The weather of the last couple of days hasn’t been welcoming enough to hike and last night it was icy enough to sprinkle the mountains with a new set of snow. Today, it’s all blue skies, so together with an Australian couple and a trio of Israeli girls fresh out of their military service, I set off to see Esmaralda Lagoon.

Once our minibus arrived, the six of us were on our way. But nothing here can be done without at least a little drama… As we exited the city, the minibus was pulled over at a police roadworthy station and because one of our headlamps was not functioning, we were turned back. The driver headed back into town, to a mechanic, where he bought a new bulb and we sat waiting as he replaced it. Then, 30 minutes later, we were off again.

Laguna Esmaralda is on private land and the minibus dropped us at the owner’s place, Refugio Valle Los Lobos – a Siberian Husky breeder – where we paid 10 peso each – $1 Australian – to enter the area.

We headed off past the dog kennels and along a dirt road towards the mountains that held the laguna and the glacier – Glaciar del Albino – that feeds it…

The road was a little muddy, but the worst was yet to come… We passed a pair of beaver dams, although we didn’t see any beavers as they only come out late in the afternoon.

We crossed an arroyo and though a forest before heading out across a peat field where most of our steps were soggy. Thankfully my leather hiking boots do a awesome job keeping out the water. On all sides as we crossed the field were snow capped mountains and a subarctic wind.

The arroyo wound its way across the field and we found the least muddy and wet ground was alongside it where there were plentiful stones to stand on.

The hike itself is only 3 hours return but it’s slow going, as every step has to be made with caution to ensure you don’t sink too deeply in the mud or peat, and you don’t slip off branches that had been laid across said wet patches. Eventually, the arroyo leads to a small waterfall and we climb up the short rocky cliff…

As we breach the top of the cliff we see Laguna Esmaralda below us, tinged blue-green by the million year old minerals flowing down from the glacier. Across the lagoon, the Albino Glacier flowed down the side of the mountain and into the laguna.

The six of us stopped for lunch, but it was a little chilly and after a while the cold began to get to the girls, so we headed back. There was only one guy there when we arrived and he seemed to be acting a little odd – he went for a run around the lagoon and when he got back stood dancing to himself with his headphones on. We joked that he must have eaten one of the mushrooms we’d seen growing in many places across the field.

The return trail was easier to cross as we had a better idea where we were going but it still ended up being a slow process of watching every step. We made it back to the breeder’s place, passing perhaps three dozen other people heading to see the lake. We were glad we went when we did and as we pretty much had it all to ourselves – except for the one strange guy.

Tomorrow I make my final preparations for my trip to Antarctica.

The Trail Wanderer

The Martial Mountain range – Montes Martial – is a small range of mountains behind the city of Ushuaia. The city itself is nestled in the foothills where the mountains meet the Beagle Canal. While not as jagged and tooth-like as others in the area, the mountain ramparts are still spectacular when seen from below. During winter much of the range is likely covered in snow, but as it is late summer there are only small dots of dirty white along the range, in all places except where I’m headed today.

This mass of snow is above the glacier and is where I’ll be walking with a companion from the hostel. Because Ushuaia isn’t a large city we decided to walk from the hostel to the base of the mountains. We work our way through the confusing mass of streets until we cross a bridge that crosses the Arroyo Buena Esperanza – ‘Arroyo’ being spanish for stream – which cuts through the centre of the city to the sea. On the far side begins the road leading up through the short wood covered foothills.

The road winds its way up the side of the foot hills with the occasional large hotel at the side. The initial trail doesn’t follow the winding road, but takes a more direct route with only the last hundred metres or so following the road to its end at a cafe and chair lift. Above us as we walk is the snow field although it’s sometimes covered in a lazy sweeping low cloud.

The Arroyo runs down the side of the mountain beside the wide rocky trail with the chair lift of the other side. The trail is not overly steep, but is rises constantly with the occasional wood covered ditch used as a water overflow during the summer melt.

The chairlift is almost 1,200 metres in length and ends in a tea house. We cross a small bridge below the tea house and stop for lunch on the side of the stream. A couple of hundred more metres above and the trail splits three ways – to the right it leads to the beginning of a ski slope, to the left the top of a jagged peak (we are forbidden to climb without specialised equipment) and straight on to the glacier. This is where I leave my companion and head on alone – she is due elsewhere and heads back down the trail.

The trail continues beside the stream as I climb between the mountains on either side. After another couple of hundred metres, the wide road-sized trail ends and a very thin trail climbs steeply up the mountain. It doesn’t go far before turning to the left and heading out of view.

I climb the trail and it is indeed steep. It’s not a stepped climb, but an intense scree slope worn by many feet. I have to rest a couple of times on my ascent until I reach a line of orange markers denoting where the trail heads to the left and over a ridge. With this hardest part of the climb down, I head over the ridge and a further hundred metres or so to the base of the glacier. The views from here of the canal, the city and the surrounding mountains are spectacular, and the cloudy day has even given way to blue skies for this moment.

The glacier itself is a patch of snow with water running under it, and there are signs forbidding passage beyond a certain point. There were a couple of groups up there and we all ignore the signs and climb a little further to the base of the snow. 50 metres up I sat on a set of rocky shelves, similar to those I climbed in Tasmania and rest after my two and a half hour climb.

Heading down was easier, as you would expect, with the only difficult part the thin, steep scree trail. After 90 minutes I arrived back at the hostel for a welcoming shower.

Next I head for my first overnight hike in Patagonia, Paso de la Oveja – Pass of the Sheep – which follows a long valley behind the back of Montes Martial.

The Lone Trail Wanderer