The random adventurers: Up the mountains

Chey and Piltri in the background. We got to the highest spot.

The landscape in El Bolsón and the surroundings is full of mountains. The most beautiful of them is the king of the town, the one with the unpronounceable name: Piltriquitrón.
Piltri, as it's known by the locals.

We can see Piltri from my dad's place, and I kept telling Chey that we were going to go up, since I grew up climbing this and other mountains all around, and I remembered it as a fairly easy hike uphill.

One morning we got ready, and along with my dad and sisters went up to the base in my dad's car (an incredibly reliable old Ford Falcon).

Chey posing with dad's car (he actually drove it! Wheel on the left and all!)

As it turned out, the two-hour hike was harder than expected, we took a few little rests and looked at some interesting trees carved in the shape of things. Maybe you wonder if the climb got harder in the last 15 years or if I'm actually less fit... Of course the climb got harder.

Unicorn sunbathes.

El Refugio del Piltri.

Inside: kitchen and dining room.

When you're half way up the mountain, you find the "refugio". A house/shack built entirely out of mountain materials, plus some things carried up by horse and backpack: glass panels, some kitchen things, and AN OVEN. I wish I was there to see people carrying that.

Arriving to the Refugio.

Chey takes in the view after the initial climb.

Inside.

Inside: mountain cat.

Outside: our temporary home.

Happy family!

Chey and three very normal sisters.

We relaxed in the refugio, had some coffee and soup, then went to a lookout with the Demattei clan, and finally said goodbye to them for two days, since we were spending the night up there.

Random adventurers at the lookout.

After a bit of a rest, we were feeling cocky, so we decided to go all the way to the summit. It was colder up the Piltri than it had been in town, but we braved the climb in shorts because we're tough and it was sunny, after all.

The view while going to the summit.

The hike/climb was beautiful. We looked at the view that kept getting more and more amazing, breathed all of the clean air, and drank fresh stream water. And generally felt we were the King and Queen of the mountain.

Purest source of water,

King of the mountain.

Queen of the mountain (observe my hair pointing towards the sky)

At some stage we got to the point where snow never melts and built a tiny snowman, and everything was fun and giggles... until we started going up the last super-steep part , made out of slippery bits of rock, and I genuinely felt I was going to die.

Relaxing on the snow (IN the snow?)

Do you wanna build a snowman?

Scene of the crime: Chey makes a snowball.

Oh, but the moment we got to the summit! We stayed there for a while, just taking it in and enjoying our triumph.

"This would be perfect if we only had snacks" Chey said.

And since I'm an absolute champion, I pulled two alfajores out of my pocket.
Win.

Enjoying our alfajores and the windy summit.

The way down was a bit rainy and definitely icy, but in the refugio my legs came back to life, we had a nice fire, a huge pot of pasta con salsa y queso, and a cute cuddly cat, so we stayed there until the morning, with our hearts a little bigger and our legs tired but definitely more muscly.