Today was just a great day! Perfect weather and a marvelous hike. We drove up to the Catedral parking lot (same place we had gone yesterday on the bus) and boarded the gondola to loft us up the mountainside. At the top of the gondola was a chairlift, which took us even higher up the mountain. After disembarking from the chairlift, we had a hike up to the top of high ridge - this is part of Catedral Notre, the Northern Cathedral Mountain. From the top of ridge we had stunning views in all directions. I was really glad for the clear air. We could see the peaks of the volcanos to the west in Chile. We had excellent views of the snowy vastness of Mount Tronador, an ice covered volcano that stands on the border of Chile and Argentina.

The trail to Refugio Frey is a boulder scramble. We followed painted red dots over rocks as we skirted along the side of the mountain. The trail didn't seem too daunting, though there were a couple of places where slipping might have resulted in a long fall into the valley below. The weather was dry and sunny, at last, making this hike seem like a fun adventure.

Eventually we reached the point where the trail split. The right fork led on the Refugio Jakob, which is where hikers who are doing the entire traverse stay on the second night of their trek. We took the left fork which led down to Refugio Frey. We had to follow another trail of red marks painted on rocks to find our way down the wall of the Catedral Amphitheater, so called because a ring of tall granite spires stand in a circle around a flat valley. On the floor of this valley is a small lake called Laguna Schmoll. As we climbed down the rock face, a teenage hiker introduced himself to Melanie, because he wanted to practice his English. Melanie knows a little Spanish, so they had a conversation on the shore of Lago Schmoll. He was hiking with his sister, and a priest who had recently retired.

From Lago Schmoll, there was another boulder scramble down another scree slope, this one took us down to the level of Lago Toncek. Again, the route was clearly marked, so we had no trouble on the descent. This might have been a dicier descent in windy or wet conditions. Refugio Frey stands at the end of Lago Toncek. I was surprised at how small it looked. It appears that there is a bunkroom on the top floor, and cramped area for cooking and eating on the first floor. We stayed outside and ate some lunch, enjoying the nice weather and spotting climbers on the rock spires.

From Refugio Frey, it is about a 10 Km hike back to the Cateral parking lot. But it is downhill all the way. We passed some hikers coming up, and they appeared to be sweating heavily on the long uphill. It was easy hiking for us and so we were in the shade of the mighty Coihue trees. We passed the spot where we had eaten lunch on the previous day, this was at an elevation far below Refugio Frey, so I was glad we had not attempted to make the climb up to the Refugio yesterday. We got back to the Catedral parking lot at 5:20 P.M. and drove our rental car back to Bariloche.

Bariloche has a long street of shops and restaurants where all the tourists walk up and down. The Hotel Tirol is within easy walking distance of this strip, so we went out that evening to see the shops - there are many chocolate shops, I like this town! -- and ended up eating at a place called Cocodrillos. I ordered a steak dinner, and Melanie had a pizza.

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Panorama Photos

I took a whole bunch of panorama photos on this day! The weather was clear, and we were up so high that we enjoyed tremendous views in all directions. Many photo opportunities presented themselves.

Maps

This is a map of our hike was copied from the official trek Bariloche site.

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Videos

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Catedral Hike