On the way to Frey

Last Friday we spent the day hiking from Cerro Catedral (a ski resort claiming to be the largest in the southern hemisphere) to a refuge called Rifugio Frey. All up the return trip took 8.5 hours. The ski resort is about half an hour's drive from our house and we were on the track at 8.30 am. The sun had only just risen and the temperature guage on the car said it was zero degrees. For the first half an hour we were walking in grey early morning light and everything was covered in frost. It was other wordly.

Frosticles on a log.

Frosticles on a plant.

Even once the sun was truly up we continued to walk above clouds completing covering the lakes below. The experience of walking above clouds was just as good (if not better) than the lake views.

We had to use this rickety bridge around a portion of the path on a steep slope that was evidently degrading. Only one person at a time the signed warned us.

Leaving the lake, we turned at a right angle and walked up a mountain valley that was largely forrested. Away from the sunlight it was freezing again but we were rewarded with views of a lovely stream running through the valley into the lake below.

Once through the valley we started to ascend very steeply towards the rifugio. Along the way we had great views of the surrounding mountains, other valleys, as well as of the beautifully coloured leaves on the trees above us and on the surrounding slopes.

The rifugio was striking. It is next to a lake that was part frozen and is surrounded by snow capped mountains. You can stay at the rifugio and use it as a base for other day walks.

While having our lunch at the rifugio we started talking to an American lady who turned out to be the Chief Investment Officer at Pennsylvania University. Needless to say she knew all about Vanguard. The world really is too small. Anyway, one should always take advantage of a networking opportunity so I offered her one of our delicious alfajore biscuits (along with my business card), which she accepted, and she took the following wonderful photo of Dale and I.