On Thursday we had a full day so we planned to do one of the longest hikes open in the El Chalten winter. The hike was to Laguna Torre which is at the base of the very cool Cerro Torre! The big pointy looking mountain which is apparently one of the hardest mountains to climb in the area.
So we hiked a 22km round trip into see Laguna Torre which was very spectacular! The walk in itself was pretty straight forward, although because being winter, a lot of the track was iced over and so parts were slow going. Matt didn’t slip on ice this time. But at one point as we were walking over a particularly muddy part of the track I heard a noise and turned around to see him sitting on the ground…??!! He was giving me the same look as I was giving him which said “I don’t know why I’m/Your down here/there”… He had jumped onto a log to step over it and it turned out to be VERY slippery… therefore he went straight to the ground again. Very funny, it kept me giggling for about another 1km… 🙂
When we got to the lake we couldn’t actually see Cerro Torre as it was too overcast… but the place was spectacular though and were arrived as a couple were leaving so we had this whole wilderness to ourselves! Was very cool.
We turned around and headed home as we were considering the amount of time the sun would remain. About 1.5 hours into the trip home we came across a girl walking on her own heading to the lake! We told her how far it was and that she wouldn’t have enough daylight (glad she could speak English) so she said she’d have a think and seemed to want us to move on. So we hope she got back alright as it was still another 2 hours back to El Chalten…
Timeframe: Thursday 25th July 2013
Story of climbing Cerro Torre:
Cesare Maestri and his mate Toni Egger claimed to have climbed the mountain in the 1959. However Egger died descending the mountain when he was swept away in an avalanche with all the camera equipment. The camera equipment was never recovered so people disputed that they reached the summit. In 1970 Maestri went up again, this time choosing a different route and using a compressor drill to put bolts into the mountain to get up. A lot of people criticized him for doing this as well. This route though became known as the Compressor Route on the mountain and many people who have ever climbed it have had to use these bolts.
The first FREE ascent of the mountain along the route that Maestri claimed to have climbed was only last year in January 2012.. Very interesting! So did he do it in 1959? or not? hehe.
Regardless, it has proven to be very difficult to climb!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Torre
On another note: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 2nd WAYNE & TRACEY!! for the 25th of July!
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