Refugio Frey, AR

  -Originally composed March 22- 
Denis the Canadian, Phil the German and I left town of Bariloche Thursday the 18th to head for Refugio Emilio Frey near the Cerro Catedral ski resort. We had planned to catch a bus around noon, but by the time we got things ready and bought food it was 7pm. This is pretty regular.

The Frey area is well known for amazing rock spires and backcountry skiing. When we finally hit the trail at 8pm it was getting dark and we threw on headlamps to light the way. Around 11pm we saw signs that said “FREY 1HR”. We sat down to have a power-up maté when one of the guys saw a shack built into a rock. 

The shack had a wood burning stove, a small table and a wood floor built to sleep four people. We decided to drop out packs here for the night since we still had to cook and it was getting cold. We could also use the stove to cook our food (gas is wicked expensive in Bariloche), and the place would be heated.   

   We woke up and had campcakes before hiking the last hour up to Refugio Frey. The weather was perfect while we were up there. After setting up my tent I met some guys that were going climbing next to the Refugio and they said I could join them.     

    Phil and I met up with them a little later and got a few routes in before the sun went down. We made a huge pizza after it got dark and drank some of Argentina’s finest wine available (box of Vino Toro, $2 per liter).  

  

 Phil left the next morning for a long day of buses to Santiago. Denis and I walked across the lake and did some bouldering on a massive rock that stood 6ish meters high.  

 We swam and hungout and did some cooking and took it easy.  

 When it got dark the moon was out and was nearly full. I messed around on the GoPro to see what the night capture settings were all about.  

 

Before we crashed for the night Denis had the idea to hike one of the peaks to catch the sunrise the next day. A girl from AZ named Eva said she’d come with and the plan was to be at the common cooking spot at 6:30am. 

We got on trail the next day and hiked about 30 min before any natural light was showing. After another 20 mins of headlight scrambling we reached the top and had a maté before the sun popped up. 

    
    
 
The tallest peak in the back is Torre Principal. Two Florida guys who’ve been biking through Patagonia climbed it the day before and had some awesome pictures that stretched as far west as Cochamo, Volcan Osorno and Cerro Tronador.

Denis and I packed up camp after we down climbed, then left for Bariloche. 

After Bariloche we decided we wanted to WWOOF, so we caught a bus south to El Bolsón. 

Wifi is generally terrible down here and I’m working on composing a few drafts. Next up is “Pictures from Phil the German” and then “WWOOFing and El Bolsón”. See you then.