We awoke early and after a quick breakfast we headed off with Miguel, our guide, and only two other guests – a couple from San Diego – who also had the guts to sign up for Ferrier - the difficult hike, day 1, morning 1. We found out soon along the hike that both of them are actually quite fit, marathoner/equestrians. Yet, somehow, GG and I kept up the pace. The first part of the hike was steep and rocky and afforded us amazing views of the icebergs that broke off the gray glacier.
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| yes - those are icebergs - just the tips... |
We stopped at a few points along the way to refuel with water, granola, and chocolate.
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| Fueling up... |
We continued to ascend…380 M – time to take a breath…
600M! Just a reminder – don’t smoke. At this point, if you do, your lungs might actually just give up.
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| Health tip or just looking to not burn down the mountain? |
Then, it got very interesting. After a relatively dry and consistently vegetated terrain, we entered a forest on the top of the mountain. Lush green trees, shade, and snow. A lot of it. And lots of wind. It was challenging, and our hearts were definitely pumping, but we felt great along the way to the top.
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| a dusting of snow here |
We got to the peak and could see everything from the grey glacier across to the mountains. It was hard to relish the moment as the wind was whipping us like crazy so we didn’t stay too long!
Our one quick shot before getting blown away!
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| Miguel was an amazing guide; not a great photographer. |
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| Our feet got us all the way up there. |
The descent, although less taxing aerobically, took it’s toll on our muscles. Well, mostly on mine. I took about 3 solid diggers en route down, mostly loosing traction in the wet parts. I’d like to say everyone found it challenging, but I was the only one whose rear end looked like this:
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| war wounds |
We did make it, 3 hours later, after ascending and descending about 700 M over about 7KM distance. We felt tired, but great, riding high!
We balanced that excursion with an easy horseback ride. My first ever on a horse (I’m not going to count pony rides in third grade). The gauchos led us along the trail in a snout to tail walk and I survived without a scratch. I think GG was proud of me.
Here I am in action (I was definitely not skilled enough to ride and snap a photo of GG).
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| Hanging on for dear life. |
I'm so disappointed that the video tour of the room is not working yet! Dying to see the place!! And, I dig the non GG outfit, you look quite outward bound tough guy Pedro (what is your code name here)?!
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