Amazing Mt Fitz Roy

Poincenot Camp, Glacier National Park, Argentina

Today was our first taste of backpacking in Patagonia, and it was truly amazing. The weather was partly sunny and breezy, which I think counts as incredibly good in these parts. This area is renowned for the wind, which we’ve been told can often reach 60 to 70mph. The ranger yesterday told us you can easily be here four or five days and not see the mountains.

Since we hadn't bought any bread and still hadn't set up our tent yet, those were first up on the agenda. If there was a problem with the tent, we figured it was best to know about it before we left town. We also got plastic garbage bags to put our stuff in inside our packs in case of rain. Funny that we hiked for three weeks in Nepal and never bothered. As my dad used to say, “better lucky than smart!”

Dex was complaining about our late start this morning, since we weren't at the trailhead, which is right at the end of town, until 11:00. There’s no big rush however. Since we have the tent, there was no need to do the entire eight hour out and back trek in one day, and we could instead spread it out over two. Part of our late start was due to not rolling out of bed until 8:50, and even then that was only because we thought breakfast at the hostel ended at 9:00 -- still fighting a bit of jet lag, I guess.

View of El Chalten on the way out

In any event, we had amazing views of Mt Fitz Roy and the rest of the neighboring spires today, especially in the afternoon when the sun came out for real. The first part of the hike was mostly through forest of wind-whipped trees, all with tiny, dime sized leaves.

Once we left the forest, the oohing and ahhing really began. The light on the granite towers, coupled with the incredibly clear air and the crimson of the just-turning bushes and trees, was simply magnificent.

Since we didn't bother to rent a stove (we’ll only be out for one night), we told the kids not to expect much for dinner. It actually looked an awful lot like lunch and will bear a striking resemblance to breakfast tomorrow -- bread, cheese, salami, and fruit. That made for a short dinner giving us plenty of time in the tent to read our latest book from the Guardian of Ga’Hoole series. Dex and Kylie were quizzing me tonight on the dozens of characters and which type of owl each was. To their amazement, I was clueless and generally stuck to barn owl as my answer. I'm pretty sure I got a failing grade.