El Chaltén

Located inside the northern part of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, El Chaltén is the ¨Trekking Capital of the Nation.¨ The town itself is only 24 years old, with a population of 600, and is dedicated to the swarm of people that come to spend their summer hiking and climbing in an adventurer´s paradise.

Haukur, Pétur, and myself are not what you would call ambitious travelers. We like to find nice spots and spend our days relaxing, doing stupid things, and have a good time with minimal effort. We were the only idiots in El Chaltén. Scarlett, however, was in heaven with all the extremely active people that devoured the trials by the day.

We did do some work. We hiked to Lago Torre, and spent two days there at a campsite at the base of a glacier. Above this glacier is the 3000 meter high spine of Cerro Torre, one of the most difficult climbs in the world. The campsite consisted of Scarlett, us, and 100 world class climers that spend whole summers there waiting for clear weather to conquer the peak. It´s a two day climb and they have to pass one night on the side of the rock face, thousands of feet in the air on a two foot ledge, to reach the top.

To the frustration of Scarlett´s ceaseless energy, we had no desire to hike to other sites and she left us on the second day. My Nordic teammates wanted to stay so they could jump off the glacier into the lake.

I watched on as they debated the safety of a 25 meter drop into shock-inducing water. To my relief, I was spared the work of having to hike back to town for a med-evac team. I will give them credit for the 15 second swim they took in the lake to make up for it. Though, the cold did make them scream like little girls.

Back in town there was an annual bouldering festival and the climbing junkies came out in multitudes. There was a slack line competition, reggae bands, and marijuana in the air. Somewhere along the line the climbing and hippie communities had melded into one. It was the first night on our trip that we got drunk and, stumbling back to our tents, we passed out while staring at the stars.