Make sure you have read the previous journal entry!
So we spent a lazy day in the big and cozy lounge of the youth hostel of El Chalten. Watching the day-trekkers setting out into the rain and storm just to get to see nothing of the mountains. No time to get bored, though. Many other travelers to discuss matters of previous and future trips with, talk about life, and the weather, of course. It just continued to rain all day and the storm occasionally picked up. The weather forecast was certainly the most discussed topic. It was traveling by Word of mouth from the other end of the village where the ranger station was situated. Although the official weather forecast was predicting terrible weather for the rest of the week, the local ranges were talking about a "pocket" of nice weather which would typically evolve from the current weather pattern. So there was hope. Others would report, that the local trekking agency refused to take customers for tomorrows ice-climbing excursions because of the weather. Not promising, hence. Other rumors had it that the local climbers were getting ready for the next day… When we turned in the weather was still as bad as ever and we did not expect much. Since we would take the 6pm bus back to El Calafate, we would probably have to live with not having seen anything...
At about half past five I happened to open one eye sleepily to see Volker in the bunk bed next to mine waving his hand and pointing out of the window. I was quite tired and felt I could not be bothered - about to turn around and continue sleeping. But Volker kept waving his hand intensly, so I decided to open the second eye and take a look out of the window. A spectacular sunrise was setting the clouds ablaze! No rain and blue skies! So we decided to get up and hit the tracks at about six for an early start. The remaining clouds slowly dissolved while we were walking all the way back to camp Poincenot where we had spent the night in the tent. Cerro Fitz Roy was still covered in clouds, so we decided to first continue to the Glaciar Piedras Blancas, a spectacular ice fall on one of the flanks of the Fitz Roy mountain. After this two-hour excursion, I went up for an hour on the snow-covered slopes toward the Laguna de los Tres, a lookout directly in front of the mountain. Volker had to skip this additional side-trip as he had a little trouble with his knee. The views were spectacular, the clouds had disappeared entirely, and there was almost no wind anymore. After the laguna we took the traverse toward Cerro Torre. On the path we met most of the other travelers we had been talking to the days before. Near Cerro Torre we unfortunately did not have enough time to walk up to the ultimate lookout on the moraine, since we wanted to take a shower before getting on the bus. But the views from the viewpoints farther away were very impressive nevertheless.
What a great day! We were really lucky the weather had changed to dramatically overnight. Hard to believe I had been walking around in just a T-shirt for most of the day where we had been battling against the snow and storm a couple of days before... It sure was a long day, about 10 hours of walking with only a few short brakes, about 35 kilometers, but with constant spectacular views! Dozing off during the four-hour bus ride across the pistes of Patagonia to El Calafate after some beer was a great reward.
The three pictures below show the Glaciar Piedras Blancas, the Cerro Fitz Roy with my sunburned face in front, and the Cerro Torre.
