Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Under normal circumstances, an intervals session in a car park sounds like it's the stuff of last resorts. It certainly doesn't sound like a likely scene to what will probably go down as one of my most memorable runs of the year (caveat: there are likely to be numerous opportunities for its displacement in the coming fortnight).

I'd come to the car park of the national park visitor centre on the southern edge of El Chalten for a couple of reasons; it had some chance of being a bit sheltered from the wind, and being a little out of town it was also likely to be out of the range of stray dogs, which I'd heard (inaccurately as it turned out) were a real issue here. What I didn't know in advance was that it was a location which, on a morning such as this, offered the most stunning views of one of the world's more stunning mountains, Cerro Fitz Roy - certainly something to savour during the recovery periods.

It was certainly an inspiring setting and I was reasonably inspired, running a much better session than this time last week (admittedly not the highest of bars to clear). It helped that the loop I was doing was such that the downhill half was upwind and the uphill half downwind - the reverse might have made for a tough 30 seconds out of 60.

Warm-up and down, going from one end of El Chalten to the other and checking out what's here. It's a somewhat oddball place which is essentially here to support one thing only - trekking (with a bit of climbing and mountain-biking on the side). You don't come here unless you're prepared to do some reasonably serious walking - even the shortest worthwhile walk is around 6km with some solid climbing. At this time of year it's definitely spot-the-local (probably a bit different during the January holidays), with English being heard around the place at least as often as Spanish (and German making regular appearances too).

(Actually, the town's original purpose wasn't tourism - it was built in a hurry in 1985 because, in an era when relations between the countries were tenser than they are now, Argentina wanted to forestall any possible Chilean claim to the land).

Walking was what I did with much of the rest of the day (once I'd tried to sort out a few other things, of which more below). There are overnight trips from here but most of what's worth doing is doable as long day walks (unlike Torres del Paine). Today's was to Laguna Torre and return, about 20km, with a solid climb in the first couple of kilometres but fairly flat thereafter with just a few ups and downs. (You can hide a lot in 50-metre contours - even Cerro Torre, one of the world's most difficult technical mountaineering challenges, looks like a steepish knoll at that interval).

The main objective of this walk is views of Cerro Torre and the remainder of that range. I didn't quite get a complete view of Cerro Torre as bits of its peak came in and out of cloud, but that was only a minor disappointment because there was plenty of other scenery to be stunned by. Laguna Torre, at the end, is a glacial lake (I suspect of very recent vintage in geological terms), complete with ice floes from the glacier feeding it at the other end piling up against the lake's eastern shore. A steady stream of people without it feeling overcrowded. Walking times here bear a bit more resemblance to reality than they sometimes do in Australian national parks, but something advertised as 6-7 hours was completed in a bit under 5 without having to push too hard. The weather was a pleasant surprise - the howling winds of the valley were blocked by the Fitz Roy range once up on the walk, and only at the lake were they even moderate.

There weren't as many photo stops on the way back - partly because I'd already got a lot of good ones, and partly because cloud was beginning to descend over the higher peaks. (You'll have to wait a few days for the photos - bandwidth here is too poor to support anything much beyond AP, which may also explain things if you're waiting for me to respond to an e-mail - but if you feel like getting a preview, I'm sure there are plenty of online images of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre).

Tomorrow's plan, if the weather is OK (it's not going to be worth doing all of it if there are no views), is a 24km out-and-back to the northwest.

And I still haven't succeeded in voting. I did find the El Chalten post office (or rather, what looked like an ordinary house with a post box out the front and a 'Correo Argentina' sign on the wall), but there was no indication of what hours, if any, postal services are provided from the premises - it certainly wasn't on any of the three occasions I went past today. El Calafete on Thursday afternoon is looking like a better prospect (and it would probably still get there as quickly or more quickly, given that El Calafete has direct flights to Buenos Aires).

C • El Calafete 1