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==Season 2023/24==
24-Mar-05 to 2024-Mar-07 / 48 hours / Hiking / SOBO / RR / Tomáš
I did not like El Chaltén and the weather seemed better than later in the week so I immediatelly followed to GPT40. Starting at 17:00, I stopped 3 km from the first official camping Torro, which is normally 16 km far, in three hours of walking. I registered online and did not talk to any parkguards - not sure if they would not try to turn me back this late if they saw me. Fearing mice and being asocial, I did not want to reach the camp. The trail is very clear and easy. At least in this section, there are many places to camp - many trees provide shelter from wind. It was not that windy anyway, just on the final descent to the valley. Met lots of people coming back from Pliegue Tumbado mirador and nobody after the junction.
The next morning surprised me (the only reliable forecast seems to be for heavy rain or cloudless day, anything in between seems to be a hit or miss) by blue sky, so I got awesome views going up the pass. There was a queue at the zipline so I forded 50 m upstream - it was barely below my knees. Met ten people altogether that day. Walked on glacier, as the official PDF recomends. It is not slippery with the rocks. It is fun, there are footsteps to follow going on and off the glacier. I assume it is safe. There is also a trail going in parallel on the rocks (all circuit is trail BTW, not party CC like GPX suggests). Indeed only between the glaciers there is a few tentspots as indicated by OSM (unofficial? - but nobody probably cares). By the time I got to the first pass, clouds obscured Fitz Roy and the mountains across the icefield, which was still breathtaking. The pass had both quite windy spots and windless spots and some flats, so in good weather might be ok for camping, but hard to say. Traversing to the second pass, you actually mostly go through a valley partly (?) formed by ancient morraines, so most of the time, the icefield is hidden. I think there are places for pitching a tent, though not really between water at 35 and the second pass - anyway, the place around refugio is the most shletered. There used to be a campsite right after the second pass, but the PDF says you should not use it. Going further down is indeed very steep. There are now handy ropes attached to trees at places. The trail is badly eroded and slippery, would be indeed annoying when muddy. Darkness fell on me there and I still did not bother with a headlamp, but this is indeed the most demanding part of the whole trail. It is demanding also for GPT standards (the rest of the circui is easy). Once you get down, it is flat and you can camp in many places, which I did.
The next day there were about 15 people, three of which went clockwise, so it is done even if the Park does not like it (it normally has no presence on the trail itself). This time I waited the queue for the zipline to actually try using it. I think the river was fordable there. It was definitely fordable 200-300 metres downstream (there is a diversion), where it widens and branches in the delta. The rest of the trail was uneventful.
It is indeed a nice end to the GPT. I did not expect to finish the Main route (minus 23-31) this year, so yay! The El Viento shop (49.3229571S, 72.8940188W) is on the other side of the town (2 km) to the Park office and charged me for three days even though I finished the circuit in 48 hours - it was 5-6 USD per day. In retrospect, I would not bother with the harness. I met a guy who went without because he could not rent one - I was given the last one they had available and it was too big for me by far. Should the second river prove unfordable, people would probably borrow you theirs, it seems one set is usually carried per group and passed over using the thin rope - at least on the second crossing, the thin rope is there permanently so I am not sure what would the thin rope be for anyway.
I still hated El Chalten (too many tourists, really bad 4g internet [apparently everybody in town shares one connection, unless I was wrongly informed] - if you stay overnight, usually in such situations it starts working well some time after midnight when everybody sleeps -, really pricy produce and very bad meal in one of the restaurants; Villa O'Higgins has a much nicer feel), so I hopped on a bus (3h) to El Calafate at 18h for about 22 USD. It goes also in the morning and around noon. There is also a 130 USD 28h (I think) bus to Bariloche at 14:00 and at 21:00. From El Calafate, there are connections to Ushuaia (this one not sure), Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas (at 3 AM and change in the middle about 40 USD, a bit cheaper if youbhave cash) and Buenos Aires. I don't have my ticket, back yet and flying directly from El Calafate would be very expensive, prices from Punta Arenas were the cheapest. Bye!
2024-Feb-16 / 4 days / Hiking / SOBO / RR / Charlie Gardner