I woke up early today to beat the heat. Most of my hike was above tree line. The hike started out above a beautiful blue alpine lake, gained 400 meters, than traversed a flat gap and dopped steeply down on the otherside. Heeding the advice of Brian H May, the lone Brit in camp (no relation to Brian May, guitarist for Queen), I took the high traverse across the scree fields rather than losing then gaining a lot of elevation on the normal route. Unfortunately, I missed a cairn and dropped too far down below the route. This forced me to cross some scary gullies and do some heinous bushwhacking. It was hot and I was crabby and sketched out a little. While bushwhacking, the nozzle of my camel back got torn off and I rapidly lost my water supply. I was hot, off course, and limited water. I sat and regrouped. I knew the trail had to be above me, so I just went up and kept going up until I found a cairn. I was so happy to see cairns, that I dutifully added rocks to each one for good measure.
The next unfortunate incidence happened once I joined the normal route near Camapemento Neozealandes ( named for the New Zealander first ascencionists of many peaks in the area). I made a right and headed up valley when camp was less than 5 minutes to the left. Damn! I went another good hour and was near the high mirador before turning back and descending. Oops!
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| Cerro Castillo in early morning light |
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| Laguna something below Cerro Castillo |
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| Cerro Castillo |
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| Shameless self portrait |
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| View from the gap of valle de Rio Ibañez and surrounding peaks |
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| View near Campamento Neozealandes |
When I set camp around 1730, I was the only one there. I decided that a god wash was in order and enjoyed an hour of fly-be-free (translation= naked) time in the meadow near the river. It felt good to clean up after sweating so much. I finished just in time... as others approached camp.
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