A girl in my hostel had warned me. She tried to go to Villa Catedral by bus, but the bus never showed up. She was at the wrong stop. Supposedly I was at the right stop, but time passed and I didn’t see a bus. 5 minutes. That’s possible. 10 minutes. Suspicious, the other buses seemed on time. 20 minutes. I don’t think it’s coming anymore. 30 minutes. Is it worth waiting for the next one? What if it also doesn’t come? 40 minutes. A guy shows up. He’d been waiting at another stop and also didn’t see the bus. He asks if I want to share an Uber with him. I check the fare. On my app it’s about 24.000. On his app it’s less than 5000. How’s that possible? We found out soon, already in the Uber, when the guy wanted to drop us off near some airport. My new friend checked his phone. Uber had dropped a location pin in the wrong spot. We ended up paying 24.000 after all. At least we made it to the start of the trail.
Villa Catedral is the ski area of Bariloche. It looked strange in summer. The lifts don’t go. Only one bar was blasting music. You could hear it throughout the gigantic and empty parking lot. From this parking lot you can start the easiest route to refugio Frey. It’s only 9,5km, although it climbs quite steeply from about 1000m to just under 1800m. My Uber buddy Boaz and I walked the majority of the trail together, until he took a break somewhere in the forest. First we followed a sort of level trail around the mountain. We got some pretty great views of Lago Gutiérrez below and a hint of Bariloche in the background. After a while the trail joined another trail and started to get steeper as it snaked up through the forest. I was surprised how busy it was. Many people were on their way down. It makes sense. It was a gorgeous day and it’s a popular day hike.
Boaz was hiking up with his camping equipment, whereas I had decided it was just too cold to camp. I’d been freezing in the height of summer. Now it was autumn. With a refugio available, it was an easy choice. Just after I left Boaz with his lunch I came across a different kind of refugio. It was obviously no longer in use and I wasn’t tempted to check inside. But it was very cool, sort of built under a rock. Nearby was another big rock with an altar and a cross. After that it got tough. I’d been powering up and started to feel the muscles. The last stretch was more rocky and with higher steps to climb on. But I was slowly getting above the tree line. I could see the tops of the trees in greens and reds, like a blanket laying on top of the rocks. I looked back at the valley I’d walked up through. It went around the corner. Gone were the lake views and the hint of the city. Gone was the phone signal. I was finally really in the mountains.
The refugio was a welcome sight. It’s a small stone building with some picnic tables outside. I started there, enjoying some food while I watched others arrive. There were tent sites on the hill next to it, with some little walls made of piles of stones as wind protection. The toilet block was away from the refugio. I also had to leave my backpack outside in racks, which was a bit inconvenient. It also wasn’t covered well, so I was glad my things were still dry in the morning. There was a shelter for cooking and a living/dining room where you could order basic meals and drinks. Upstairs was for sleeping. We all left our boots piled up near the entrance and I put on some of the provided slippers. Most people didn’t bother and just walked around in socks. The bunk beds were interesting. They’d lined up a bunch of mattrasses, say 5 of them, and then squeezed in as many pillows as they could. So when the refugio is full, you can’t really turn around without rolling onto your neighbor. Luckily for me it wasn’t full that night. I did sleep in the top, which meant I had about 20cm above my head and hit it a couple of times. Also, my feet were dangling off the end. There was only one ladder for all the upper bunkies, so I was happy there were only 3 of us on my side. It meant I could leave without climbing over strangers. Before it got dark I walked around the lagoon. It was surrounded by a circle of rocky mountain walls. There are some popular climbing routes up there. I’d seen 2 climbers and suddenly I saw one right on top of a gigantic cone-shaped rock, high above me. He seemed so small.
The next day looked very different. Tiny snowflakes were falling from the sky and I could already hear the howling wind from my bed. I tried to take a selfie outside, but I couldn’t keep my phone still enough! I had intended to go to a laguna further in the mountains before heading down, but the wind made me change my mind. Then one guy, who’d left in the dark with a head light, already came back. He had wanted to walk to the next refugio, but found the trail too icy and therefore had turned around. That was my final confirmation. I headed down. The path was mainly covered by trees and hadn’t even gotten that wet. I was also sheltered from the wind. So I took the longer way down, via lake Gutiérrez. There was a little waterfall below that I wanted to check out and I knew the bus frequency would be higher from there. When I got down I wondered how the other hikers were doing. A bunch had wanted to continue to the next hut, including Boaz. But I hadn’t exchanged contact details, so I would never know if they made it there.
