PATAGONIA: The Smoking One

I'M AT: Albergue Patagonia, El Chaltén, Argentina. A cosy and really friendly gaff in the newest town in Argentina. Turned out to be veeeery cosy; one of the French blokes in the tight dorm snored louder than Bud.

Coming here was a major reason for coming to Patagonia. And it turned out to be worth every cramped hour on the bus.

The Fitz Roy range of the Andes is deservedly famous. Cerro Torre and its two close brothers are thin, granite peaks, needling into the sky. And Cerro FitzRoy, AKA El Chaltén, the Smoking One, is a thick butt of rock, snowless and pink. They're two of the most difficult climbs in the world, not for the altitude, but for the profile, which is truly vertical. Anyway, we were just hiking.

The National Park is organised beautifully. On arrival, everyone troops off the bus and gets told about the various hikes on offer, the times and distances involved, and how to conserve the park. From there, you're on your own. So, with map and route, and a bag of empanadas, we mulched off, with Bud wheezing on the slopes. We had just enough time for an 8-hour circuit which would give us views of both Cerro Torre and Cerro FitzRoy.

The ground was covered with fallen branches, scattered by the incredibly fierce winds that rack this side of the Andes. They were dead and grey and white against the brilliant green of the grass. And we stopped amongst them, by a lake, to eat a few of the empanadas, and drink water from the lake, and to cool our feet. And the walk certainly took 8 hours, at quite a pace, and despite it being cloudy and overcast, throwing a scarf of white around the peaks, it was truly breathtaking to be amongst vast beauty. We ate well that night.

And, the next day, on pulling out of El Chalten at 6.30 in the morning, we turned our heads in the sunlight to be gently shown the incredible views of the peaks that we'd missed the day before, pink and jutting and glowing. Awesome.