The Torre Valley

Since we weren't going to be climbing on Friday (the best weather day for the week) Isaac recommended I go check out the Torre Valley. This valley is on the west side of the Fitz Roy Massif and separates the Torres (Cerro Torre, Torre Egger etc) from the Fitz Roy ridge line & surrounding summits. We'd gotten some awesome views into the valley from the summits of Poincenot & Mermoz, but I hadn't been back that way on foot. The section of the valley I wanted to get to was about 12 miles out there, so I planned on it being a fairly long day (24mi round trip w 6-7k feet of elevation gain). We'd stayed up late watching movies & drinking beer, so I snoozed by alarm & didn't end up leaving the hosue until 7:45am or so. After a quick stop for a few empanadas de espinaca from Lo de Haydee on the way out of town, I hit the trail! The first few miles are pretty casual: rolling hills, great views of town, and some cool forests. But after a few miles, the views REALLY start to open up as you swing into the proper start of the valley. A local cat followed me for the first bit as I left town while listening to an amazing podcast with Paul Rosolie.

Paul Rosolie is a conservationist from the U.S., wildlife filmmaker, author, and general explorer who has dedicated the past few decades to protecting the Amazon rainforest in various ways. He founded an organization called Junglekeepers and has spent these past two decades documenting biodiversity in eastern Peru and fighting illegal deforestation. He has been slowly working towards buying & setting aside massive swathes of land, in conjunction with the Peruvian government, so that the animals, trees, and local people can exist there without loggers, miners, and narco-traffickers destroying their homes & livelihoods. The podcast (with Lex Friedman) is wildly interesting -- It centered around a fairly recent experience Paul had with his team of researchers, alongside their team of people from a local indigenous community who they had become very close with over the many years working together to save their communities.

Long story short, they came into contact with a previously uncontacted tribe in the Amazon rainforest of eastern Peru. I won't go into much detail here, but it is ABSOLUTELY worth listening to! Hearing how their team worked through the ethical questions, language difficulties, unanswered questions, and danger of interacting with these people they knew nothing about was so so interesting. Not to mentioned frightening. Multiple members of Paul's team, and his friends, have been killed over the years (and attacked & injured after this interaction) by these uncontacted peoples, narcotraffickers, and those opposed to their work. A long tangent, but this is what I was listening to while hiking out there & it was inspiring hearing about Paul & his team's travels and experiences over the years in the Amazon. And it really got me thinking about the places I'd love to see & travel to in my lifetime, the place I was currently in being one of them.

As I cruised up the valley, getting clearer views of Cerro Torre every step of the way, I was thinking about how incredibly lucky I was to be here in this place. Some of the most unique & inspiring peaks I've ever seen, ones that I'd been reading about for years, were all around me. As I neared Laguna Torre, I was feeling energized by the scenery, the long day ahead, and by this suprisingly interesting podcast that was making me think a lot about the places and cultures I'd love to travel to experience some day. To get around Laguna Torre to continue deeper into the valley, there is a tyrolean traverse to cross a river (essentially a taught rope going over the river that requires a harness to slide across). After a few photos of the icebergs(?) in Laguna Torre, I took the tyrolean and continued around the SW side of the late deeper into the dense forest & onward into the Torre Valley.

The section of "trail" around the lake is pretty rough. Steep dirt, dense forest, and "climber access" style trail which is unmaintained and unmarked. This section was slow moving, but wildly beautiful. The trail takes you high above the lake, giving wide & open views of the Torre Valley, the actual Torre peaks, and the Fitz Roy Massif on the eastern edge. The further you go into the valley, the more incredible the views become. I ate a snack at the high point of the trail before the upcoming descent down towards the Torre Glacier. The final section on the approach before entering the bottom of the valley contains a wide (maybe 0.5mi?) glacier which needs to be crossed. Isaac had said it was non-technical & fairly casual, but I still anticipated taking some extra time to navigate crevasses, jump glacial streams, and generally navigate the confusing & broken terrain of a large glacier.

Crossing the glacier ended up being one of my favorite parts of the day! It was pretty sweet being totally alone out there with Cerro Torre looming above, weaving my way around the crevasses & hopping streams with my trekking poles. At this point, I was about 10 miles out from the trailhead. I wanted to go a ways further in hopes of finding one of the camping/bivy sites near the base of El Mocho & deep into the Torre Valley. After the primary glacier crossing, the "trail" continues for a few miles along what is still a glacier, but this one is covered in a thin layer of pebbles, rocks, and boulders for it's entirety. I found this section to be such a weird experience: it was clear that I was still standing on a wildly thick sheet of ice under the thin layer of rock, but you can still walk like you're on normal ground (not slippery). Every once in a while, you get glimpses into the deep crevasses that fill the glaciated valley:

I spent a while wandering around the glacier, with Cerro Torre looming above to the west & De I'S and Aguja Saint-Exupery to the east. The deeper I went into the valey, the more incredible the scenery became. The peaks above, especially Fitz Roy, started to feel absolutely massive. From a distance these peaks all look fairly large, but without a reference frame (such as realizing that hiking 1 full mile further into the valley hardly moved me any closer to Cerro Torre) it is hard to truly grasp the scale of these granite spires. Once I reached my arbitrary turnaround point, I sat down to eat some empanadas & stare around for a while. I sat there eating some lunch, listening to the sounds of the occasional avalanche or serac ripping off from the hanging glaciers all around the valley. The warm day was creating a pretty dynamic environment in the valley. Melting snow, peaks shedding their glacial buildup, and a warm breeze which was being enjoyed by the condors and other birds of prey. The valley felt very alive, even though I was only surrounded by ice, snow, and rock.

After the lunch break and some extra time just staring at the surrounding peaks, I turned around to start the long trek back to town. I took my time getting back to the primary glacier crossing, making sure to peer down into every cool looking crevasse and ice cave along the way. I'd love to spend some extra time out there exploring (and climbing) on another trip down here. It felt remote & serious. Though I knew I'd be back in town in 4 or 5 hours, it was hard to imagine that while in the depths of such a far-off, silent, and dramatic valley. The hike back to down went well & was absolutely stunning. The afternoon lighting was different than when I'd hiked out in the morning & the glaciers were glowing with a deep blue hue that was very cool to see. I met a few French climbers up above Laguna Torre and chatted with them for a while, all of us eating snacks & me hearing about there attempt to climb a route on Medialuna.

Eventually, I made it back to town & found Isaac in the apartment. We hit the grocery, made an epic curry for dinner, and settled down for a few episodes of season 2 of The Night Manager. Although I would've loved to climb during this great weather window, a solo day out in the mountains was a pretty awesome time & I'm glad I was able to finally see Cerro Torre up close. Next time, I'm hoping that I'll be hauling a heavy pack out there to spend a few days climbing & camping :)