Nahuel Huapi Traverse hut to hut trek

Departing before midday from the Cerro Catedral Ski Resort we will take a well signed trail that crosses a burned forest (as product of a fire that happened a few years ago). After a 2-hour hike the trail goes into a valley called Van Titter that runs through a high forest of lengas trees. Then we’ll cross the Van Titter River and ascend about 50 meters by the trail to get to the Piedritas Refuge. From this point, the most physical part of this day begins since the trail ascends 300 meters until arriving at the Frey Hut (1700 m).
We’ll rest and enjoy an excellent home made dinner at the hut. Estimated time: 4 hours.

After having breakfast in the hut the walk begins bordering the Toncek Lagoon. Then we’ll ascend 250 meters to the small Schmol Lagoon. From this point we must keep ascending the ridge of the Catedral Mountain passing by a small flat area. Once on the ridge, we’ll start descending towards the Rucaco Valley by a loose rock terrain. After crossing the Rucaco we will leave the dense vegetation behind in order to reach the edge of the Brecha Negra Mountain. From this point begins a steep descent towards the San Martin Hut next to the Jakob Lagoon. We will have rest and enjoy an excellent home made dinner at the hut. Estimated walking time: 6-7 hours.

On this day we will head down to Colonia Suiza. This place is a small mountain village, where swiss families settled at the foot of Cerro Lopez in the 19th century. This place is famous for its gastronomy: barbacues, empanadas, homemade pastry and the traditional “curanto”.  Colonia Suiza (Swiss Colony) is the perfect place to chill out before we continue our adventure to Laguna Negra the next day.

Early in the morning the trek begins by walking along the trail who goes to the Témpanos Lagoon. After ascending 150 meters we must change our way in direction to the Pico Refugio. There are 400 meters of loose rocky terrain that requires some climbing skills. This is the most technical part of the trip. Once we reach the Pico Refugio the route passes through a sharp edge that connects it with the Innocents Mountain, until reaching the edge of the Christmas Mountain. After crossing around its summit we will descend by a canyon which goes into the Christmas Creek. Finally we will connect with the normal route that goes to Laguna Negra. At this point we will ascend 300 meters by the switchbacks until the Italia Hut. We’ll rest and enjoy an excellent home made dinner there. Estimated walking time: 6-7 hours.

The trek starts along the north cost of the lagoon and goes to the path that separates the Black Mountain from Mount Bailey Willis (1800 m). We’ll walk towards the summit of the Bailey Willis crossing it by the west face. Then we’ll descend to the Bailey Willis Valley without losing too much height and we’ll start to climb the southwest slope of Cerro López to reach the trail of the Tourist Peak (2050 m). So we will descend towards the López Hut (1718 m) and from here we will continue for 2 more hours until the López creek where there is the main route back to Bariloche.