How to get there:
The well known town Bariloche with frequent flights is located about
3.5 hours (275 km) to the south. The trailhead is a ranger station less than
3 kilometer from the Argentine - Chile border crossing. One may camp here, but
since the park regulations stipulate that one cannot start walking before 0800,
an option is to stay in Junin de los Andes, one hour south near the junction between
Hwy. 40 and Hwy. 23.
The red tape is considerable, in particular if you are not fluent in Spanish. The park
reservation WEB page is https://www.qsistemas.com.ar/lanin/
For contact/reservations for then Dome camp the best approach is likely to
make a first contact by email to info@domoslanin.com.ar and/or a message on
Whatsapp to +5492944341849.
Route description:
From the park office, cross the road and the parking on the opposite side. Follow
a small dirtroad, leave it on a trail that forks right. This is a shortcut, this
trail will merge back with the same dirtroad after a little. Continue along the road
until the trail again (clearly marked) forks right. The trail now crosses an open area, you
will stay left at a trail fork where trail sticks ahead shows that the trail now ascends
a route on top of a moraine. Ascend the moraine,
then follow it as it gently climbs about 300 meter in 1.5 kilometer.
Next, the trail curves right, leaving the moraine while doing an ascending traverse across
the hillside on the right hand side of the moraine that was followed. The following section will
consist of a sequence of zig-zags as your trail ascends more directly up the hill in order
to reach the Dome shelters at South 39.6164, West 71.4805, elevation near 2230 meter.
From the Dome camp, the trail continues uphill. There are several refectors that may help
if starting out in the dark. Otherwise the route is also marked with sticks the entire way to the
summit. You pass a small hut near elevation 2570m,
then traverse (climbers) right for about 150 meter near elevation 2900m,
in order to bypass slightly steeper terrain. Near elevation 3100m, the route
again tends a bit right in order to
AVOID the broad gully that is easily identified as it comes
down from terrain much higher up. This gully (called the Canaleta) has SIGNIFICANT rock
fall danger. Thus, the route climbs the small, but distinct ridge running uphill agt the (climbers)
right hand side of the canaleta. The volcanic rock is pretty dependable and one may find the
support for a right hand touch here and there while advancing directly uphill along this rock
formation.
Finally, above 3500 meter, the trail will continue climbing with some larger turns in order
to reach the final summit ridge.
The summit is located near the end of this short ridge.
The snow summit (now on climbers right)
has melted down and is no longer the highest point,
The track is posted on Peakbagger.
Comments:
This peak has unfortunately, significant levels of "RED TAPE". In particular, it feels like
the Argentine authorities try to make it close to impossible for climbers from other
countries, even more so if you cannot speak and read Spanish.
My first idea to successfully deal with this problem, was to ask my friend Franco for
assistance. Franco is an Argentine mountain guide living in Tucuman, he should (I thought) be
able to organize this in a few minutes. Unfortunately, he failed in several ways, I am still
both confused and very disappointed because no explanation was ever offered. Since Lanin
is located fairly close to Bariloche, my preference would be to do this climb just after
arrival in early January. Franco informed me that this was impossible. I next asked if
he could reserve a slot (for 3 people) near the end of our trip, on January 26th.
This Franco confirmed. I was concerned since he never sent me a confirmation, but he repeated
in writing, that I indeed had a reservation/permit to climb the peak for a party of
3 people on January 26th. As it turned out, on arrival at the park office, this was all
very wrong, the ranger was "mad at Franco" and stated rather unfriendly that I only had a single
permit (my name) for climbing the mountain.
Moreover, as this climb is normally done across 2 days, and since there is a very good
accommodation/shelter at elevation 2230 meter, I had also asked Franco to make a reservation
there for 3 people. This he did not do, he would not even tell me why? As it turned out,
a prior booking here would have been most useful and easy to do for any Argentine. You need
to show that you have such a confirmed reservation, otherwise you will also have to
carry a tent up the hill. Payment for this is straightforward if you are from Argentina, as they
require an Argentina bank transfer. For foreigners, this is very difficult since they
do not accept payments by cash nor credit cards.
Aside from the trouble related to making the necessary reservations, the park regulations are
strict and very buraucratic. They physically want to have you take your gear out of your
backpack to check that the following items are carried up on the mountain:
a) An ice axe
b) Crampons
c) Helmet
d) First aid kit (group gear)
e) VHF radio (group gear)
f) Sleeping bag
g) Stove (group gear)
h) Sunglasses
i) Head lamp
j) Adequate boots and clothing
k) Sleep mat
Incredibly, they do require the ice axe and the crampons even when there IS NO SNOW on the route.
However, this equipment is then left behind at the shelter located at 2230 meter and retrieved
in order to be carried back down when climbers return there after being on the summit.
Just another example where the rules start living a life on their own, completely
detached from reality.
These days many people have more modern communication gear like a Garmin InReach, but this is
not the point. They want you to call in to the ranger while on the mountain and the ranger
insists on using old fashioned VHF equipment.
Michael had agreed to bring 2 VHF radios, when I read some old report on this red tape the
information said that one indeed needed to have 2 radios. We had driven up to the park on
Monday morning from Bariloche. After some more talk to the ranger, she turned quite friendly
and indeed wanted to help.
Since she spoke no English we were indeed lucky that another (not a climber) Argentine tourist
helped us filling in the various forms and translated useful information for us.
A permit for Michael was granted and she tried to help book two slots
up at the Domes. This we succeeded half way, the booking was confirmed, but subject to proof
of payment. How to pay was long an issue since their procedures would not work for us.
Finally, we were promised a reply between 7pm and 9pm, where they would provide a link
to a web page that would accept credit cards. At this point Michael discovered that he had
brought UHF, not VHF radios. Small crisis, fortunately, Michael quickly discovered that
the VHF radios could be rented in the town Junin de los Andes, located one hour away by car.
We drove back there and after asking around, located a man that indeed could rent us
the radios. Since we were back in town, we found a small hotel and a good restaurant to
end the day. No contact was obtained on the Dome payment issue in the promised time
interval.
Driving back to the park the next morning, we were there before 0800. The ranger station
has specified that all climbs must start between 0800 and 1000, thus no early start
is possible. Now, I finally received a message from the Dome people, they informed that
the WEB link would only work for Argentine credit cards, so no real solution, however at
this point we were told that we could pay up at the Dome with 150.000 pesos in cash.
After all this, it was quite a relief to finally start hiking around 0900. The route was
easy to follow and we reached the Dome camp after about 3 hours of walking. There we were
greeted by a very friendly camp manager, Fredrico. He told us that the Dome camp was a
family owned and operated facility. All the domes had been destroyed by high winds in
October 2021. The new construction looked very solid, most likely the camp
will survive a similar storm in the future. The camp has a dedicated kitchen dome
with water and big propane cooking stoves (so really no need to carry that piece either!)
Next door is a dome where people should have their meals. Then there are
several sleeping domes having 2 levels
and typically accommodate about 12 people each. There are also
well organized toilet facilities.
Everybody except us had paid guides. They all planned to start between 0100 and 0230. Michael and
I decided to aim for a 0500 start. We started slightly before this time and made the summit shortly
before 0900, so roughly 4 hours. We spent about 15 minutes
on top also visiting the snow dome summit
that is now lower than the rock summit. Descending back down, trying to find as much scree as possible,
back at the Dome camp around noon. We took about one hour of rest and packing up before a final
descent back to our car.
