So we head back into the mountains for one last adventure before leaving. We left El Chalten in the midst of an epic weather window...12 days I heard. It wasn't easy leaving, but we knew if we stayed that we wouldn't get the chance to check out Los Aranales which came highly recommended from everyone who had been there.
Turns out that we fully got the cultural experience that we had been craving. Where to begin?
We purchased a guide book from a 'gear' type shop. We asked them how to get there. Some people sounded like they somewhat knew, but a series of translations and phone calls would reveal spotty information. So we dove in head first. We got on a bus to Tunuyan the next day, packs full for five days of climbing and camping. We had to hire a driver to Manzanos Historicos (something about some really old apple tree where the freedom of Argentina was announced...story got a little lost in translation.) once we were there, we were to ask around for the ex rock star who owns the only truck in the town. He would drive us the rest of the way up a 4wd road.
He was in the mountains for an undecided amount of town. Great. No phones. Now we're really in it. It was 6:30pm by this time so walking the 13+ km up the road to the Refugio was out of the question. Except for a gaucho, storefront owners and a couple of rasta-gypsie type locals, we were alone. Sitting underneath the 50ft Jesus on the cross, which was also the bus stop on the weekend, we were really at a loss.
Just then a kid in a van drove by and offered us a ride. Yes!
We got up there, set up our camp and proceeded to kick it. The refugio was incredibly rustic here. Leaky, one window, no kitchen, up-kept by visitors and we hang the food from hooks suspended from the ceiling so the overstuffed mice didn't eat it. The cows and horses liked to hang out up there too and there was an incident of a cow eating a bunch of food suspended from a bolt on the rock. Our awesome friends from Portland (mike and Aileen) were there, knowingly. Besides them, just a few Argentines..the locals, and a few Brazilians. There was a ton of rocks here. Holy crap. Again as with the rest of Argentina, the approaches are bigger than they look. Once up at the base of these formations...wowee! The rocks are hott!
Perfect quality granite. Again. Splitter as cuss. Sticky. Very inviting. It is spectacular climbing. Most formations are 300-400m tall, so not too big in comparison to other places we've been, but the quality trumps it. The views are also stellar. Right in the heart of the Andes. Quite spectacular.
We climbed pretty hard for four days. The weather was pretty much perfect everyday. Apparently it rained for like two weeks before we got there and the day we left was a horrendous thunderstorm (also really uncommon). So we kinda nailed that one, blindly. It was absolutely meant to be.
On our way out, we opted to walk the 13+km to H.M. We awoke that morning to a cow pooping next to our tent, turns out somebody wasn't actually throwing mud at our tent at 8am. We sold a bunch of gear to super grateful climbers, said our goodbyes and took off. Just as we left e Refugio, the sheets of rain hail and thunder began. So with heads down and spirits high from all the wonderful plotters we jammed our digits and limbs into, we made the trek. We passed some gauchos in action and hundreds of Argentines having their raging Sunday asado/day camp family parties.
We sat in the town and observed the locals celebrating life for quite a while before reporting to giant Jesus for our bus ride back to Mendoza. 12 hours after we left the Refugio we were eating at our favorite restaurant in Mendoza, starting our three days of chillaxin.
What a whirlwind!
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