Hiking in the Andes (#1)

Three of the few precious books we carried with us to Chile were guides for hiking in the Andes. This probably isn't a surprise. But the weekend before last was the first time we were able to walk up into the Andes (or rather, the foothills of the Andes). If you have looked at the photos of our apartment, you may remember the view from our roof? That is also what we see when we look out out window on a clear day, so it seemed appropriate that our first hike would be up into these mountains, the tallest peak of which is Cerro San Ramon.

After a nearly two hour trip on various modes of public transportation, wearing hiking clothes and carrying packs, we were in El Cajon del Maipo, looking up a dusty road towards the valley of a small tributary to the Maipo River. We had with us a good topo map (in meters) with routes and descriptions, but no distances. There was an inviting refugio marked at the top of a pass, from which lead a route to the top of Cerro San Ramon. Off we walked up the road, past homes and gardens until we arrived at a Chilean-style Pic-Nic ground, paid our entrance fee, and began to hike.

The creek was quite pretty, with lots of bit boulders and small cascades. We crossed it several times, slowly gaining elevation, and enjoying the walk. At about 3pm, after walking for about three hours, we took a closer look at the map and discovered that what we initially thought would be a five or six hour hike, gaining 1000m was in fact shaping up to be a 10-12 hour hike with an elevation gain of 2300m (which we just now realized translated to roughly 7000ft). Ooops. Shortly after this we met a Chilean and his friend who had also made a mis-calculation and tried to climb up through a scree-valley to the peak of Cerro San Ramon. Apparently it was possible with snow, but very, very bad without. They were camping next to the creek and waiting to hike out in the morning.

We pushed on to the end of the creek, which remained beautiful and full of gigantic boulders and rockslides, then began the ascent to the pass with the refugio. Just under half-way up, we arrived at a small, abandoned horse camp at around 4pm. After leaving the valley the area became far more arid, and we understood why the only other people there at the peak of the day had horses: it was Hot! And Steep! After a final recalculation, we decided to stash our packs and hike up a little more to get some better views, then return to the creek to camp for the night. It was clear we would not make it to the peak of Cerro San Ramon this time, and the creek had looked awefully inviting. As there are also several other routes to the top, we consoled ourselves knowing we only lived two hours away and could come back before the snows set in.

The night was uneventful, but it was wonderful to be out of the city for a little while. On the hike back out the following morning we were able to stop along the creek on the way home for a quick dip in one of the most enticing swimming holes. All in all while the trip wasn't exactly as we planned, we both had a good time and it was great to walk on dirt and rocks for a while rather than pavement and manicured grass.

I told myself this post would be short and sweet, but it may be longer than Zack's last one! Hope you enjoyed it; more to come next week.