The Chileans had a four-day weekend to celebrate the navy’s glories at sea (not sure if said glories are numerous enough to merit such a long holiday, but we’ll roll with it), so Victor, Catherine, and I extended our break to five days and headed south and east to Bariloche, Argentina for some hiking.

Our hike was a portion of the Nahuel Huapi Traverse, a circuit of up to six days that extends between a series of huts in the mountains behind Bariloche. We hoped to be able to do smaller, three-day variation of the trek. On our first day of hiking, we took a gently climbing trail up through beautiful fall colors and spitting rain and into falling snow and craggy peaks. Refugio Frey was set in a spectacular location, and it’s heated common room was an extremely welcome bonus. We were hoping to spend three days hiking but were told that bad weather could make the path impassable so, when we woke up early the next morning to the sound of gust of wind smashing rain against the window, we opted to sleep for another four hours. The middle day passed in a blur of endless card games and eavesdropping on the development of the relationship between a soon-to-be ex-couple sharing the hut with us.

The third day, we had better luck with the weather and, emerging from the hut, we got our first clear view of the panorama surrounding us:

View of Refugio Frey

As we started to climb, the views just kept getting better and better:

Climbing out of the valley above Frey

Catherine and Victor showing a bit of the infamous Bariloche rage

Looking over part of Lake Nahuel Huapi and Cerro Catedral ski center

We hiked up out of the valley and then traversed below a long ridge line before crossing over and dipping down into the Cerro Catedral ski center above Bariloche. We hiked down through the ski resort (a place I’d definitely like to visit in the winter, if I get the chance) and caught a bus at the base back to town. The weather was pretty chilly — the equivalent of hiking in November back at home — but the views and the company made for an amazing trip.

For more pictures from the trip, click here.