South America

The Mirador de los Cóndores and the Mirador de las Águilas (the Condor and Eagle viewpoints) are two of the three relatively short hikes around El Chaltén in Argentina (the 3rd one is out to the Chorillo del Salto).  Most travelers to the region only stay a couple of days and so tend to do […]

Despite low cloud hiding the tops of the mountains, dawn over the Bahía de los Témpanos was a celebration of this beautiful area.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t linger to watch it fully unfold, as we had to be at our pick-up point by 2:30pm, and we still had a 15km trail in front of us.  So

We awoke to what we had been dreading the whole trek … rain!  As we huddled in the Refugio Paso del Viento for breakfast, Juan tried to cheer us with the comment that “now you’ve experienced the full gamut of Summer weather in Patagonia“.  But we were less than enthusiastic when we had to leave

After 5 days of strenuous effort, today was our “rest” day.  That’s not to say that we stayed put and did nothing.  Not at all!  But the distance to the next campsite was not far, the wind was less (though still quite strong), and the promise of a food re-supply sustained us. Our route today

Juan woke us at 7am to discover that the clouds had not disappeared and the winds had not abated overnight.  If anything, the wind was stronger than the day before!   This meant that we really had to focus as we trekked across the ankle-turning surface of the Icefield.  I mentioned before that glacier hiking requires

The weather forecast over dinner last night predicted clear skies and little-to-no wind for our first day hiking down the Southern Patagonian Icefield to the Circo de los Altares campsite. Or not… The day didn’t start out too bad to be honest, but within an hour, the clouds had completely obscured the mountains and the wind

Our Day 3 of the Southern Patagonian Icefield Expedition – the climb to the summit of Gorra Blanca (White Hat) – doesn’t actually exist in any of the information made available by Serac Expeditions or Swoop Patagonia.  Due to the unpredictable nature of Patagonian weather, the expedition has extra days built into the schedule, and this summit

The trip description from Serac Expeditions for the Southern Patagonian Icefield Trek says this about Day 2: …we trek up the glacier until nearing the Marconi pass – entrance to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.  This will surely be the Expedition’s toughest day. This is what had been fueling my fears for months! We awoke to rain and

I slept surprisingly well despite my nervousness about the trek, and was at the office of Serac Expeditions just before 8am.  There we added 1/2 of a tent (the tents were shared) and our specialised equipment for the Southern Patagonian Icefield Expedition (crampons and harness) to our packs, as well as food for the next 6 days.