thomashikes: January 2026

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Rafting the Colorado through the Grand Canyon

During my two Hayduke hikes I had the opportunity to get a ferry ride across the Colorado from the right to the left bank just upstream of the confluence with the Little Colorado. Ever since I had been wondering what that would be like, to float down the rive some 200 miles. Would it be boring after a while?

Well, this summer I found out. I have not had that much fun on a daily basis in a long time. It's just absolutely thrilling! Every day there are several rapids to run and with an experienced paddle boat guide in the back, who knows where to go and what to avoid, you get to ride the wave trains surrounded by the froth and thunder of the moving water. What a blast!

The trip was advertised as "hiking-intensive" and consequently we got off the river at least once a day to see some geological feature or human artifact. As a long-distance and thru-hiker I was amused by what they called "hiking-intensive", but I guess if you only rarely if ever hike, this label might be appropriate. The lead guide had been a geology minor in college and has been down the canyon so often that he "stopped counting after the hundredth time". And it showed.

It was a small group of clients, eight of us, and we had four guides plus two assistant guides who were working on getting in the required number of trips to become certifiable guides for the Grand Canyon. There was one paddle raft for up to six paddlers plus paddle raft guide, three gear rafts and two inflatable kayaks for those who wanted even more excitement than the paddle raft provided. The trip lasted for 16 days, the first and last being half days on the water and half days loading/unloading the rafts.

We started at Lees Ferry approximately 15 miles downstream of Glen Canyon Dam and ended at Diamond Creek on the Hualapai reservation 226 miles downstream.

The Vermillion Cliffs near the Navajo Bridge across the Colorado near Lees Ferry

On of the first stops for a hike was at North Canyon (around trip mile 21), North Canyon comes down from the North Rim plateau of Grand Canyon National Park (GRCANP). In the summer of '25 there had been a major fire on the North Rim, burning some 220 k acres. As we walked up North Canyon from the river we were confronted with a food-deep layer of black muck, soot and ash that had been washed down from the burned area during late summer/fall monsoons.

Drainage in North Canyon with soot and ash from the North Rim Fire in summer of '25

In Marble Canyon at the Eastern end of Grand Canyon NationalPark

Next we stopped at Stanton's cave and Vasey's Paradise followed by lunch at the Red Cavern. Stanton was a railroad entrepreneur and explorer of the canyon in the late 1880's, some 10+ years after the Powell expedition. Stanton wanted to see whether a railroad could be built through the canyon at river level to ship coal from Colorado to California. Imagine if he had succeeded! Vasey was the botanist of the Powell expedition and Powell named this verdant seep area in the canyon in his honor.

The Red Cavern is a giant undercut in a river bend, some 150 yds wide and 50 yds deep, a nice warm place to have lunch in Spring and Fall. I guess during summer trips one would appreciate the shade that the cavern provides.

In Red Cavern

Some two miles downstream of the the Red Cavern is the Nautiloid canyon where we stopped next. It's a bit of a scramble up a drainage to a 100 ft thick layer of silicate that had imbedded in it nautiloid fossils. These nautiloids are the ancestors of the contemporary Nautilus and of squids.

Nautiloid fossil in Nautiloid canyon

Next day we traveled along a stretch of the river that I was familiar with from my Hayduke hikes from Nankoweap canyon on to the Little Colorado. We hikes up to the granaries at the mouth of Nankoweap from where you have a great view over the river to the South.

View South (downstream) from the granaries at Nankoweap canyon

The builders of the granaries made use of a natural alcove and walled it off with rocks and mud. There is a fairly sizeable flat area between the cliff and the river that was used as a garden. The harvest from the garden was preserved and stored in the granaries. Apparently the native peoples lit fires in the almost closes granaries and then sealed them in order to kill off any pests that might consume the stored harvest as well as to consume the oxygen inside the granaries to reduce spoilage.

Just downstream of the confluence of Colorado and Little Colorado is the site of a 1957 mid-air collision of two airliners, Crash Canyon. The two flights had taken off from LA to the East coast. In those days one did not have to post flight plans and some sightseeing above the Grand canyon was part of the trip. Therefore two crews did what they usually did on these flights, not knowing of each others existence. And the holes in the Swiss cheese aligned and tragedy ensued. Onehundredandtwentyeight people lost their lives, no survivors. This was the incident that led to the institution of the FAA. Some of the debris of the airliners involved was relocated from crash canyon to a spot up stream of the confluence. There it is better hidden from view from above as there had been too many false reports of an airliner crash when the debris was located at the true crash site which was easily viewable from above by people riding in helicopters over the canyon

Just a little bit further downstream one of the geological wonders of the Grand Canyon, the Great Unconformity. Briefly, this is a side canyon formed through flash floods. As you walk into it what you see are sheer walls of layered Tapeats sandstone some 530 million years old. As you walk further up the canyon in some spots you can see metamorphic Schist-type rock that is 1.8 billion years old. This rock was formed at high temperatures and pressures deep below mountains that have been eroded away before the sandstone was deposited. The unconformity then sees two types of rock with entirely different histories of formation (sedimentary vs. metamorphic) as well as two types of rocks that differ vastly in terms of age.

In Blacktail Canyon. The Vishnu schist reaches to roughly head height, above that the the layered sandstone (Photo credit: KB)

Evidence for this unconformity can be seen all over Utah into Idaho. For those interested a link to a video of geologist Shawn Willsey that explains this is in more detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DGxbhnlkwQ

At Carbon Creek we made one of our longer hikes of the trip to the Butte Fault. At this fault one can see how the rock can "flow" under the immense pressures of primordial continents running into each other. Notice how the layers of the rock are tilted upwards.

At the Butte Fault inland near carbon Creek. Person in the foreground for scale.

We continued hiking southwards, parallel to but inland of the river to another geologic oddity, the strobolits, petrified cyanobacterial colonies.

Strobolit near Lava canyon

We returned to the river at Lava/Chuar canyon rapids where the guide had floated the rafts from Carbon Creek. As we rafted on we called it an early day owing to strong winds which hindered our progress and camped at Cardenas beach. From there one can do a nice hike to a ridge on the left bank that provides a great view to the North. I was familiar with this stretch from my Hayduke hike which takes the same route. This time around the timing was better and I got to see the view in late afternoon, early evening when it is more spectacular than during the day. From this ridge you can also look down to the West at the rather long Unkar rapids which we would be running the following morning.

View North from the ridge above Cardenas beach

Evening at Cardenas beach

The next morning we reached the Kaibab corridor where one client left the group because of work commitments and a new assistant guide joined the group. Continuing on yours truly took a bath. A lateral wave came out of left field and washed my seat mate on the left side of the raftt into the raft and yours truly out of the raft. It happened so fast that I did at first not at all realize what had happened. I was tumbling end over end in a washing machine until my life jacket pushed me up and I could gasp for a mixture of brown water and air. A few more gasps for air and few more waves crashing over my head later I entered calmer water and could line up for my raft mates to come for me and pull me in. I had managed to hold on to my paddle so that it was easy to pull me close. The guide pulled me up by the vest and I kicked with my feet to give me enough momentum to make into the raft. The whole thing took about two minutes.

Soon I was getting pretty cold, the water is about 50 F or 4 C, so no wonder. At lunch I changed into my second set of clothes and warmed myself up in the sun. Alas, during this little adventure my phone got wet and reached consciousness only shortly before the end of the trip.

More after my next trip!

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Patagonia

This post is dedicated to the memory of Iohan Georguiev, a gentle soul and an adventurous spirit.

In the early 1970's I read about climbing Mt. Fitzroy and Cerro Torre in a place called Patagonia. These were climbs for the absolute elite and they remain so to this day. I surely was not an elite climber, but I wanted to see those places. Alas they were completely beyond my meager budget.

The next mention of Patagonia I came across was Bruce Chatwin's "In Patagonia" in the 1990's. This book purported to be a travelogue, but actually was more or less fictitious, as it turned out.

Then a few years ago I stumbled across the videos of Iohan Georguiev who traveled by bike from British Columbia via North, Central and South America to Patagonia, making mesmerizing videos of his travels. Some examples of his work, specifically from Patagonia, can be found at the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIY-QUsY2N4&list=PLOrCDDpk39gq3jG4ftOO9JXuCONU_p4nM&index=27

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peMOq0ki8jk&list=PLOrCDDpk39gq3jG4ftOO9JXuCONU_p4nM&index=28

This year I finally made it to Patagonia myself. The objective was to do some backpacking in some of the well-known parks and to get a lay of the land for hikes during future visits. My selection of locales and hikes during this trip was informed by the rudimentary guides published by Alan Dixon (https://www.adventurealan.com/).

Parc National

I flew from Santiago to Balmaceda in Aysen province and took a minibus shuttle to Coyhaique where I bought supplies that one cannot take onto a plane, specifically isobutane cartridges (if I were to find them) or alcohol fuel. I did indeed find isobutane cartridges in a fishing supply store on diagonally across from the Unimarc supermarket on Arturo Prat street. Denatured ethyl alcohol I could not find, but in a ferreteria (ironware store) I found methyl alcohol that is sold as a alcohol solvent. It comes in an 1L bottle and is dyed raspberry red lest you drink it which would not be good and might even be fatal.

I then took the bus to Cochrane, some 300 km away along the Carretera Austral. There are two bus companies, Buses Sao Paulo and Buses Don Carlo, that service the route and they do this on alternate days. In high season there may be two buses per day, but in mid-November there is only one bus per day. The journey takes 8-9 hrs, which at first I thought must be a typo, but it turns out that the Carretera is a gravel road some way past past Villa Cerro Castillo and the bus slows down considerably while driving on this surface.

In Cochrane I found a campsite in the backyard of a family home for fee of ~ $7 and next morning walked to the ranger station along the X-893 road on the shore of Rio Cochrane. I registered as required and paid my entrance fee (~ $11 for an old codger like me, it's more expensive for young whipper snappers, as it should be 😉). The trail takes off right at the ranger station, straight up the mountain. They don't believe in switchbacks or, rather, it may just be a consequence of budgetary constraints. Chile is not a wealthy country and the fees they charge are certainly not sufficient to fund maintenance or trail building. They likely merely cover the cost of collecting the fees and some services in cases of emergency.

Within a couple of hours I reached Laguna El Cangreja

. There were a few hickups along the way that had slowed me down. The first at the top of the first hill where the trail flattens out into an area that had been logged and was being reforested. The trail disappeared and, yet again!, I checked the GPS too late so that I had to backtrack (will I ever learn? A rhetorical question, I apparently won't). Wanderer if you come to ~~Sparta~~ this place, look for a house in the distance and head over there. Do not pass the house, a ranger cabin as it turns out, and instead enter its backyard where you will find a sign that points you to where to go next. Soon you will hit a stretch where lots of trees have been downed by a tornado or a wind hose. It is a tangled mess that takes a while to get through/over/around. You then climb off trail up a steep slope and once that flattens out a bit you hang left to intersect the trail as it reappears past the downed trees. I am convinced that this mees is still going to be there ten years hence. The rest of the walk is straightforward.

I camped at Laguna El Cangreja at a prepared site, which is a requirement in the park. Next morning I continued on in the direction of Westwind. Once I got out of the forest into open terrain there was snow to contend with and I abandoned my original plan to hike the Lagunas Altas trail out of concern that owing to the snow I would not be making sufficiently rapid progress to stay on schedule.

The valley with the Westwind camp site and the Park lodge down there somewhere

The descent to Westwind first features a long traverse along a moraine with lots of loose footing. One then descends brutally steeply for a while to reach a set of switchbacks in much more moderately sloped terrain where they are much less useful than they would have been higher up. I did not stop at Westwind and instead headed along the road towards Casa Piedra, 26 km of gravel road. Ugh! Luckily it was lightly traveled which of course also meant that there were few opportunities to hitch a ride.

I stealth camped along the way, illegally, and continued next morning. The last five or six kilometers to Casa Piedra I got a ride from a German couple in a camper van. Casa Piedra is an official camp site and the starting point for the hike along Rio Aviles. I opted for the hike along the left bank with the goal to make it to a camp site upstream of the hanging bridge where one switches over to the right bank. The quality of the trail deteriorates above the bridge as, apparently, most day hikers just do the loop Casa Piedra-hanging bridge-Casa Piedra. The maintenance effort, such as it is, focuses on the trail for this loop.

The Case Piedra campsite, notice the typical Patagonian windbreak in the form of rows of poplars

The trail from Casa Piedra to the mouth of the Rio Aviles valley

The hanging bridge across Rio Aviles, gently or not so gently swinging in the breeze

Above the bridge the trail is partially overgrown, there are many downed trees to contend with. This is not a problem in of itself, but if you make your hike plan based on the expectation that you are hiking in a national park and expect the trails to be maintained, then you are making an assumption that is not warranted in Chile. Eventually you reach the ruin of an abandoned sheep station and shortly thereafter you cross Rio Aviles by fording uneventfully. There are two official campsites on the left bank marked on the map. However, you really have to infer their location, there is really nothing to indicate that they are the official sites. I chose the downstream one, conveniently located in the trees that provided some shielding from the fierce wind.

Next morning I continued on, climbing to about 1000 m altitude and then descending again to river level. On this descent there was again a longish stretch of massive downed beech trees blocking the trail which took a quite a while to get through. After reaching river level the trail swerves right in an ENE direction and eventually leads you out onto the gravel bank of Rio Estero Ventisquero. While there are a few stretches where the markers, such as they are, direct you back into the forest on the right, my advice is to stay out on the gravel bed as the trail sections in the bush are often swampy, narrow, and overgrown.

After about 2 hrs of this you reach an official camp site (Refugio Valle Hermoso) I did not see any refugio)) beyond which the glacial valley narrows and soon after near the shore of Laguna Verde the markers direct you to the left margin of the valley and the left bank of the river. Cross the river and contour or climb on rough trail above Laguna Verde. Eventually the trail will start to climb very steeply to Portuzuela La Gloria. The steepness here is not of the "staircase" style, but rather of the "ramp" style. Your Achilles tendons will get a stretch here. Once you cross the pass (Portuzuela La Gloria) at the top, you go down the other side similarly steeply on a loose dirt slope and reach the flood plain of Rio Jeinimeini.

Laguna Verde

Laguna Verde from the trail to Portuzuela La Gloria

Soon an official sign will direct you to cross the rio to the left bank. In high season, once the snow melt has abated, this may be a reasonable spot. In early season this location is insane! I had gotten the impression looking down from up on the pass that the river was flowing fast, and, boy, did it ever! I tried to ford and the water was up to mid-thigh very quickly and pushing me downstream while I was leaning hard on my poles. Since the water is milky from silt, you cannot estimate the depth from looking at the bottom. Instead you have to use your hiking poles to probe for depth. Not easy either because the water makes it hard to get the pole down vertically. I got scared and the hell out of there, retraced upstream where the river was braiding and crossed the braids individually.

After some time a sign directs you to get back on the right bank after you pass a rock face that forced this back and forth across the river. Here the river was again flowing at the speed of light, Albert Einstein may forgive me, and there was no way I was going to be crossing there. About 200 m downstream the main channel was a bit wider than at the official fording site and I gave it a go. The first ~ 8 m of the ford were ok, water to mid-thigh, but then for the last two or three steps the channel was a bit deeper, maybe just a hand's width worth, but that made all the difference! Man, was this uncomfortable! I made it, barely, and then pushed through the brush to intersect the trail that leads to the Raleigh campsite.

For anyone even only marginally shorter than I am (I am 6'4", so that's most of you) this ford is not doable safely at this time of year in the afternoon. You should then either do this hike later in the season or, at a minimum, cross in the early morning when the flow is lower. For those hiking this route in the same direction as I did this may require an illegal and uncomfortable camp on the wind-swept gravel bank. I would not worry about the illegality. The rangers are very comfortable in their shacks with Starlink internet and not likely to patrol the trail. If you hike this route in the opposite direction just plan to stay at Raleigh and cross the stream in the morning.

I am told that in high season the river is about ankle deep and hence entirely without issue.

At the Raleigh campsite and bridge over Rio Jeinimeini

Raleigh campsite

I camped at Raleigh on the shores of Laguna Verde and enjoyed some late afternoon/early evening sun and next morning made my way to Laguna Jeinimeini, mostly along a 4x4 road. The wind was blowing hard and it was pretty frigid. I had planned to finish my hike of Parc National by taking a cross-country route from just past Laguna Jeinimeini to Chile Chico. Alas, as I got close it was obvious that there was too much snow still on even the lower ridges to make this a reasonable proposition and there were higher passes further back that I figured would be prohibitive under these conditions. Probably a better idea in February/March. Ordinarily a change of plans like this would bum me out, but I looked at this trip as an opportunity to understand this part of the world and so if there's too much snow in November, I know for next time that this should be done later in the season. I had greatly enjoyed the solitude (I had only met one couple on the trail) and one would have to trade some of that against a safer or more straightforward hike later in the season. I got a ride with a shuttle to Chile Chico, a bit pricey but the alternative of walking the 55 km to town is not viable as one crosses private land with no or few opportunities to stealth camp and little vegetation tall enough to shield one from the fierce wind. It may well be that the ranchers would not mind, but if you don't speak Spanish, it is hard to ask for either forgiveness or permission.

Next morning I took the ferry to Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez. It's a good deal, namely free of charge, if you don't have a car. You need a ticket, though, and that took a bit to figure out how to get if you don't speak Spanish and can't ask anybody. Here's the deal:

The ferry dock is close to the town park on the West side of the village. On the East side of the park is the bus station, just across the street. In the early morning the station looks entirely deserted. Yet there is a door on the West side of the building facing the park and right next to that door, just inside, is a small office where they issue the tickets. The morning ferry leaves at 8 AM sharp on weekdays and it takes 2.5 hrs to get across the lake.

At the dock in Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez the buses that take foot passengers of the ferry to Coyhaique are waiting when the ferry docks. I had intended to hike Cerro Castillo next and had hoped to take the bus to Villa Cerro Castillo to start the hike from there. Alas, the buses do not service the town and instead they let you off at the junction of Ruta X-65 and the Carretera Austral ("Cruce Cerro Castillo"). You then walk down the Carretera for 8 km to reach the town. I stayed at hostal/camping Patagonia Nordic, run by two nice and very helpful guys. As it turns out, the Cerro Castillo hike was closed owing to a late snow storm and I therefore had to change my hiking plans. There is only one bus per day that goes from Villa Cerro Castillo to Coyhaique and that's the bus that comes from Cochrane. While one is supposed to be able to book a seat online, the websites for the bus companies were not working and it was therefore not possible to determine whether there was going to be an open seat on the bus. I therefore next morning returned to the junction of Ruta X-65 and the Carretera where one can catch either the bus coming from Cochrane around 12:00-13:00 or one of the buses coming from Puerto Ibanez around 10:30-11:00 AM. Worked like a charm, the first bus coming from Puerto Ibanez had seats.

El Chaltén-Huemul Circuit

My next destination was Torres del Paine. However, when I checked my email in Coyhaique I found a message indicating that the Torres del Paine O-trek was closed and that it was unclear when it would be reopening. Apparently there had been "an incident" where five hikers had lost their lives while hiking the O-trek. How this came about is a perfect illustration of the Swiss cheese model of bad outcomes:

One can hike the O-trek in such a way that one does not have to carry any food, or only snacks, and no equipment as long as one is willing to pay for the privilege. The company provides either tent, sleeping mat and sleeping bag or you can stay in the bunkhouse. So who is going to go for this? Of course the unfit, the inexperienced and the clueless. That's the first slice of Swiss cheese. The second slice was the fact that most rangers had a day off because of the presidential elections in Chile and the skeleton crew had not managed to monitor the conditions and inform the hikers of these conditions on that day. The third slice of Swiss cheese was a blizzard blowing in with extremely strong winds and blowing snow, i.e. white-out conditions (it's patagonia, can happen any day and twice on Sunday). As a result of the holes in the Swiss cheese lining up, you had the inexperienced and ill-equipped hikers heading out into the blizzard. They did not know what to do, were not equipped to hunker down and therefore perished on the trail.

I went down to Puerto Natales anyway and instead of going to Torres del Paine I took the bus from PN to El Chaltén via El Calafate. This is an eight hour affair for 340 km, two hours of which are consumed by the passport control for exit from Chile and entry into Argentina. The roads are mostly narrow and the bus travels at a pretty modest pace.

I arrived in El Chaltén and headed to the ranger station early next morning to navigate the permit process. I was advised to wait a day before taking off as the wind up at Paso del Viento (= "windy pass") was expected to be extremely strong rendering it impassable. The forecast predicted three days of decent weather after that.

It turned out to be exactly right. You register online for the hikes in the backcountry of Glaciares National Park via a Google form that you access via a QR code in the ranger station. When you start out you pass a small shack where you pay your entrance fee (via internet, no cash) and then you climb up through partially swampy forest to the first camp site near Laguna Tunel o Toro. The camping here is in the trees and you'll be thankful for that because the wind comes down howling from Paso del Viento and without tree cover many a tent would not make it.

Skyline above El Chaltén

Along the way on the Huemul Circuit Day 1

Day 2 starts off with some use trail walking around the laguna and some scrambling until you reach the first of two Tyrolian traverses across Rio Tunel. Even through I had left camp early, there were already 8-10 people ahead of me waiting to cross the river. At the rate at which they proceeded that looked like an hour wait in the icy wind which I found entirely unattractive. Instead I opted to ford the river some 150 m upstream of the traverse site. While the water was ice-cold, it was only knee-deep, so no biggy. I then made my way cross country to intercept the trail going from the traverse site to Paso del Viento which was dead easy. The trail is rough and can be difficult to see as it crosses moraine terrain that has lost its ice cover relatively recently. The dirt and the rocks have not yet settled into a stable position and it is very easy for a rock to slide onto you if you are not careful. At some point it is easier to get onto the ice of the glacier (Glaciar Rio Tunel Inferior) and hike that for some 500 m. However, pretty soon the channels in the ice that the melt water runs in get very deep and steep and one is forced back onto the moraine. At that point, fortunately, the path runs more over rocks than dirt and you continue on scree and talus.

Rio Tunel valley in direction El Chaltén

Glaciar Rio Tunel Superior (Upper Rio Tunel glacier)

Glaciar Rio Tunel Inferior (Lower Rio Tunel glacier)

I actually missed a turn of the official trail and ended up on a use trail which got me into some really steep terrain as can be seen in the middle picture above. There was a 200 m altitude climb scrambling across chutes filled with loose rock and over ridges of brittle and fracturing rock. Never a dull moment!

As you cross the pass Paso del Viento at the top you have a great view of the Viedma glacier below Cero Azara. A rather steep and loose descent follows with minimal switchbacks (amplitude about 5 m) that will test your knees followed by a long contour through meadows until you reach Paso del Viento camp at a small pond where you are allowed to camp.

Views of the Viedma glacier from Paso del Viento

Day 3 starts off as another contour across meadows and through scree. After about 7 km the narrow and rough path starts to climb and the last two km before Paso Huemul will kick your butt. Even though I had started early, the wind was already very strong in mid-morning, gusty and relentless as I climbed the last 200 m in altitude. I just hustled down the other side to find some rock to provide some shelter.

Viedma glacier from the contour to Paso Huemul

From below the pass on the East side you have a great view of the turquoise waters of Laguna Viedma below. What comes next is in a way the hardest part of the entire hike, the descent through the forest to the shore of Laguna Viedma. It is extremely steep and basically goes straight down after an initial contour through beech krumholz. If you are unlucky you will have a group of clueless and careless people behind you that kick loose some of the plentiful rocks that litter the path. Towards the bottom some ropes have been installed and rarely have I been as glad to see a rope installed by somebody else as I was here. The descent does drag on but rest assured that it will end eventually and hope that it does in a controlled fashion. You don't want to take a fall here.

Laguna Viedma from just beyond Paso Huemul

Camp Bahia de los Tempanos (bottom Left corner) from the descent to Laguna Viedma

View of the end Viedma glacier from Camp Bahia de Hornos across the laguna

Enlarged from above

At the bottom I made my way to the second camp on the shore of L. Viedma, for one in the hope that it would be a little bit quieter and secondly going there would knock off two kilometers of the distance I had to hike the following day. I would not do this again since there is little protection from the wind to be had at Camp Bahia de Hornos whereas Camp Bahia de los Tempanos is in the trees and hence more protected. However, the view from de Hornos camp of the terminus of the Viedma glacier was pretty spectacular.

I should mention here that there is a boat that takes day hikers from closer to El Chaltén to a beach near the location where you come out after the descent from Paso Huemul. I had seen the boat anchored at the shore but did not have the presence of mind to push on to see whether I could catch a ride with the boat. If you go and see the boat on the shore from the trail, it might be worthwhile to try.

Day 4 is a reasonably straightforward hike on single track. The marking is not what you are told to expect. The red wooden stakes are no longer red, if they ever were, but with the exception of one or two places I did not need to use my intuition to figure out where the trail was.

Eventually you reach and cross Rio Tunel at the second Tyrolian traverse and here fording was not an option. Rio Tunel flowed at the speed of light, Albert Einstein may forgive me, and it is very turbid from silt, so you cannot determine the depth of the water. There were a few people ahead of me, but that turned out to be ok. There was a good vibe of cooperation, equipment sharing and general mutual support and help. The set-up is about as primitive as you can make it and considerations for the safety of the users did not play any role in its design. It certainly helped to have somebody hold your pack while you were clipped into the rope and had to connect the sling attached to your pack to the carabiner on the safety line. Similarly, it was good at the other bank to have somebody help you with the pack after you had released the sling.

Past the small marina it is quite a way to El Chaltén, the last two kilometers along the highway unless you are in the mood to climb over more moraines to avoid the road walk. I was not. Do not forget to email the rangers once you are in town, indicating that you are back. You are supposed to do this within 48 hrs so that they don't go out looking for you. That's the theory. About two weeks after I had submitted my notice of completion I got a mail acknowledging receipt of my check-out. In other words don't rely on them coming out looking for you.

Peekaboo guanaco

Guanancos

El Chaltén- Mt. Fitzroy

I had seen Mt. Fitzroy from town, but I wanted to get closer, of course. You can take the Fitzroy trail from town, but you pass a ranger shack and they'll shake you down for an entrance fee. The alternative is to take the trail to Laguna Torre (no charge) and then slightly more than half way there leave that trail and head for Laguna Nija/Laguna Majie along another trail. You pass right below the Fitzroy massif and get a front row view of Fitzroy. My intention had been to continue on to Laguna Sucia and then to Swiss Bivy. However, in early afternoon a wind storm sprang up of a strength that either I have never witnessed before or it would have to have been a long time ago and I have blissfully forgotten. I was very happy to camp at Campamento Poincenot, protected by the giant beech trees, rather than out in the open behind a crappy rock wall. I am not sure my tent would have made it.

Mt. Fitzroy massif from El Chaltén

The wind howled all night and into the afternoon next day. I took the Fitzroy trail back to town and had a hard time in the first few kilometers where the trail runs out in the open and the wind had its way with me. Once in the forest it was much easier to walk and only the last kilometer was exposed again. Here two puffs in rapid succession actually managed to throw me to the ground. I snuck past the ranger shack at the end while the ranger was busy fleecing a group coming the other way, so I did not have to pay.

Mt. Fitzroy massif from the trail along the lagunas

El Calafate

I took the bus to El Calafate because I wanatd to see the glacier Perito Moreno. For the first time in two or three decades I took a package tour, a boat ride across Laguna Argentina with two stops along the way for some hiking and then landing near the glacier where we had two hours to explore before taking the boat back to El Calafate. It was expensive and ultimately not worth it to me. The view of the calving glacier from the water is nice, but that's about it. I will return to my policy of not taking package tours.

The Perito Moreno glacier from Laguna Argentina

Ferry Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt

A six hour bus ride took me back to Puerto Natales where I had made arrangements for a ferry ride through the Patagonian archipelago to Puerto Montt. As I arrived in PN I received an email that the ferry would be late as they had to wait out a storm to cross a stretch of open water on their journey from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. When the ferry arrived in PN it was not able to dock for 24 hrs because of high winds, so we took off two days late and, ultimately, were another day late arriving in Puerto Montt. This is another illustration of the need to be flexible with one's travel plans in Patagonia, particularly with booking air travel with fares that can't be changed or canceled.

The weather during the ferry ride was utter shit with very few views of the Patagonian ice field owing to low hanging clouds and driving rain. It's Patagonia, what can I say? If you want to have predictable weather, go to Hawaii!

Cerro Castillo

My last hike was going to be another stab at Cerro Castillo which had been closed earlier during my travel. I returned to Coyhaique and took the early morning bus in direction of Cochrane, asking the driver to let me off at Las Hourquetas (you can also take the bus to Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez. It passes by Hourquetas as well).

They let you off where the road makes a hairpin curve and you just follow a dirt road to the ranger shack. The ranger explains the rules to you in fluent Spanish. If you don't speak Spanish, tough luck! Take a picture of the Google-style map, it has all the important bits of information in English. The first day is a gentle walk along a 4x4 track with an occasional river crossing until you reach the campsite at Rio Turbido. It is in the trees, protected from the wind and water can be obtained from the river nearby.

You are only allowed to camp at official campsites and therefore there are habituated mice waiting for dinner to be served.

Next morning you walk along the river for a while, cross it (brrrrrr!) and then climb straight up the mountain along a barranco. Eventually you come out of the forest and climb in scree and talus up a ravine. The last 200 m in altitude you walk on old snow and the wind gets stronger and stronger as you rise. My eyes were tearing up from the wind despite wearing sun glasses. It has been a while that I have experienced that. Once across Paso Peñon there is some snow to contend with on the downslope and then you descend down a scree slope, very loose sand/dirt with big blocks strewn about. There are ropes installed, but they are more useful going in the other direction rather than down. Take it slow and it's ok.

A look back to Rio Turbido from the ascent to Paso Peñon

A view of the "backside" of Paso Peñon

Hanging glacier in the Cerro Castillo massif

Eventually you reach tree line, cross a few small streams and then climb along a bigger stream towards the El Bosque camp. Immediately before you reach the camp it gets really steep on a compressed dirt path. The camp is good but has its share of aggressive mice. Hang your food and don't keep it in your tent lest they chew through the tent wall. Ask me how I know!

Day 3 begins with a continued climb through the forest to timber line and then a walk on pretty decent trail through a moraine landscape. Eventually you reach Laguna Castillo, walk along its shore for a short while and then climb the talus slope to your left. There is no trail here, although on occasion you will find stretches where people have obviously been walking. The general direction you should take is indicated by metal posts with tip down yellow triangles. Once the slope flattens out you walk up the ridge on obvious trail. The wind was howling and it was freezing cold. The park recommends doing this climb before noon as the wind picks up after noon. I would not want to experience this in wind any stronger than the one I walked in. Once across the pass you have another 500 m of steep descent to navigate, completely out in the open. Look out for metal stakes and the yellow triangles to guide you. It is not always obvious. Finally I found a big rock where I could sit down and revive my numb fingers. Once you get into the trees the trail gets worse, but it is considerably more temperate temperature-wise.

Campamento Porta is small and very primitive, but it will do. I had planned to go up to Campamento Neozelandia and Laguna Duff, but low-hanging clouds suggested that there would be now views to be had. I camped and hoped for improvement by next morning. Alas, no improvement was evident next morning and I exited to Villa Cerro Castillo. As you reach the dirt road that leads to town you pass a ranger station where they shake you down for the entrance fee. The equivalent of $20 for an old codger like me.

View out to Villa Cerro Castillo and Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez from the ascent to Morro Negro

Laguna Castillo

Laguna Castillo from Morro Negro

Hanging glacier above Laguna Castillo

Laguna Castillo from Morro Negro

Cerro Palo from near Campamento Porteadores

If you go

As I wrote at the outset, one purpose of this trip was get the lay of the land for future trips to Patagonia. Here I list a few things that might be useful if you consider going yourself.

Air travel: As you have read above, the climate requires you to be flexible in your travel arrangements, particularly air travel. Patagonia is huge and if your time is limited or if you are tall like me, long distance overnight bus travel may not be for you. The advertised fares of LATAM or SKY airlines are misleading as they do not include luggage. Things like stoves, hiking poles cannot go into the cabin and they mean it that your cabin luggage must fir into the sizing bins. You must therefore purchase at least a "Standard" fare. A standard fare that includes checked baggage can be rescheduled for a fee, but cannot be canceled if your plans have to change. If you pay for a "Premium" fare, you can cancel, though.

When I go to Patagonia again I would not be booking airline tickets way ahead of time past my first hike in order to maintain flexibility, unless the premium for a "Premium" ticket was not too high. I would also not again book through Booking.com and instead would navigate the Spanish-only website of LATAM or SKY directly. Any rescheduling of fares booked through Booking needs to be rescheduled via Booking and not with the arline directly. Booking have outsourced this task to GoTOGate in effing India. These people are incompetent, they redefine the concept of density, tungsten and depleted uranium blanche in envy.

Currency exchange: You can't go to a bank in Chile and expect to be able to exchange US dollar or Euro bills for Chilean pesos. You have to use Cambio outfits in tourist towns and their rates absolutely suck donkey balls. Purchasing tickets for public transport in Santiago is cash only, so you may need CLP one or two hours after landing. The exchange at the airport in Santiago is the rip-off to end all rip-offs!

While payment via credit cards is the predominant form of payment in official businesses without any problem, people who run, say, shuttle services to trailheads do this under the radar of the tax authorities and do this for cash only, so you need to have some cash, preferably smaller bills. Check out the rates for cash on ATM's before you go, so that you have an idea of what you will be paying.

Keep in mind that many towns have a few hundred (e,g. Villa Cerro Castillo) to a few thousand inhabitants (e.g. Cochrane, Puerto Natales). The number of ATM's is limited. There are a few in Coyhaique.

Resupply: There were reasonable supermarkets in Coyhaique, Chile Chico (of all places), Puerto Montt, and Puerto Natales. Options were much more limited in El Chaltén, El Calafate, Cochrane, Villa Cerro Castillo. In the latter towns I was reminded of Jordan where the "supermarkets" where rooms the size of a living rooms were stuffed with an idiosyncratic mix of goods. In these market in Patagonia you can find tuna, noodles, ramen (both bricks and cups), rice, cheese, crackers, salami, oatmeal, mashed potato powder, eggs, chocolate and trail mix sometimes, no granola bars that I saw. Fresh fruit and vegetables were invariably rather sad in the small towns, reflecting the length of the supply chain. For veggies/fruit also be aware that there are stores that exclusively deal in these items.

I mentioned isobutane canisters and alcohol for stoves above. I would bring a refill valve for canisters next time as partially filled canisters are laying about. Hostels also often sell canisters. I saw denatured ethanol only once (and I don't remember where), but methanol ("meths") was available in paint/ironware stores in Coyhaique and Puerto Natales if you asked for alcohol solvent. They have no idea what you are talking about if you ask for alcohol for stoves.

Scams: Are everywhere. An example: as you enter Chile you have to fill out an agriculture declaration form. You can do this a few days ahead online before you land. The first hit when you google this gives you the form and then the site wants to charge you US $ 69, when, in fact, you can do this without charge on the government website.

This repeats day after day. Somebody tries to insert himself into interactions to bilk you.

Another example, although I would not be calling it a scam exactly. Booking accommodations for the O-trek in Torres del Paine is a pain (pun not intended). There are two companies running the camps and you have to deal with them individually, then there is the bus from Puerto Natales and the ferry to the park entrance. There's an outfit that calls itself torreshike that makes the process a little bit easier. The name of this outfit is strikingly similar to the name of one of the companies running the campsites. las torres. In actual fact, though, torreshike is located in the Czech republic, several time zones away. And here again, if you book through them, any and all changes to your itinerary have to be made through them. When the timelines are short because of the time difference this is a real nuisance. I will say that Tomas, the owner, was way more responsive than the Las Torres company, but the inevitable delays did not work in my favor when I had to attempt to reschedule my hike after the closure on account of the accident.