How to get there:
From Barrancas (on Hwy. 40 north of Tromen) take Hwy. 37 to
Tromen. This road is a pretty good dirt road.
One may also take Hwy. 40 north from Chos Malal, continue on Hwy. 2,
then drive Hwy. 37 in the oppsite direction.
Just north of Tromen, take the small (more rough) road that
leads down to the east side of the laguna, then serves a small house before
climbing gently to location S37.10850, W70.08143, elevation near 2200 meter.
This is parking and where the hike should begin.
Route description:
From the parking, head uphill following various (local) trails.
Your direction of travel should aim for the pretty obvious (big)
gully that may be seen near the horizon
on the (climbers) left side
of the summit. Higher up, as you pass some smaller groups of trees,
the trail becomes more unique and well defined. It is marked with
cairns. Ascending higher will bring you near this quite distinct
gully that stretches more or less straight line uphill. The best trail
(with cairns) mostly stays on the right hand side of this gully.
Higher up, as the terrain gets steeper, loose sand may make the
ascent more difficult. The best route in this upper section may be
to walk in the center of the gully. This part have somewhat larger
(more stable) rocks and thus you avoid the loose sand. Exit this gully
right when you are very close to the top. What remains is to follow
climbers trails that zig-zag up the final slope to reach a short
summit ridge. This ridge has two highpoints about 50 meter apart.
The area with the summit marker, is about 0.5 meter higher.
Comments:
We stayed in a small place (with wifi!) in the town of
Barrancas, after a pretty long drive from Mendoza. In the morning,
we took the main highway forking right from Hwy. 40, just outside
of town. This dirt road is in good shape and we soon turned left
onto the much smaller and slightly rougher road that runs along the
shore of the lake, before turning left near a house and ending shortly
at the trailhead.
We were ready to hike by 0915. The ascent presented no issues, but our
vertical gain did slow down in the upper half. We arrived just below the
small summit cliffs at 1415, so 5 hours up. Somewhat to our surprise,
the wind across the summit ridge was very strong. A conservative estimate
near 30 m/s, this is full storm in Norway, and just below the hurricane
level. Every step needed focus and consentration. We walked to the end of
the ridge, then back. A few photos
and a short summit video.
This was not a place to linger,
we quickly descended the 10 meter or so
to get shelter by the summit cliffs. Here, with close to zero wind, we extended
our summit stay, then finally headed back down around 1445.
The return being much easier in the upper part, with nice sand and scree. We took
a couple of short breaks, the afternoon was just gorgeous. Back at the
car in 3 hours at 1745.
We drove down to Chos Malal, found a reasonable hotel and asked advice
for a good restaurant. Dining at 2100, the typical time in Argentina, we
had a good steak to celebrate our first Ultra of the trip.
