Walking uphill horizontally

6th Feb, El Chalten.

Wow, sun on the tent this morning to wake up to and a lull in the wind for at least 30mins. The sun continued throughout most of the day, although the wind soon built back up to it's normal ferocity. Our plans changed again with the improved weather as we decided to stay on in El Chalten and get out into the mountains for a walk. We knew that it possibly meant that we'd miss out on nice weather for cycling out of here, but neither of us wanted to miss a good days hiking after waiting out the wind and rain for so long.

There was a choice of a few day walks that the really helpful tourist office gave us and we decided to walk up to 'Lomo del Pliegue Tumbada' in the hope that we could see Mt Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, the 2 largest mountains in the area, often hidden in the clouds.

It soon became apparent that we weren't going to see Cerro Torre, notorious for remaining hidden in the clouds the majority of the time, but we were soon gaining great views of Mt Fitz Roy from a different angle than that we'd seen it before. As we ascended, we were also soon walking at a different angle than we'd walked at before as we were bent double fighting ever increasing westerly winds! The views were definitely worth it, although we didn´t hang around long at the summit, just enough time to admire the view and get a couple of photos. Then it was a quick turn around, literally, backs to the wind, and double speed back to the shelter of the woods at a lower altitude.
This evening we decided yet again to treat ourselves to a meal out instead of cooking in the freezing cold semi- shelter provided at the campsite. Not quite our usual budget but sharing a huge steak and salad was certainly good value by British standards.

Gareth carving up...