El Perro Negro's Day to Day Ramblings
The Condor approaching was anything but steady, tossed and jostled by the cliff-face turbulence. She was coming home to find her mate.
With an expert’s grace, she mastered the chaos. She lined up her final approach, adjusted her primary feathers with microscopic precision, and then, folded her wings and dropped like a stone, landing perfectly on a rocky perch just below our vantage point.
Short video of her coming in to land on the cliffs outside El Chalten
Apologies to all my veggie friends for this. I live with a vegetarian and eat almost 95%+ vegetarian food. Love it. But sometimes, especially in Patagonia, you just have to eat a half a sheep.
Our final week here in El Chaltén, Can't believe 4 weeks already. Comfortable here, surrounded by warm, friendly people & a great selection of bars & restaurants. We've been doing lots of stunning trekking routes among some of the most dramatic mountains on the planet.
1 rough week but the weather has been superb. Nothing but t-shirts & shorts lately. Days incredibly long, with light from 4:30 am until 10 pm.
Could easily see myself living here. Be sad to leave. It's been an absolute blast.
Close up images of the summits of Cerro Torrre, Egger and Standhardt. from the Torre valley.
After our failure with photographing the Andean Condor yesterday today we opted for a more static subject. Yes, the magnificent Cerro Torre. I might be biased, but to me this is the finest looking mountain on the planet.
Cerros Torre, Egger & Standhardt mountains. Some close ups to follow.
And guess what ... on the journey back to El Chalten the sky where we were yesterday was full of Condors. Typical eh! 🤣
The day was perfect, sun-drenched, warm, with only a gentle breeze. Below us, El Chalten lay like a miniature model village. Across the horizon, the entire Fitzroy and Torre massifs stood stark against a brilliant blue sky, their snowy caps gleaming.
We paused to watch tiny, heroic figures of rock climbers clinging to the granite. I was a little envious.
Yesterday was to be our "Day of the Condor". Weather perfect. A chance to photograph Condors up close. Guess what? You've guessed it, 6 hours and just two small specks in the sky in the distance.
We had drawn a blank. Our quest had ended not with a majestic flap of wings, but with a quiet sigh.
Nice views anyway 🤣
The guardians at the refuge showed us a recent video of the resident Puma at the campsite. It was on a trunk of a fallen tree close to where we had just camped. The Puma didn't seem at all disturbed by the presence of humans.
Travelling back through the forest it's slightly off putting knowing that a Puma could be on the trail just round the corner. I must admit to being slightly twitchy!
Of course to all my fediverse American friends this is the norm I guess 😃
Stream coming down from Piedra Negra to Refugio Piedra del Fraile
From the pass it was an easy ascent to Laguna Pollone. This is a special place. We sat down, ate some energy bars and just gazed at that awesome, dramatic scene. The reflections of the mountains echoed in the waters of the lake, which still had some morning ice drifting across. All was still. No wind. Such a tranquil moment for us both.
We emerged onto the flat plain of the Rio Electrico valley, through some old terminal moraines, continuing over a hillside to emerge at a small pass overlooking the Rio Pollone.
What a view! Ahead was the white wall of the Cordon Marconi and to the right Gorra Blanca towered over the valley. We could see our previous campsite at La Playita, the other side of the lake.
I looked wistfully at the grassy strip outside the refuge. It was there I had laid, battered, bruised, beaten and snow blind after retreating from Paso Marconi in 2010 (photo). Utterly exhausted we had dumped our overweight packs and stretched out in the warm sunshine on the lovely soft grasses to sleep.
15 years later ... @khusky re-enacted those precious moments 😃
Refugio del Fraile is a old fashioned, and at first sight, a somewhat run down mountain refuge that screams "Old Patagonia". It hasn't changed that much in 19 years. The campsite is in a sheltered wood and there are some large wooden buildings that serve as a toilet block and a store shed. We used to cook in the corrugated iron shacks outside that offered some protection from the rain. The refuge sells beer, wine and mountain hearty meals
Beauty of the Patagonian Forest to Refugio Piedra del Fraile.
The forest is a tangled mass of broken, twisted & torn trees. There are natural open glades though that let the sunlight through. It's beautiful. If you are lucky, we weren't, you just might catch sight of the Huemul deer.
Trails now well maintained & wide, nothing like the narrow, thick & spiky bush that tore at clothing back in 2006
Just back from probably the finest 3 day backpacking trip you could possibly imagine. Mostly just @khusky and I with no others on the trails.
Absolutely whacked. Need some time to recover and process thoughts and images. In the meantime these 4 photos will have to suffice.
Another image of Mt Fitzroy and Cerro Poincenot from yesterday's hike. I don't often do portrait aspects but given the scale of the mountain I think this works.
Heading off now for a 3 night backpacking trip up the Rio Electrico valley. Hopefully, the weather will play ball.
Examples today of lenticular clouds over the Cerro Torre & Fitzroy. They appear to be moving real slow but in fact signal very high winds speeds.
Nice to see the very summit of Cerro Torre itself appearing in one of the images. The W face will be plastered with new snow but the E facing side that we can see here is so steep no snow can accumulate apart from the snow mushrooms adorning the summit slopes.
"I can see the mountains again!" "I can see the mountains again!" "I can see the mountains again!" "I can see the mountains again!"
Braving the Arctic weather conditions, we geared up and left the warm apartment. We made the 300 meters to the bridge over the Rio de las Vueltas before we decided to call it a day and head to the warm and cosy Patagonicus Restaurant for chocolate brownies and a pot of Earl Grey tea.
As we thawed, a single, humbling thought crystallized: Maybe we ain't so tough after all 🤣
Heavy rain here in El Chalten. Also an orange alert for wind with 60-80 kph predicted and gusts of over 100 kph. Wind chill just above freezing. Don't think we'll be going anywhere today.