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→Season 2023/24
==Season 2023/24==
* 2024-Feb-28 to 2024-Mar-2 / 4 days / Hiking / Counter Clockwise / RR / Andrew Beautiful trail. Not too much to add from what others have mentioned, the route is well marked. Views of the southern patagonia icefield are absolutely stunning. We decided to push a bit further and camp at Bahia Hornos, but I would have stayed at Bahia de Los tempanos if I did it again. * 2024-Feb-24 to 2024-Feb-26 / 2.5d / Hiking / Counter Clock / RR and new terrain / Tom Perfect conditions! No clouds, no windDay 1: Crossed rio tunnel almost dry behind the laguna (trail on OSM). Hiked on Glaciar Tunel inferior. It's not that safe as others stated. Following others footstep an think it's safe says a lot of your alpine experience. Walk on the glaciar only if you know what you are doing (I'm a mountain guide and knew enough strong hikers that ended as dead bodies).Be aware of the land slide between the glaciar inferior and the biwak. I told the park auhtorities to close that trail and use the GPT version. It's a matter of time and the trail slides away!No wind on paso viento and a stunning view to the icefield. Not a cloud on a azur sky. I pitched my tent at the small laguna behind laguna Ferrari but before laguna los Esquies. Day 2: Installed a rope on the Huemul downhill and stayed at Bahia Hornos. Day 3: I started before sunrise and was by intention first at the tyrolienne. Bully on the other side, so I just hooked my steel carabiner and pulled myself along the cable. I liked the hike, but hated the littering, I mean "shittering" around the official camps. *2024-Apr-08 to 2024-Apr-10 / 3 days / Hiking / counterclockwise / RR / Joscha Day 1: RR [0.0-21.2] Good trail. Only the last 2 km was hiking on loose scree and took some time. Camp Rio Tunnel at km 21.2 has only spots for about three tents. The wind protection isn't as good as at camp Toro (16.6). The river at km 18.9 was a easy ford (knee high) about 50-100 meter up stream of the zip-line. Day 2: RR [21.2-45.1] Paso de viento (km 24.0) was very icy on top and on the way down. I managed without spikes, but they would have been helpfull. The pass at km 38.5 was snow free. The trail down after the pass is very steep. Would be very hard if snowy or muddy. Camped at -49.475284, -72.943223. Day 3: RR [45.1-64.9] The RR branches off the official Huemul Track at km 46.7. The RR runs a little higher and therefore offers maybe a bit better views. But the official Huemul Track would be the faster option. Rio Tunel was easily fordable (knee high) just under the zipline at km 54.0. *2024-Mar-24 to 2024-Mar-26 / 3 days / Hiking / anticlockwise / RR / Juliet and Martin Day 1 el chalten - Rio Tunel camp The park rangers were closed for strike action. We weren't able to register online either (bad internet connection). We left around 9am. Several people and a group on the first part, but we lost them on our way around the glacier. Magnificent walk between forests, viewpoints and lakes. We arrived for lunch at laguna o toro. Possible bivouac spot with emergency shelter if needed. It's a beautiful spot, but we didn't feel like pitching our tent there. So we decided to head for the Rio Tunel campside. Passing the zipline, in fact the river is probably passable on foot a little above. We recommend that you look at tutorials on how to use the equipment, which we hadn't done, and the rental company gave us bad advice. Fortunately, there was an experienced hiker who helped us. The passage along and on the glacier is complicated. We lost the trail and took a long time to make headway. There are lots of slippery spots (ice), so you have to be careful. Once we'd found our way back, we were able to reach the camp. It's well sheltered from the weather with a few spots (in fact only 3). The place is very windy, so I'd recommend getting there early if it's busy to get a sheltered spot. Magnificent view of the glacier. There are mice, and we saw several in the evening, but we weren't bothered during the night. Difficult to find a place to hang the food so we kept it with us in the tent enclosed and in the middle of the two of us and not at the ends. That's how it was. Several water spots along the way all day (several rivers). Day 2 Rio Tunel camp - Bahia de los tempanosb camp (-49,47994,-7298601) Passage of the paso del viento, which was indeed very windy, but passable. The path is still passable as used. Easy to follow. Magnificent panoramic view of the glacier at the top. You can see that some people have already pitched their tents at the pass, but I wouldn't recommend it because of the strong wind. Beautiful descent to the refuge. Very good, in good condition. Lots of possibilities for pitching tents around the stone walls. Very nice place to sleep. We continued on. Passage over Col Huelmul easier than the previous one. Very windy too, but the wind was in our favor and helped us make our way up. The descent is very complicated indeed, and quite dangerous. Take your time, especially if it's been raining. It takes time. Fortunately, there are ropes to hold on to. We reach the camp just before dark. It's very crowded, but we find a place to pitch our tent. The view of the lake, icebergs and glacier is magnificent. However, we were bothered by mice all night. We had hung our food from the trees, but despite this, they came up to the tent (between the 2 canvas sheets) time and time again. AVOID! It's crowded, there's garbage, mice, a rotting cow carcass... Day 3 Camp Bahia de los tempanos (-49,47994,-7298601) - el chalten Last day of hiking. Very beautiful in the hills, views over the lake. We loved it. Cross country in the hills, very nice to do even if we had to pass a few muddy spots and lost the trail a few times. Once back on the official trail, no more worries. The zipline was easier than on the first day. We didn't have to wait very long, surely 2 people ahead of us. End of the day with an easy trail to el chalten. The last few kilometers are on the road, not very pleasant and uninteresting, but it's not very long. This section is definitely beautiful and diverse. Mice are a real problem on this section. They seem to be present at all the bivouac spots. They're not shy and don't hesitate to come along even if you scare them. If we had to do it all over again, we'd use rat repellents, because hanging up the food doesn't seem to be enough. 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 What an outstanding hike. This is definitely such an incredible way to either begin/end the main route of the GPT. We did it in the classic 4 days which was fairly chill. Day 1 - Pretty straightforward day. Hike starts with a nice climb that takes you eventually into the surrounding forests. Great views of Lago Viedma from the top and a nice lunch spot. We started very late in the day and the sun was BEATING, could recommend and earlier start to avoid this. Don’t forget to check in with rangers before leaving! Quick form you have to fill out. Hang your food at Toro campsite, we saw a few mice running around. Day 2 - Winds were crazy in the valley when we woke up. Many hikers were considering bailing on the hike due to worries of what Paso del viento would hold but the they calmed down around 930-10 and most pushed on. There’s an alternative route across the rivers that funnel into Laguna Tunel o Toro that we thought we’d check out as a few kairns led that way but they were far too strong to cross when we went that way. Ended up having a route find a bit and scramble up an alternative route after this lake, definitely recommend staying as close to route as possible here. Trail opens up again after you make it over. Tyrolean was short, didn’t look like anyone tried to ford the river here but it was definitely doable. Get to tyrolean early if you want to avoid waiting. The glacier route required a bit of route finding as well at points but isn’t anything crazy. Boulders and rocks can be loose at times though. Maybe we got lucky but paso del viento was quiet when we got to the top. Outstanding views! Short walk to camp after the descent from Viento. 8 of us slept in the shelter at paso del viento Camp as winds picked up considerably overnight. Was definitely glad for the protection but there were definitely mice scurrying around. Day 3 - Definitely recommend an earlyish start this day. The climb up to paso Huemul is not as hard as paso del viento but the decent afterwards is just ridiculous. If you have bad knees, it’s more of a controlled fall on some sections. Gravel is extremely loose and it is VERY steep. Thankfully, there are a fair amount of the roots and trees to grab hold up but this was definitely an annoying decent especially at the end of the Day 3. Many tried Bahia de Los témpanos camp but we decided to push on to Bahia de Hornos. An hour later, everyone else showed up at this camp as they said the other one did not have sufficient shelter from wind and was fairly dusty. Hornos ended up being lovely after winds calmed down and sound got lower. Would probably filter water here if possible, lots of cows nearby and water is fairly foggy. Day 4 - Final day was straightforward but definitely longer than expected. Would definitely recommend leaving early to be first at the tyrolean again. Be careful with the safety rope, ours broke halfway while pulling bags across and we had to send a person across without the pulley. Enjoy, this hike rocks! *2023-Jan-15 / 3 day days / Packrafting Hiking / SOBO / RR / Tom Pieper
Not much to add. As the others mentioned a must do! When I started, there were indeed not that many people as weather forecast was not that good for the 'classic' 4 day itinerary. I was fine doing it in 3 days. The bivouack after Glaciar Rio Tunel Inferior only has space for 3 tents. You find additional protected spots 5 minutes beyond at the lake. If you fear glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) there are also some elevated spots there.
==Season 2016/17==
=Resupply and Accommodation=