Paso de las Nubes – Vale la Pena! | Backpacking South America

Yes, crossed the pass of the clouds (Paso de las Nubes). It’s a two-day hike, but wasn’t quite as simple as our guide book made it seem (our packs were also a bit heavier than they needed to be…). As we prepared for the hike, we asked about the condition of the trail, and everybody told us, there is some water – but it wasn’t until we reached the ranger’s office at the trailhead, that we heard we were going to have to go through shin-deep water. We were both concerned, but figured what’s a little water going to do?

Day One

The trail map said the first day should take 8 hours. We headed out despite a few clouds accumulating on the horizon. We found ourselves some good bamboo walking sticks and kept trekking on. We were making great time and reached the first campground in 2.5 hours, much sooner than the map said (4 hours).

At the campground, we had to ford a river that turned out to be knee deep. The current was very strong and our backpacks had some minds of their own. I changed my shoes in for my flip-flops and crossed first, dropped my pack and went to the middle of the river to help Carra across. Carra’s pack is a bit top-heavy and she felt its weight being thrown around a bit.

Fortunately, we survived the crossing with no Oregon Trail type consequences (“Ox drowned in the river” or “Wagon tipped and Janie drowned”). On the other side, while fighting the horseflies, we put our shoes back on, had a quick snack and felt good that we had overcome the water obstacle with no problems.

We put our packs on and were back on the trail. The next part was the ascent to the pass with a recommended trail time of 3.5 hours. After no more than 10 minutes, we reached the true water obstacle – a swamp extending about 300 meters. Initially, we tried to cross without getting our socks and shoes soaked. That meant finding the high spots, using rocks and logs to get across. After a few missteps, our best intentions were thrown out and we focused on getting across in the quickest manner possible – and running from the flies!

We trudged on, socks and shoes soaked, up the pass. We kept going, getting closer to the clouds. We reached the summit, almost 2 hours ahead of schedule, tired and elated. As we crossed over the pass, we pulled out our camera to snap a photo of the glacier and valley below, only to find that our camera was broken – the lens wouldn’t come out. Our new camera, less than a month old. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

The map said we were only an hour away from our camp. With our spirits high and legs a bit tired, we started the descent to camp. Unfortunately, the descent was significantly steeper than the ascent, and with the extra weight we were carrying (too much food and a week’s worth of clothes), we were forced to slow down a lot in order to prevent injuries to our knees and ankles.

After a death-defying river crossing (3 logs and no railing 10 feet over a raging creek that fell over a 30 foot cliff – Carra: “I’ll admit, I crawled and Jared carried my pack – ‘my hero’”) and near vertical descent of a rock face, we arrived at camp 8 hours after we started, in considerable pain and ready to take off our packs.

We set up camp and had a snack riverside, watching Glacier Frias crack and send snow down the cliff face and trying to determine how many waterfalls were coming off the face (we decided there were at least 20). We slept like champs that night. Between the sound of the river and the occasional thunder of the glacier sending another chunk of ice and snow over the edge, we couldn’t have imagined a more perfect setting. It is a shame we had reservations to meet back in Bariloche – a full day in the camp to enjoy the location would have been much more suitable.

Day 2

We got up as early as we could (9am), prepared breakfast and took down camp and were on the trail shortly after 11. The boat was scheduled to leave at 4pm and the map recommended a 5 hour hike out. So, as long as we kept up, we should be fine. The previous night, in camp, we met a couple from Uruguay, Javier and Maria, who would be following us out and they had a guide.

Shortly after we started, the trail took a deceiving turn at a cluster of fallen trees. We weren’t sure of the path, so after some exploring, we decided to wait for the group to catch up and we would follow them. So, we lost about 30 minutes trying to decipher the trail. Once with the others, we laid a very brisk pace.

This portion of the trail wanders a temperate rainforest (over 12 feet of rain per year) and is full of lush vegetation, bamboo and ginormous trees (Alerce trees live for 3000 years), which have a tendency to fall. So, it seemed every 50 yards, we were climbing over or under or circumventing another tree. It was incredibly beautiful, but despite not receiving rain for a few days, the ground was still saturated and after a few more ankle deep swamp and creek crossings, our feet were soaked for a second day.

The guide left us about half way to the finish, and said you should be able to make it in time if you keep up a good pace. Fortunately, the trail got a bit easier and there were less fallen trees, but we were still quite tired from the day before. We did our best to keep up with our new friends, but they definitely had better legs and lighter packs than us, so we pushed hard.

As we neared the end, pushing the 4pm launch time of the boat, Carra was at her wit’s end. As I waited for her to catch up, I hear “I HATE backpacking.” Not two seconds later, Javier comes back and says, “We’re arriving!” We weren’t quite there, but we were less than 10 minutes from the end.

We arrived, 5 minutes to 4:00, but there was no boat and no people waiting for the boat. We were confused, did we miss it? We stepped into the kiosk and the shop owner informed us that the schedule was delayed an hour and we were waiting for a bus from Chile to arrive.

We were all fine with that. We dropped our packs, grabbed our snacks, bought some chips and beers and relaxed, waiting for our boat. It turns out though, that our boat wasn’t actually scheduled to depart until 6pm. Oh well, no more hiking, right?

We eventually caught the boat across Lago Frias, and then another across Lago Nahuel Huapi.