Cerro Falso Tonelli

We had a slightly soggy awakening. During the night, we had our first rain and there was some fog around. Still, thus far it had not been very significant. This was going to be a pretty fun day as it was dedicated just to exploring the Valle Superior which was the side valley that we were in as yesterday we charged up the Valle Andorra to get here. We awoke by the lake to our smelly neighbors who built a gigantic fire to keep themselves entertained. After breakfast, we just put on the day packs which felt good to not have the full load for the day. 

We charged back up the hill above the lake and took a right up the valley. Dad was not exactly ambitious as we had a big day the previous one, so he was not quite in the mood to go too far. We decided that we would at least go to the upper lake together and then split up. The clouds really made the mountains and lakes seem more rugged. The weather was cool and damp, but still not uncomfortable. 

We struggled to keep our feet dry as we charged up the stream. I knew that eventually my feet were likely to get wet, but I figured the longer they stayed dry the better. We did not gain much elevation to get to Valle Superior.
We spent some time looking at the map trying to figure out where to go next and the most logical spot seemed to be to go around the lake and continue up the valley. We were now surrounded by peaks on all sides. Getting around the lake wasn't too easy, but it wasn't bad either as we just had to go up and over a little bluff. As we made it around the lake, Dad and I split up for the remainder of the day. I threw on the iPod and enjoyed a chance to move at my own speed.
At first it was a mainly flat valley going right past a beautiful cascading waterfall. I followed the other stream up for a little Patagonia canyoneering. Okay, maybe it wasn't at that level of canyon hiking, but I just went upstream on the soft vegetated banks of the river.
 The stream first went in a meander so calmly that it made for a hike that I could really enjoy. After a while, though, it became steeper and I had to move up away from the stream and on to a scree slope above it. Still the travel was not difficult just wet as it was slightly raining on me for most of the day. It did not hinder my progress and eventually I came to a saddle between two peaks.
The view from this spot was tremendous and I could see over to the next valley that had a green patch in the lower levels but was mostly just rock and ice. I looked on the map that I was carrying and realized if I headed up to the left, there was a peak that was not too far away. I went up and without anything more than second class hiking I was able to climb to the top of a Patagonian peak. The name of this peak was Cerro Falso Tonelli. I am not sure what that meant or where the name came from, but I was happy to be standing at the top of something even if it was a big flat summit on an island with lots of much more burly peaks above it.
 The view was absolutely spectacular! I think that this could be my favorite spot in all of Patagonia that I visited. I spent quite some time on the summit just soaking it all in and taking more pictures than I had taken on the entire trip.
I had a 360 degree view that was literally 99% rock and ice. There was some vegetation to be seen, but not an incredible amount.

 The peaks to the north were incredibly dark with the clouds hanging over the dark rock adding to the viciousness of these remote peaks. As I said before, one could easily spend a whole summer here just bagging peak after peak. It would be a lot of fun and this area truly gave me the feeling of being out away from people.
 There was a pile of rocks with a stick standing straight up to let me know that I had reached the summit. I appreciated the knowledge, but I think I may have been able to figure it out for myself.

 The nice part about a hike like this is that I just knew that I was going to have this summit to myself. Dad made it about as far as the vegetation went and then turned around.
Eventually, I did have to turn around and come down. I felt like I just flew down the scree slopes to the creek and then down the creek to the lake. I beat Dad back to camp, but just barely. I also barely beat the heavy rain and fog.
As the night went on, the lake was lost in the mist, so much so that we could barely make out the little lip of land that jutted out only a few feet away. Unfortunately, we decided this lake would be suitable for drinking water like the lakes of the Fitzroy region. The difference was that this lake was a little more stagnant. The campers here probably did not all behave responsibly considering the messy campers that were nearby that should have tipped us off. It did not and we just dipped out of the lake. We would pay for this decision a week later, but for now we just tried to stay semi warm and dry as the rain came and went all night long. I was into my book quite a bit, so that kept me busy as the rest of the day was just a nice lazy day preparing to go up to the pass and back down to Ushuaia.