Trek in Nahui Huapi national park

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  Bariloche, Argentina
Thursday, November 27, 2008

Just done a beautiful 4 day trek in the national park near here, part of the 'Nahuel Huapi Traverse'.  We started from a small town which is a ski resort in winter, called Villa Catedral.  Bus dropped us off on a cold but clear morning, having waited a day for the weather to clear.  We found the start of the trek across the car park and followed the signs (this was a very well marked track and throughout all 4 days we had no trouble finding our way, even through deep snow).  The first day we followed a lake side track, gently climbing upwards through beautiful forest to a steep climb, followed by a scramble across snow to the first refugio (hut) called Refugio Frey.  Pretty basic but welcoming and v picturesque (by the side of a semi-frozen lake) - good keeper who gave us info on next day's trek and other interesting people staying there - couple of Australian climbers, guy from Wales, girl from Holland and 2 guys from Israel.  We were the only people continuing on to the next refugio - the others were either staying there or returning back down the track

The start of the Nahuel Huapi Traverse

.

Set off next morning in our snow shoes, around the side of the lake (Tonchek), through deep snow and up (v slowly) to the ridge above where we could see the next valley and the route ahead.  Descended into the valley down a loose scree path (luckily no snow on this side) but were so tired by the time we got to the bottom, we decided to camp on the valley floor in the woods.  Valley deserted apart from us, a few rare mountain hares and a couple of friendly geese.  This was the best camping ever!  Sheltered, no rain, surrounded by beautiful scenery.  Only trouble was that we hadn't anticipated this extra night so we had to ration our food (Andy not happy bunny!!!).

Next morning we started with a steep climb, again through snow.  Exhausting as by the time we had reached the snowline, it was mid-morning with strong sun that had partially melted the top layer, so we were wading through slush and the snow shoes were useless.  Finally reached the top, worth the climb as views were stunning, but climb down again v slow, similar to previous day, with moving granite scree under foot (Andy loved this bit but def not my favourite!)  We had to cross 3 rivers in bare feet - wading in glacial fast-flowing waters up to our knees - exhausting!  Finally arrived at second refugio Jakob

Rickety bridge on the way up

.  A more equipped place, with proper toilets, meals provided and also beautiful location beside lake and snow-capped mountains.  Stayed the night, treated ourselves to the dinner (we'd run out of food entirely) and ended up spending more than a night in Bariloche but loved it.

Last day was a bit of a forced march for us as we'd agreed with others staying at the refugio that we'd get the truck to Bariloche with them from the end of the trek at 4pm.  That meant doing about 20km in 6 hrs carrying 15kgs of backpack each.  Although it was downhill, we felt we couldn't really appreciate the views as we didn't have much time to stop.  One great part was crossing yet another glacial river but this time with a handy rope to hold on to and make sure we didn't fall into the cascade below.

Beautiful but exhausting trek.  Fantastic scenery - could have spent much longer here.
Lots of love
Andy & Esther xxx  

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On the way up	Approaching snow	Refugio Frey	Dutch girl and hutkeeper
Laguna Jakob	Laguna Jakob	The long slog	Looking down into next valley for suitable camping
View from our tent in deserted valley	Our friendly ciecen (goose?)	Andy trying to catch supper	Esther in pain after glacial river crossing
Way up into the snow	Another long slog	At last! Top of the world - fantastic 360 views	Top of the world!
Looking down on frozen lake and next refugio	Frozen lake by side of Jakob	Andy´s award-winner!	Inside Refugio Jakob
Esther & refugio buddy	More snow leaving Refugio Jakob!	Going down	Treacherous river crossing, just above waterfall
On the way down

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