Bad Weather

I traveled from Puerto Natales to El Chalten by bus. El chalten is a small town in Argentina next to a playground of mountains and glaciers.

However, I've fallen into a patch of bad weather. Yesterday I hiked to what was supposed to be a gorgeous viewpoint that was actually just a mass of clouds. The winds are incredibly strong, and if rained on and off the whole time. Today, when the weather looked the same, I holed up in the hostel all day with a couple of girls from New Zealand and played poker.

During a brief period when the rain stopped we walked to a nearby waterfall, which was beautiful, but we're all disappointed about the lack of visibility. I'd walk in the wind or the rain, but what's the point if the clouds are blocking the view? I feel bad because this was my other big camping and outdoor activity site, and it's fast turning into a series of rainy days.

There's three New Zealanders I've fallen in with here in Chalten, two girls, Chrissie and Caz, who've been very kind and welcoming to me, and Mark, and absent minded PhD student here who is a very serious backpacker. Today, he insisted he was going to camp despite the weather. He walked back in the hostel at a 10:30 pm looking like a drowned rat.

"I could've camped, it was still a fun day, " he protested.

According to the weather forecast, I will only have one day of good weather here in chalten. I could either base hike mount Fitz Roy, or go ice climbing. I'm very torn.

I ended up base hiking Fitz Roy, which was beautiful. I still didn't get to see the entire mountain but it was the best day all week. The next day was again terribly windy and rainy, so I beat a bunch of aussies at Risk and watched game of thrones.

Today I took a chance and tried to go ice climbing, but they canceled the tour due to more bad weather. It's frustrating because I doubled down on El Chalten when other things fell through, and the weather has just been completely incapacitating. It's gone beyond cloudy, it's foggy. The winds are hurricane level winds. The rain is a constant dull cold sprinkle that becomes icy and sharp in the wind. Every day the locals say it will be better but it's just worse.

Tonight I leave and I couldn't be happier to be leaving bleak El chalten.Read more