las aventuras en Argentina: Cerro Catedral and Refugio Frey

For my first full day in Bariloche, I was determined to get some real hiking in. I had been in contact with a local over couchsurfing.com and we planned to go on a 9+ hour hike (it should be 2 days but we were going to try to push it into 1 day) to Jakob Refugio. I waited for 30 minutes at our meeting point and he never showed, so I went to the bus stop at 10am to wait for the next bus and do it on my own (it's a long hike and I didn't want to get stuck when it got dark). As I was waiting for a bus I found Stephen and Ann Marie, an awesome couple from London who were on their year-long honeymoon through Africa and South America. Ann Marie was a pediatrician and Stephen was a lawyer, but both of them quit their jobs to do this excursion. While we were waiting I asked where they were going and if they minded if I joined them. They said they were going to hike to Refugio Frey and of course I was welcome to join! After we loaded onto the bus we met Rachel, a girl from San Francisco who has been volunteering as a physical therapist in Ecuador for the past 4 months. She asked if she could join us and, of course, we welcomed the fourth and final wolf into our wolf pack.

We got off the bus to Catedral at the bottom of a ski hill in a ski-resort area. We opted to take the longer and more difficult "ski slope route" up the mountain, to add a bit of diversity to our trek. Usually hikers take the gondola up and then start the "difficult" part at the top of the peak, but we're just too badass and decided to spend the next 3 hours hiking up black/double black diamond trails (think The Wall at Kirkwood or Heavenly). I was thoroughly exhausted which made reaching the peak that more rewarding. Before even looking at the views I opened up my stash of cheese and crackers and devoured half a block of cheese. I probably should have had breakfast...

The gondola we could have taken but didn't

That's where we're going. Daunting, no?

Just imagine it with snow and it seems a bit easier to do it now

We made it!

View of Bariloche (far right corner) and the Catedral ski resort (see that tiny spot in the center?)

The views were incredible. On one side was a full view of Bariloche and all of the lakes. On the other side was a great view of the Northern Patagonian mountain range and the Nahuel Huapi National Park. We then traversed for the next two hours across the ridge, climbing over boulders and being careful not to trip and fall the 2000 meters straight down the side of the mountain. The trailmarkers were very useful- little red dots spray painted onto rocks every 100 feet or so. About three peaks over, we climbed to the top and found ourselves looking down at Laguna Schmoll, the lake right before Laguna Toncek and Refugio Frey. We then used our awesome mountaineering skills to climb down the ledge and walk along the valley to Refugio Frey.

Time to actually find this Refugio everyone's talking about

Views trekking along the ledge

Follow the red dots! And please don't slip...

We're going up there?!

We made it! Laguna Schmoll from the peak

And now it's time to come back down. I agree, hiking doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

We found Refugio Frey and I was able to refill my empty Nalgene and finish off the rest of the cheese and crackers. We sat for a bit at the Refugio to enjoy the breathtaking views of the mountain range surrounding the lake. We then headed back the "official" 5-6 hour route, which took us about 2.5 hours downhill. I'm very glad we took the unofficial "Frey por el Filo" route up because the views weren't that amazing on the "official" route. The "official" route was also a REALLY long walk- about 11km. We missed the 6:30pm bus back to town by about 15 minutes so we waited in the ski resort parking lot for the 7:45pm bus. Good thing too because there was a side kiosk/restaurant open that sold waffles with dulce de leche and apple strudel with cream. Ann Marie and Rachel got waffles and I ordered the strudel (and asked for dulce de leche... great choice!). I then noticed that they served "vino caliente" (hot wine) and I thought, what the heck? I just hiked/trekked/mountaineered 15 miles, I deserve some wine. It was interesting. Not bad, but very interesting, as if they made it more alcohol by adding hard alcohol. This was good though because it warmed me up and it was starting to get pretty cold. Overall, an incredible day of hiking. I'm extremely sore but can't wait to see where our next hiking adventure will take us tomorrow!