Last Full Day in Bariloche

Cerro Catedral

The next day I met back up with the Brits and a seventh person, Jesse. We had intended to head out to the town of Catedral at 11AM via bus, but were delayed by a futbol game. After the Brits got their fill and saw their local team (Manchester City) lose, we caught the bus at 1PM. I was a little peeved by the delay, but I'll admit that things might not have been quite as amazing if we had started our trek at a more reasonable hour.

The trek started easily and it seemed that we would certainly make it to the summit very quickly. That all changed very abruptly, as I received yet another reminder of the burdens that come from traveling in a group. We took constant breaks before we needed them, and were always waiting for whoever was dragging behind. To be fair, as a group everyone was relatively strong, but we only had about 5 hours of daylight to do an estimated 6 hour hike.

When we got farther up the peak, the scenery became incredibly beautiful, almost dreamlike. The camera can't quite capture the diagonal rays splitting through the canopy of the old-growth forest, but the whole area emitted a distinctly pure vibe. We naturally spread out beyond each others' area of vision, and it felt like walking peacefully alone through paradise.

When we met up toward the end of the forest that we realized how far behind some of our group had fallen. We ended up waiting half an hour for Jesse, who had some physical troubles and had to stop a few times on the way. He decided to stay behind in the forest as we headed up toward the summit. Time was short and the path was really steep, but we covered the estimated 2 hour climb in just over an hour. The forest scenery dissipated completely to reveal great varieties of spires and jagged peaks, and everyone suddenly felt the physical toll of the hike. I was the only one that had packed food, and ended up sharing it with the rest of the group, some of whom appeared to be feeling extremely weak.

I had lugged that food all the way up the hill, and losing the extra weight vitalized me as much as eating did. Being the prepared type, I ended up sharing much more of my food and water than I kept for myself. Despite the hunger, I'm always happy to help anyone, so naturally I pretended have had my fill and urged them to eat and drink freely.

We then tackled the last 2 kilometers with a "get it over with" mentality and pushed through the exhaustion. A beautiful spring sat at the top, nestled among a tight ring of jagged peaks. We took a little break and checked out "Refugio Frey," a base camp for truly daring climbers who came to attempt to scale the vertical cliff faces surrounding the spring. They looked truly insane dangling on the edge of oblivion and it certainly took the greater part of a day for them to complete their short but nigh impossible climbs. We were happy to live vicariously through the pictures of the peaks. We also brought Jesse up to the top through an impromptu superimposition.

We rushed down doing a great deal of fun and exciting "fall-running" (using momentum from downhill stretches to propel yourself farther, faster, and with less energy). We met back up with Jesse who ended up napping in the forest where we left him and continued down the hill reunited.

The second time I "saved" one of the Manchester group was when Michael built up too much momentum and lost control while running down a slope. I pretty much just stood below with my arms out, feet braced and fingers crossed. He was easy to stop. I think it was because he was tall and his center of gravity was really high and separated from his feet. He was just happy to not have crashed into the mountain wall.

We reached the bottom just before sunset, but had to wait almost 2 hours for the bus to come take us back. It was cold, and I looked ridiculous running around town trying to find someone that knew the bus schedule.

I pretty much went straight to bed after all that. I left Bariloche the next day.