Monday, November 30, 2009

Vallecitos



On Monday November 9th we wanted to get to Vallecitos, as Pedro´s friend Mono had told us that there is good hiking around there.  Because of the high altitude and "easy" access to several different peaks, a lot of mountaineers train there before climbing Aconcagua.  As there is no public transport we had to pay $100 pesos (around $25) to get picked up.  No wonder.  Vallecitos is around 12km up a winding dirt road, and is composed of five refugios (lodges) and a small ski park.  At 2800 meters (9200 feet), I´m amazed that anyone is able to make it up there during the winter.


On Monday and Tuesday nights we stayed at the Refugio San Bernardo.  It is a cool swiss chalet looking kind of building to which the proprietors are adding additional dorm rooms, slowly but surely.  We payed $45 pesos ($12ish USD) each for our bed, and $35pesos for dinner at night.  Since it was still a week or two before the beginning of high season in mid november, there were only 2-4 others staying at the same time as us, so we had a private room.


When we arrived in Vallecitos we were a bit dizzy from the altitude, and the wind was gusting 100kmph, so we only took a brief walk before retreating back to the refugio fireplace.  The picture to the left shows how the wind was blowing the snow off of the nearby peaks.


On Tuesday we ventured out to conquer a couple of the few non-threatening looking peaks nearby.  We summitted Cerro Andresito (3092m, 10,144ft) by taking an ill-advised path up a scree field.  It wasn´t actually too bad (not too loose), but Pedro was not happy and wanted to throw me off the mountain for forcing him to continue on to the next peak rather than heading back.  But it was a fairly gentle walk up a ridgeline to Cerro Arenales (3380m, 11,090ft).

From Cerro Arenales there were great views of Potrerillos in the valley below and snow-capped Andean peaks of the Cordon de Plata behind us.  We had fairly good weather, the wind had died down to gentle harrassment and luckily the snow that was falling on the mountains behind us never arrived to where we were hiking.

On Wednesday we were ready for an overnighter in the great outdoors.  The wind was still the iciest that I´ve ever encountered, but at least in the pauses we could appreciate the burning hot rays of sun.  We hiked around 1.5 or 2 km to a hanging valley called Las Veguitas (10,600 ft) about 400meters above Vallecitos.  Even though we had dumped a fair amount of weight from our packs at the refugio, it was still a very tiring slog uphill that took around an hour and 45 minutes.  We ate lunch, pitched our tent and then I crankily took a nap for an hour.  In the afternoon around 4pm we decided to hike up to another camping spot 2km further up the trail at Piedra Grande (11,650ft).  Much easier without our packs but still tiring.  We considered continuing on to camp Salto de Agua at 4300m the next day, but on hearing that there was no water and just a desolate morraine we changed plans and decided to head back towards Mendoza city.

More pictures of Vallecitos:

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