Hiking Cathedral Peaks

We started the day with a new guide, JJ (Juan Jose), and a driver who took us to the Bariloche ski resort. There we took a gondola, then a chairlift up to the trailhead. There’s no snow here this time of year, especially since they had a severe drought winter.

After admiring the view of the surrounding mountains and lake below, we set off uphill toward the craggy ridge. Darryl was in his element on the ridge, where all his Altadena rock climbing/scrambling came back to him. The rest of us found it terrifyingly exhilarating. There wasn’t much danger of falling (too far down at least!).

The ridge traverse took about an hour and a half. After that, we found a nice lunch spot with a view (everywhere had a view!). However, after lunch, we still had about 7 more hours of hiking ahead of us! It was a long, tiring day—11 miles of mostly downhill hiking. The water was so clean we could fill our water bottles from the lakes and streams—no human habitation up there, and not really any wildlife either. All of the varied views were worth the hike!Read more