfall called Salto de la Leona. We descended further to the river itself only to found that the river is way too cold to swim in, in fact it was way to cold to deep your feet inside.. we completed the circle and returned to the main road going down 3km more to reach the observation terrace for the biggest waterfall yet - the 50m high majestic Velo de la Novia (Bride's Veil) fall where we ate a light lunch before hitching a ride back to our campsite. Since the only bus back leaves at 7:30am we spent another night camping next to a cheerful campfire after a bath in the nearby spring and before we packed our camp and headed towards Pucon...

Cajon del Maipo

"The best-laid plans of mice and men, often go awry,"
~Robert Burns

Tuesday, December 2nd to Wednesday, December 3rd 2008

The original plan was to climb the peak of El Mirador del Morado - which at 3500 didn't sounds very intimidating after tackling 5200m passes in the Peruvians Andes. Transportation was a bit of a problem since the local bus took Dennis and myself (Kathy stayed in the hostel) only as far as the town of San Jose del Maipo where it dropped us off to hitch hike to our starting point in the small town of Baños Morales. We ate our breakfast at the side of the road and waited for another hour before a truck going to one of the local mines picked us up. Just few hours out of Santiago we found ourselves in a different world - the crowded city streets were magically replaced by a roaring river and snowy mountains backdrop. I picked up my heavy pack and immediately felt sorry for the extra weight. I wanted to test out my equipment so I volunteered to carry my tent to which I added cold weather gear, sleeping bag, water and food accumulating to more than 10kg that I felt from shoulders to knees with every step I took. I knew however, that I only need to carry the pack to the lagoon where we'll camp where it will stay for the summit hike - or at least that was the plan.. We hiked up to the town, bought cold cokes and continued to the CONAF post where our plans were laid to waist. The helpful ranger informed us that although we are in late spring, the trail above the lagoon is blocked with snow and ice and not only it is impossible to scale the summits above it - camping is also forbidden due to avalanche risk... We consulted the ranger and our map for our options and decided to hike the 6km the the lagoon and back and than walk another ~12km in full gear looking for a campsite before continuing with day pack to refugio Plantat - a small base camp used as a setting point for some of the higher peaks around.

The walk to the lagoon was magnificent walking up a comfortable trail that led up the valley with natural springs on the way, to a peaceful lagoon below the owe inspiring peak of El Morado and the lower El Mirador del Morado - still laden with heavy snow that prevented our planned accent. we rested a little in the lagoon and returned back to the CONAF post in under 3 hours, very aggressive timing that we picked in order to have enough time to hike to our planned campsite. The dirt road led from CONAF through the village and along the north bank of the river below us, opposite the better truck road on the south bank which led to our campsite but also required us to backtrack for for than 1km to cross the river - so we continued hoping to find a good crossing up ahead. To make a long story short, we failed to cross and instead climb down and up the steep bank and continued up the trail to find a good campsite almost at sun down at around 21:00. After setting up our tents our immediate concern was water - our bottles were empty and we were thirsty after the long walk. With lack of other options, Dennis made the risky descend to the river below and fill our bottle with muddy river water which we purified with chlorine tablets - the water were safe to drink but tasted like mud all the same... We woke up early next morning and as I went to the toilet I luckily found a good crossing spot directly below me. We packed our camp and made the perilous descend down to the river again - this time with the heavy pack on my back threatening my balance. Luck found us again as we hit a small spring of ice cold fresh water near the river. It wasn't easy but we crossed and climbed to other side, at which point I was starting to feel exhausted from the intensive hiking and climbing with the weight I'm not used to.

We walked a little further and hide the heavy pack below the truck road planning to pick it up on our return. We continued to the small bridge that was our planned campsite that we missed yesterday and started climbing the trail that led to the refugio. At around mid day we found ourselves in a green meadow that led to the refugio accent near a small spring. I filled up my water bottle and encouraged Dennis to refill his with the water since they were cold and looked inviting. That was a mistake. Tasting the water we found out that we replaced our fresh water from the morning with a new brand that had a strong aftertaste of horse shit... not as funny as it sounds... Even worse, it turned out the the green meadow we had to cross was a nightmare hike with knee high thorny vegetation and a lot of small stream to cross - no to mention that it was much wider than it looked. I got first to the refugio accent and throw myself down near a small waterfall of melted snow where I drunk and filled my bottle. Dennis joined me and after looking at each other and the sky that started to get dark and stormy we decided to head back and not try to tackle the accent in our current physical condition and with lack of cold weather clothes that stayed in the hidden pack. We returned to where we hidden the pack - a route that although going down was as hard as going up due to our mounting exhaustion. As I returned with the pack a condor soared up above us lifting our spirits as we started down the long dirt road back. We tried to stopped the mine trucks that passed us by but it took another 20 minutes of hiking before we got to a place where they could actually stop and there a friendly driver took us to the processing plant opposite our starting point in Baños Morales. We hiked another half a hour and than caught the hitch of a lifetime in a fast brand new Toyota pickup that dropped us off after just a hour and a half in the center of Santiago! We surprised Kathy by returning one day earlier than planned and hit a well deserved shower and good night sleep. I may have not completed my goals, but I enjoyed the view and got a good training and some helpful insights for the treks ahead.. All in all a well worth excursion just a hour an a half outside the city.