Piltriquitron
After a fairly strenuous hike on a hot day, we were relaxing over cold artesenal (microbrew) beer at Otto Tipp, when the bar caught on fire. We were the only patrons at about 4pm. In fact, Miguel had opened the place an hour early just for us because we looked so hot and tired standing outside the door. He was very convivial, gave us shotglass samples of all 4 brews before asking for our order, and chatted with us a bit about our trek. Outside some workmen were installing a new roof on the patio, and using a welding torch. Suddenly, the corner behind us began filling with smoke, and we yelled for Miguel. A spark from the torch had lodged in the wall and started a fire, and the workmen didn´t notice because the airflow was pushing all the smoke into the pub. CT handed what was left of our waterbottle to Miguel who squirted it into the crack while yelling through the window at the workmen. The fire was out quickly without the need of the Bombaderos.
The hike had been great. We had a taxi take us to the trailhead just a few km from the hostel, then hiked up to the refugio near the top. Piltriquitron is a huge jagged rock ridge that forms the eastern side of the valley, and the one that fills the view from our window. When we arrived in El Bolson it was covered in snow halfway down from a recent storm, but now after a week of warm weather it showed just patches here and there.
Partway up the mountain, the trail winds through a sculpture park where many different artists have contributed statues in wood to a permanent display. They are all rather large, and range from forest themes like pumas and javilens, to abstract, to fancyfull like a typewriter eraser.
After enjoying the art, we moved on, climbing the steep path to the refugio. There we had the place to ourselves except for the inkeeper. We brought some homemade bread and tea to supplement our picnic, and tho it was sunny, we ate inside out of the wind. Condors are know to blast by, but alas none graced us this trip.
After lunch, and after talking to the innkeeper, I decided to go a little further to a mirador (viewpoint, lookout) about 30 min on. The top of the peak was another 2 hours beyond that, but pretty steep rock and talus. CT decided to stay with the tea and enjoy the view, so I set off at a good clip to see how far I could get in 30 min. I passed the mirador in less than 15 minutes, and was really moving up the steep trail. I was feeling very strong and intense about the effort, when I turned a corner and met a guy on two CRUTCHES coming down. He looked to be about 50, and was with a slightly younger woman who appeared to be a Mupuche - local indigenous person. We smiled and exchanged greetings, and they continued on down. I pressed up to a high saddle, windswept, devoid of vegetation, cold and desolate. I crossed a snowfield, and could see off in the distance another party of hikers coming toward me. I met them after crossing the second snowfield about 100 meters wide. The group turned out to be a very young woman with a baby and 4 other small children under the age of 6 or 7. They had worn cloth coats, one water bottle and one child was carrying a puppy.
The woman asked me in Spanish if I had seen a man with two hiking sticks, and I started to answer no when I realized she was talking about the guy on crutches. With a combination of bad Spanish, gestures, and diagrams in the dust, I told her (I think) that I had seen the man with a woman on the trail close to the refugio going down the mountain. This information seemed to satisfy her, then she asked one last pregunta. "Was the man on crutches walking or sitting down?" Walking on, I assured her. With that information, she smiled, thanked me, gathered the kids and dog, and turned around heading back UP the trail toward the peak!
What was going on I had now idea, but it was time for me to turn around and meet CT. At the refugio I told the inkeeper about the group since part of his job seems to be keeping track of who passes up and down. We had to sign in when we got there, and tell him where we were going when we left. CT said that shortly after I left, the woman in native garb had stopped by, said something about children, and that the inkeeper had started making a bunch of pizzas.
Forturnately, as we left going down, I took one last look back and saw the group come over the edge of the saddle, heading for pizza I guess.
Further down, we passed the parasail launching site. There was a group there with two wings. A guy (apparently the instructor) and a young girl who looked scared spitless were getting ready to take off as a double. The had lots of gear and clothing on, and helmets, but the girl´s hair kept blowing into her face. CT ran up to her and gave her two hair pins. The girl thanked her and said "I'll give them back to you if I live..." We waited for the launch for about half an hour, but the wind wasn´t cooperating and we had a 12 km walk down to town ahead of us so we left. But halfway down we saw them soaring high overhead, then up over the mountain.
Back at the bottom the trail turned to streets, and we were about 2km from the hostel when the truck with the parasailers stopped and offered us a ride. We jumped in the back, and the girl gave CT her hairpins. She gave us her email as well, so we will send her the photo of the bright yellow and red wing high over the jagged peak of Piltriquitron.
The hike had been great. We had a taxi take us to the trailhead just a few km from the hostel, then hiked up to the refugio near the top. Piltriquitron is a huge jagged rock ridge that forms the eastern side of the valley, and the one that fills the view from our window. When we arrived in El Bolson it was covered in snow halfway down from a recent storm, but now after a week of warm weather it showed just patches here and there.
Partway up the mountain, the trail winds through a sculpture park where many different artists have contributed statues in wood to a permanent display. They are all rather large, and range from forest themes like pumas and javilens, to abstract, to fancyfull like a typewriter eraser.
After enjoying the art, we moved on, climbing the steep path to the refugio. There we had the place to ourselves except for the inkeeper. We brought some homemade bread and tea to supplement our picnic, and tho it was sunny, we ate inside out of the wind. Condors are know to blast by, but alas none graced us this trip.
After lunch, and after talking to the innkeeper, I decided to go a little further to a mirador (viewpoint, lookout) about 30 min on. The top of the peak was another 2 hours beyond that, but pretty steep rock and talus. CT decided to stay with the tea and enjoy the view, so I set off at a good clip to see how far I could get in 30 min. I passed the mirador in less than 15 minutes, and was really moving up the steep trail. I was feeling very strong and intense about the effort, when I turned a corner and met a guy on two CRUTCHES coming down. He looked to be about 50, and was with a slightly younger woman who appeared to be a Mupuche - local indigenous person. We smiled and exchanged greetings, and they continued on down. I pressed up to a high saddle, windswept, devoid of vegetation, cold and desolate. I crossed a snowfield, and could see off in the distance another party of hikers coming toward me. I met them after crossing the second snowfield about 100 meters wide. The group turned out to be a very young woman with a baby and 4 other small children under the age of 6 or 7. They had worn cloth coats, one water bottle and one child was carrying a puppy.
The woman asked me in Spanish if I had seen a man with two hiking sticks, and I started to answer no when I realized she was talking about the guy on crutches. With a combination of bad Spanish, gestures, and diagrams in the dust, I told her (I think) that I had seen the man with a woman on the trail close to the refugio going down the mountain. This information seemed to satisfy her, then she asked one last pregunta. "Was the man on crutches walking or sitting down?" Walking on, I assured her. With that information, she smiled, thanked me, gathered the kids and dog, and turned around heading back UP the trail toward the peak!
What was going on I had now idea, but it was time for me to turn around and meet CT. At the refugio I told the inkeeper about the group since part of his job seems to be keeping track of who passes up and down. We had to sign in when we got there, and tell him where we were going when we left. CT said that shortly after I left, the woman in native garb had stopped by, said something about children, and that the inkeeper had started making a bunch of pizzas.
Forturnately, as we left going down, I took one last look back and saw the group come over the edge of the saddle, heading for pizza I guess.
Further down, we passed the parasail launching site. There was a group there with two wings. A guy (apparently the instructor) and a young girl who looked scared spitless were getting ready to take off as a double. The had lots of gear and clothing on, and helmets, but the girl´s hair kept blowing into her face. CT ran up to her and gave her two hair pins. The girl thanked her and said "I'll give them back to you if I live..." We waited for the launch for about half an hour, but the wind wasn´t cooperating and we had a 12 km walk down to town ahead of us so we left. But halfway down we saw them soaring high overhead, then up over the mountain.
Back at the bottom the trail turned to streets, and we were about 2km from the hostel when the truck with the parasailers stopped and offered us a ride. We jumped in the back, and the girl gave CT her hairpins. She gave us her email as well, so we will send her the photo of the bright yellow and red wing high over the jagged peak of Piltriquitron.
posted by Axolotl at 2:28 PM
1 Comments:
What beautiful imagery from that day. And the intertwined stories of the people, it's easy to imagine all of these things as you've written them here.
But what the he** is a typewriter eraser ;)
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