Day 47 – El Chalten – 22 km walk – Fitz Roy

Woke to wind and rain but decided to go for a walk up to the ‘Tres Lagos’ in the hope of glimpsing Fitz Roy,  should it suddenly clear. Despite the weather the walk was very pretty as we passed through a Tolkeinesque landscape of southern beach woodland and flower filled meadows. Just before the final leg of the walk the weather really took a turn for the worse with stinging graupel, sleet, snow and lowering cloud. We decided to turn around and head back, passing groups of teenagers walking up wearing pumps and fleeces. They seemed unable to concede to the miserable conditions and near the end we stopped to talk to a few who were incredulous that we had turned around. ‘You must wait a few hours and then you might see the mountain’, they said. We said we would come back tomorrow as the weather looked set for the day and advised they might do the same (they had no waterproofs and were wearing pumps). They smiled ( as if to say 'Yeh, Yeh, we don't give up at the first sight of a snow',  and continued up. We went to the nearest Café to warm up! The weather continued to deteriorate and during the evening the temperature dropped and we could see snow falling to low levels on the mountains around the campsite. It was a cold night and for the first time we used all the cold weather gear we had carried for so long. The wind and cold meant a lovely quiet night.

Orchid spp.

Before the snow started.