Refugio Otto Meiling

Refugio Otto Meiling – Thuesday 23.01.2024

Since I did the 5 Lagoons Tour in 3 days instead of 5, I still had enough food for another short tour in the surrounding area of the national park. So today I wanted to go up to one of the huts here again. First I picked another tour that would have taken me to a lake in two days, from where I could then take the boat back to Bariloche. Instead, I decided to go up to Refugio Otto Meiling and camp there. I aimed for just under 4 hours for the climb.

So after I woke up at the campsite, I took down my tent and had a hearty breakfast. Since I only had a smaller tour ahead of me, there was no reason to stress and so I took it easy in the morning. Shortly before 11 I finally set off for the next hike.

At first it was pretty level again out of the valley.

After a few kilometers I crossed a river with an interesting bridge and then the path gradually became steeper.

It went up the forest like a serpentine. At the beginning it was a wide road that led up the mountain very moderately. The mountain soon changed to a smaller path, which then went up much steeper and quickly became tiring. Actually it was all uphill for me today and there were few moments to rest while running. So every now and then I took a short break in the shade, which was quite pleasant given the very high temperatures again today.

Further up the forest became thinner and soon it disappeared completely, meaning I had to walk directly in the sun. At least I could look at the landscape around me.

At one point, with a view of a high waterfall, I took another final break.

Then I climbed the last few meters to the refuge. From up here I had a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and thanks to the clear view I could see quite far.

Even without a reservation, I got a place for my tent again. The pitches looked pretty funny amongst all the snow, but were actually sheltered from the wind and had a good view straight from the tent.

After setting up my tent and resting for a few minutes, I cooked dinner using the remaining food from my backpack. Today we had pasta with tomato sauce and olives again. As I ate my food, I enjoyed the view of the mountains in front of me and could also see some of the peaks that I had crossed on my last tour.

After dinner, I bought myself a nice cold beer in the refuge, sat down on one of the wooden chairs in front of the hut and enjoyed the cold drink in the last hours of the evening.

In the evening, I watched the sunset and then went back to bed.

Rückfahrt – Wednesday 24.01.2024

This morning my alarm went off pretty early because I really wanted to watch the sunrise. So I got up in the twilight and sat on one of the rocks.

Then I watched the sunrise for a while, which was really wonderful to admire from up here.

When the sun was completely over the mountain, I lay back in my tent and slept for a few more hours. At around 9 a.m. I got up again and then immediately took down my tent. I ran to the refuge with my things and sat down again on one of the chairs in front of the hut. This time I made myself a coffee, ate some cereal and looked at the landscape here one last time. Since I only had the short descent ahead of me, I took plenty of time for it.

Then I started the descent back to Pampa Linda. Since I already knew the route and it wasn’t particularly demanding, I made quick progress. After almost 2.5 hours of hiking, I reached the starting point of my tour again.

Here I waited for the transport back to Bariloche. In the meantime, I ate some salami bread and lay down in the shade for a while. In the evening, the van that was supposed to take me back to Bariloche finally arrived. Luckily I got a seat on the bus even without a reservation and soon I was in the vehicle with a few other people and we drove almost 3 hours over very uneven roads back to Bariloche.

There I went to the hostel where I had stayed before I left to pick up the rest of my things. Since they were unfortunately already fully booked today, I had to look for another accommodation and quickly found one on the internet. When I got there, I took a quick shower and then went straight to a restaurant to get something to eat. After that it was 11 p.m. again and I went back to my accommodation.