Trekking

Nahuel Huapi National Park

Refugio Frey - the grey building at the end of the lake - where we stayed the first night.
What you can't see in this photo is the climbers that were summiting the big stubby needle.

My legs are sore. My eyes are sore. My mind is sore. The three day trek I did was not a tourist trail, it was a trek, a real trek. It stretched me to my limits. It was fantastic. But now my legs are sore.  

I almost didn’t go. I’d had a few days lounging in Bariloche and was feeling lazy. I’d already done two great classic treks in the last month and figured that the third one would be, relatively, disappointing. Also, after waiting for good weather I only had three days. It hardly seemed worth it. But, mostly because I’d planned to go hiking in Nahuel Huapi National Park, I went.

I got off the bus at the base of the hiking trail with three other people, Aud and Arnaud, a young Belgian couple, and Vanessa, a Quebecois girl. All four of us had been sitting around waiting for a break in the weather and all four of us had the same three day itinerary planned. We started out together, and, by the end of the first day, had agreed to stick together for the duration of the hike. Lucky for me. The guide says that the hike is graded “medium” hardness and the description calls the ascents “easy scrambles”. Well. I’m not sure what scale they are using. Vanessa is, among other things, a mountain climber and Arnaud is a young enough male that he can leap up any bouldery ledge like a mountain goat yet old enough that he stops at all the trickiest spots and is just there pointing out footholds and offering his hand to help you up. Without them I would not have completed the trek. No way. I’m not sure exactly when I would have reached the limit of my comfort zone and turned around but I would not have been able to do it. With them helping me, I did. Just. I was definitely stretched. I found it difficult, scary at times, and oh so empowering to finish. Now, however, my legs are sore from ascending and descending 100’s of metres a day, my eyes are sore from watching so carefully where I was going, and my mind is sore from just concentrating. Who knew that hiking took so much concentration?

Climber on the needle at Frey. 

Aud, Arnaud, and Vanessa

Rocky clamber down to second hut after second pass of the day.

I don’t, unfortunately, have any pics of the tricky bits. I stuffed my camera in my backpack for those and was using every particle of energy making sure that I didn’t slip and die. I have the memories though… and they will just have to do!