Happy Halloween to all at home!

We set off on our a hike a bit later than planned yesterday. We took a bus about 15km out of the city to a little ski town Cerro Catedral around 1pm and started our hike up to the Frey Refugio. It was a beautiful clear day so the first hour of the hike starting up the mountain was in full sun and very hot! It was great once we got into the trees and some shade. The path crossed many waterfalls with cool glacier run off to cool us down.

When we had talked to the tourist info lady in Barioche, she told us since it is off season, hiking up to the Frey and staying for the night should be no problem. The Refugio has about 60 beds and a kitchen for food for the night. Because of this, we didn't bother to make reservations. We were a bit alarmed when 3/4 of the way up the mountain we ran into a big group of hikers on their way to the top.

The last hour of the hike was pretty intense uphill and the last couple hundred meteres were in deep snow! It was so satisfying getting to the refugio and looking at the surrounding peaks, most of which were snow covered. Gorgeous!

Because of the big group of hikers (and their organized tour had reservations already), we were given a place to sleep for the night in the loft of the food shed!! There were mats up there for us to sleep but it was very....rustic.

Also because of the hikers, the kitchen didn't have any extra food for us to buy so luckily we had brought soup to make. By the time we reached the top, we had enough time to make our soup, eat and have some tea and then the sun was gone. It was so nice to walk out under the night sky and see all the stars and mountains around us.

After a somewhat challenging sleep in our little loft, we packed up this morning and hiked back down the mountain. The walk down was much quicker (and easier!) so we ended up back in Bariloche just after noon. We returned to our hostel and then Mark and I spent the afternoon wandering around the city.

The wind must've been coming from the north today because this afternoon the nearby mountains were shrouded in a cloud of ash. By this evening, we couldn't even see the lake. We are hoping that it moves on out by tomorrow although if it doesn't, it may affect our travel plans. We don't have anything definite yet, but we are thinking about heading around the lake towards the Chile border to a small city Villa La Angostura to do some camping and more hiking. But if we're still ash-covered here, chances are it won't be any better there. We'll see...