On our first morning waking up in Argentina, our fist goal was to put some gas in the tank. The only issue was that we didn’t have any Argentinian currency with us, so with most gas stations and shops accepting cash only, we had to figure out where to get some. On iOverlander someone had mentioned being able to exchange currency at a hotel. There was a small hotel in Lago Posadas, so I went in and indeed the lady behind the desk traded me USD60 worth of Argentinian pesos, without even any sort of exchange fee – I was pretty glad about it because Brice had already asked the guy at the gas station to start filling up the tank, and he was about to tell him we didn’t have any Argentinian money to pay… (ask for forgiveness, not permission, right?)
We had some pretty big distance to cover that day so we hit the road and didn’t stop very much throughout the day.
We did make one stop stop in Bajo Caracoles and found ourselves glad that we had detoured through Lago Posadas the night before. Bajo was no more than a re-fuelling stop, with one gas station, shop and small restaurant all in one place, and nothing else around it. Starting from there though, we were now on Ruta 40, and a nicely paved portion of it too. Which was a good thing because there really wasn’t much to look at on the way other than the flat endless road.
We drove about 440km that day until we reached Tres Lagos, another oasis in the desert. There was a nice campsite at the edge of town, a large fenced off yard with several “fogón” (fire pits) and enough trees to offer wind protection. Also, hot showers! And all for about 100 pesos (about 9 USD). After getting gas in the morning, and lunch, we were running low on pesos again. We tried to exchange more at the gas station this time but their rate was ridiculous. We went to the one small store in town but they didn’t have much in the way of food we needed, so instead we just got a cheap bottle of wine (which ended up being really cheap and really not good).
The next morning, we packed up camp and since we couldn’t find anything open for breakfast, we decided to drive directly to El Chaltén, the starting point for hikes in the Fitz Roy range.
El Chaltén was a bit bigger than the other towns we had driven through. It was clearly a tourist hub, but thanks to it being shoulder season, it didn’t feel that crowded to us. It felt very much like a ski resort, but people were walking around with hiking boots and big backpacks instead of skis and snowboards.
After stopping at the visitor center to get a map of the surrounding trails, we had lunch at the Waffleria. We then drove around town and must have hit all the grocery stores indicated on the map, in the search for food to take with us on our overnight trek. Eventually, we landed in THE store in town. Now, they understood what doing business in a hiking town was all about. They had a huge selection of snacks and dry goods, as well as everything “travel-sized”. From tooth paste to nuts to those little butter rectangles you get in restaurants, they had it all, in easy and light-to-carry format. They also had…cheese and saucisson (!) and at pretty decent price too, so that definitely needed to come up the mountain with us. We also found some really good bread at a panaderia just down the main street.
There were quite a few gear shops in town as well, so we also bought propane for our stove and a good pair of hiking socks for Brice, who until then had slowly but steadily been making holes in his running socks, one pair at a time since the beginning of the trip.
With our supplies in hand, we drove the car to the Laguna de los Tres trail head, on the northern part of town. The idea was to go up to the Laguna de los Tres sendero, then camp at Campo Poinceneau nearby. The next day we would head over to the other side of the valley and up to Laguna Torre, before heading back to town along the Laguna Torre Sendero, for a total of about 35km.
This was the perfect opportunity to do a test run with our packs and see how we would handle hiking with weight on for a day and a half. Since we still had the car, we were able to leave a lot of stuff in the trunk and only packed what we needed for the night.
The trail to Campo Poinceneau was really nice. It was sunny at first and the beginning of the trail, mainly on a ridge, offered really stunning views as we went up. On the other hand, we could see from the village that clouds were pretty thick higher up, covering up the view of Fitz Roy, and unfortunately it didn’t clear while we were going up. We arrived at Campo Poinceneau in about 2 hours, and after setting up the tent, we thought we might go take a look at the Rio Bianco Glacier, about 4km round trip from camp. But clouds were thicker still and rain started to pour so after 500 meters we retreated to our tent and decided to just hang out for the rest of the evening. The weather didn’t improve and we ended up cooking dinner inside. We had a bit of a break from pouring rain after dinner and got to see a very foggy glimpse of the “Tres” from the banks of the river just outside of the campground tree line.
The tent was definitely put to the test that night as the down-pour continued, accompanied by strong gusts of wind. This time there was no shelter to protect us but we were delighted to see that the tent held up incredibly well, with no moisture sneaking in and firmly held down by all the extra cords that we hadn’t bothered using in previous nights when wind wasn’t an issue.
The next morning it seemed the rain had slowed down so we decided to try and hike the 2km up to Laguna de los Tres. After about 1km we had to cross a river. The river was pretty swollen from the previous night’s rain, and it took us a while to figure out a crossing point. We finally noticed an area were rocks had been placed to help in crossing, but the river was quite big and it didn’t seem possible to cross without getting our feet wet – which in this climate, is usually a bad idea.
We could also see that the peaks were completely engulfed in clouds so instead of wasting time and energy getting wet for a very unlikely chance of getting the iconic view, we decided to pack up camp and head out to the other side of the valley, were sky appeared to be clear and blue. The trail connecting the Sendero de los Tres and the Sendero Cerro Torre was a nice 8km hike going from densely forested to some open areas near a couple of lakes. It didn’t actually take long for us to leave the clouds behind and be in the sun. We barely saw anyone on that trail, except for maybe 3 or 4 people going the opposite way.
Eventually we reached the intersection with the Sendero Cerro Torre, at which point we still had 3,5km to hike up to the Laguna. We were rewarded at the top by bright blue sky and a pretty clear view of the peaks behind the lake, with just the right amount of clouds hanging on to the summits to give them a dramatic effect. We hung out there for a little while, then it was time to hike the 9km back down to town.
All together, this was a 24km day, nothing we hadn’t done before, but this was our first time hiking that distance with packs on our back. It was a good test before our 6-day trek in Torres del Payne, and a great opportunity to identify one of the major keys to a successful day of hiking: nutrition. Taking a page from the long-distance trail running book, we realized pretty quick that having enough snacks and being able to refuel calories on a regular basis would be crucial in maintaining energy (and spirit) throughout long days of backpacking. It seemed pretty obvious of course, since in general, we always do take some food with us, no matter where or how long we go hiking for. But just realizing how much more calories we were using by carrying our packs, and how much food we really needed to avoid energy crashes, was a pretty big part of this overnight trek. We got back to town and I was indeed famished. Having gone through our reserve of nuts and bars, Brice saved the day when he found in one of his pockets a pack of Hammer chocolate and hazelnut energy gel. I’m not a huge fan of gels but I have to say this one was pretty tasty (almost like Nutella), and gave me a boost when I started dragging my feet, about 4k from the end.
Since we had gone down a different trail, we ended up on the other side of town, but got to enjoy some really nice panoramas of El Chaltén. We made our way back to the car then drove to our favorite store to stock up on more goodies for the night, including of course, cheese and saucisson and wine.
We then went on the search for a campground. Once again, we avoided any options directly in town, all of them packed and lacking the privacy we wanted. Instead we turned as always to iOverlander and headed about 15km outside of town to a more isolated and quiet campground, with views of the mountains. The road there turned out to be quite scenic as well, with finally some clearer, albeit backlit views of the elusive Fitz Roy peak…
See more photos of our camping spot by click on the gallery below
