So near yet so far: the Huemul Glaciar!

Hola everyone!

As per (of late), I’m mixing up the geography – and climates – of my blogposts, just so things don’t get samey…

And that means: no Siberian winter-roads today; instead: picturesque Patagonian mountains – albeit featuring something very cold and icy (and massive). Confused? Of course you won’t be – the give-away’s in the title!

So far down in Argentina:

Mount Fitz Roy – approached;
Cerro Torre mountain – viewed;
Fitz Roy again – seen properly;

More walkies and more views of the both mountains – done.

So what was next for us? Next was when things went somewhat awry…

The plan went something like this: a hike to and then upon the Huemul Glacier (“Deer Glacier”) and a look at the lake (“laguna”) of the same name formed by the glacier. Such a lake is actually a common thing: a glacier drags along stones, clay, and all sorts of mountain debris that forms so-called moraines with lakes inside them. I might not have described them perfectly accurately; apologies if so: I’m no real glaciologist…

The lake is just awesome – with that typically glacial turquoise color:

It’s located 35km from El Chaltén, but the road is far from great so it takes a good hour to an hour-and-a-half to get there:

There’s a bigger lake there too, where apparently various watersports are engaged in – but we simply didn’t have any spare time for those.

We’ve arrived!

And that’s when I started suspecting this wasn’t going to be just a simple walk, for they handed out… helmets, crampons, and harnesses! ->

Oh no. What had we gotten ourselves into?!…

But everyone remained in good spirits, with optimism seeping out of every pore; after all – we were in Patagonia! And we were headed to a glacier! And this was the first day of the active phase of our trip!…

Apparently, most people on this route just walk to the lake and back, which is a one-to-two-hour stroll with a climb of just over 200 meters and a total of four kilometers there and back. We, however, were headed for the glacier. And that’s when things went pear-shaped…

We were almost blown away by a hellish wind and soaked through and through by torrential rain. It was so bad some of us didn’t make it – including me. Not that we didn’t try: we spent more than six hours trekking, and ascended/descended some 700 meters. We nearly made it too, but ultimately it wasn’t to be (I’ll explain a bit later).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Quick rewind back to when we were setting out…

We tried on our crampons and helmets, adjusted our backpacks, and off we popped!

At first everything was rather easy. The path was even, the weather gentle and warm and with no rain (though there were a few clouds). And we started out walking through a nice forest…

You could keep on taking pictures non-stop…

Everyone was cheerful and smiling…

Trudging uphill toward the lake, glacier, and the stunning views.

By the way, take note of what we’re wearing. Later on we ended up putting back on every single thing we had…

So, at the start of the trail: all good…

…It was so good in fact that some of my fellow travelers even had time to photograph the wildlife:

This little bird kept flitting around us for quite a while, either begging for food or hinting that we really shouldn’t be heading up to the glacier…

Then the forest somehow started to seem less friendly…

Then it just started grinning at us with evil smirks….

Look – the moss on the trees is practically laughing at us! And pulling all sorts of weird faces.

Walking suddenly became a lot less comfortable:

But we didn’t take the hints, and just kept on climbing up, occasionally looking back and snapping the surrounding landscapes:

And there’s the glacier in sight already! ->

And along with the glacier – the lake! ->

We admired it for a bit and clambered on. At first it wasn’t bad here – a bit steeper than in the forest, but quite manageable:

But for some reason the weather decided to turn nasty.

We’d almost reached the glacier; there it is ->

But first, some really unfriendly wind picked up. Every now and then it blew so hard that we literally couldn’t move – we’d stand there, bracing our poles against the ground, and wait for the gusts to ease…

And then it started pouring with rain:

At that point I completely lost any desire to keep scrambling up to the glacier, because: (i) you should see glaciers in sunny weather – that’s the only way to see them in all their glory, with their sparkling blue ice and reflected sunlight; (ii) in weather like this it’s not exactly safe (even with experienced guides); and (iii) it’s not like I’d never seen a glacier before, right? I’d seen them in Altai, the Caucasus, Alaska, Greenland, Kyrgyzstan, Antarctica, New Zealand – and maybe somewhere else too.

So we had a quick discussion and democratically decided that some of us should turn back. Some of the posse still went on up to the glacier (successfully!)…

And so – a farewell glance at the glacier ->

And then down to the lake to just sit and quietly take in its beauty ki– and wait for the glacier conquerors!

Once we’d descended all the way down, we were surprised to find that the weather there hadn’t changed at all: no rain or wind, warm and comfortable! ->

Meanwhile up on the glacier!…

 

And that’s all for today, folks! Stay tuned: more Patagonian tales (interspersed among Far-Eastern winter-road-trip tales) coming soon!…