Bariloche – Cerro Catedral

After asking around in Bariloche, I found a three day walk between mountain huts (refugios) that could be done without a guide and so I set off with the big rucksack for the first time, loaded up with sleeping bag, clothes and food for 3 days of picnic lunches…

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The first day was relatively easy (just as well, as by the time I bought food, worked out where the bus went from, and left my details with the park office half the day was gone). I started by the lake shore and headed up towards Refugio Frey …

… which sits on the edge of a laguna, surrounded by the ‘cathedral’ rock formations

The next day, the distance on the map looked similar, but they had told me back at the park office to allow 8 hours – that should have rung some alarm bells, but I didn’t really think about it too much… The day started with a scramble over the rocks and views back to the Refugio

Before finding a second smaller laguna at the top

So the scramble up with the big backpack had been a little bit of a challenge, but not too bad, but then came the downhill section

First of all down here

and then down a long section of scree where the red way mark dots, and any idea of where the path actually was pretty much disappeared … And just when I thought the worst was over, back to big rocks, with some small loose ones thrown in to make it even more difficult.

After a restful valley section it was back to scree slope, but heading up hill this time.

As I reached the top and took in the views, I realised that, you guessed it, the Refugio was down in the next valley

Not nearly so many people had continued on to here, but it was worth it in the end. After a tough day there was hot food and a place to sleep, and the knowledge that the final day was all downhill back to Bariloche.