We met a nice Israeli couple (Michal and Erez), also aged 30+, who were in touch with a second Israeli couple (Nataly and Israel). Both couple were about to rent a van with a driver to ride the Carretera Austral, and were looking for a third couple. We decided to join them, however, the van was only available a couple of days later. So we decided to do something productive with our time, and headed to El Chalten.
This small and cute town is a base for trekkers and mountaineers (mountain climbers), and is located in the national park of glaciers called ¨Parque Nacional los Glaciares¨. Among others, this park has the biggest ice cap in the world after the polar ones, and the Perito Moreno is also in it.
We arrievd at our hostel at about 11:20. At 12:00 we have already been packed and walking towards a local trek to Laguna De los Tres. It was going to be just another trek, however, two facts made it one of the most significant activities we´ve done so far:
1. The mountain is the holy grail of mountaineers. No, not the himalayan peaks. The everest summit, for example, is stepped on up to a hundred times a day. The Fitz Roy summit is reached only about once a year. It´s a monster, who has claimed many lives.
2. The trek ends with a very steep climb of 450 meters, which should be twice as difficult as the (unfinished) Torres climb.
After walking for about 4 hours we arrived at camp Poincenot, named after one of the first explorers to climb this mountain. From this point on, it´s just sweat and blood. Erez and Michal decided to head back to town, as it was becoming too late to climb the hill. However, Jenis and I, in a blink of an eye, decided to ¨just do it¨.
I was afraid. I´ve known fears in my life, but this one was different. It was the same fear I had of climbing the Torres mountain. I´ve been in good shape in the late 1990´s, I´ve ran half a marathon and was thin and muscular. However, for the past 10 years or so, I have been losing fitness and gaining fat. I´ve reached rock bottom about 6 months ago, and decided to get in shape. And so I´ve been working out for the past 6 monhts, and have come to some better level of fitness.
However, I had no idea where my limits are. What my body is capable of. I was afraid that at some point in the middle of the way I won´t be able to climb up any more.. nor to climb down.
At the age of 33 I overcame this fear and reached the top with Jenis. We´ve reached the closes possible point to Fitz Roy without climbing it, with a beautiful crystal lake and still glaciers. The view was magnificent, but the adventure and the achievement was even more.
The photos below may start depicting the experience, but do me a favor and multiply everything it makes you feel 20 times more.
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