A weather window was arriving with minimal wind and fair temps in the Chaltén Massif so I planned an attempt at the unsupported FKT on the Vuelta al Huemul. In the days leading up, I reconned the first section of runnable trail to just before Laguna Toro and the second tyrolean traverse across Río Túnel. Talking with local friends, I believed the crux (for me) would be the route finding. Even though there aren’t that many off-trail sections, it sounded like it could be challenging enough to lose a lot of time if done improperly.
I left the Centro de Visitantes Guardaparque Ceferino Fonzo at 6:10am and mobbed up the first 10 miles of runnable trail, most of which I had done previously. Around mile 11 was the first of two tyrolean traverses where I opted to check out the river crossing instead of taking valuable time digging around my pack for my harness. This ended up being the right call as the water was low enough like it was during the men’s FKT attempt to wade.
After this there was a lot of fresh moraine, rock fall, and small cliff bands and generally just challenging terrain to navigate so it was unsurprising I made my first of a couple significant nav errors and dropped down to the glacier’s terminal moraine when I should’ve been staying higher. I realized my error too late and at that point had to make a decision to scramble up a loose, icy 3-4 class cliff band or risk losing +40min going back. The cliff band seemed doable so I continued up that even though it was very slow going trying to avoid the ice. The next section from Paso del Viento until Paso Huemul was uneventful and cruiser going over beautiful terrain in the Patagonian backcountry.
Dropping off Paso Huemul was steep, dry, and loose. This was where I encountered the 3 fixed ropes: the first was a long white cord that I used to navigate over a medium sized drop that was under a super loose and sandy section. The second was a green rope with knots that I held lightly as the rock I needed to downclimb was very crumbly and I didn’t fully trust it. The third was a shorter yellow rope with knots that I opted not to use because I felt comfortable down climbing the solid rock.
After this was a boggy section where I made another route error. Instead of staying closer to the lake, I got caught up following a cow path that took me further out into the bog. I was able to make my way through thick bushes to get on trail without having to go back, but I lost a decent amount of time thrashing through the brush. From here through the second tyrolean traverse, to the La Quinta road crossing was more runnable trail.
The trails around La Quinta were confusing and I ran down the road about a quarter mile before I realized I was going the wrong way. I wish I had reconned this section as my lack of route knowledge made it much slower than it should be. The last couple of miles were cruiser and where I encountered a lot of day hikers coming up the trail. I arrived back at Centro de Visitantes Guardaparque Ceferino Fonzo with a stellar view of the Fitz Roy group around 3:30pm! I hoped to get the men’s record which would mean besting Diego’s impressive time of 7hrs 58min but, since this was my first time on the route, the navigation proved too challenging. I think this route could go VERY fast with support!!
Gear List
Wore:
- Shorts, tank, sun hoodie
- Sun hat, sunglasses
- Thin gloves (just for the first few hours)
- The North Face summit run training pack 12
- The North Face vectiv infinite shoes
Packed/Used:
- Glacier harness
- Locking carabiner
- 120cm sling (doubled and girth hitched)
- Garmin InReach mini
- Phone
- 2x 500ml bottles (1 for filling at stream crossings and the other filled with flat coca cola)
- 2,000 calories of food (only consumed 1,200)
Packed/Didn't Use:
- The North Face flight lightriser futurelight jacket
- The North Face antora rain pants
- The North Face insulating jacket prototype
- Extra socks
- Adventure Medical Kits 0.3 one-person/waterproof
- Emergency blanket