El Chalten 'smoking mountain' is Argentina's self-proclaimed national trekking capital. Set at the confluence of two rivers, with granite spires of Monte Fitz Roy (3405m) and Cerro Torre (3102m).

Alarm set for 6.30am its an early start not even daylight yet. It's trekking day!

As we arrived late last night and we were too scared to explore ghost town we were on an early morning supermarket hunt to stock up for out hike. Unfortunately everything is closed at 8am except for a cute bakery we found which did the ever so popular empanadas, guess that's lunch sorted for us.

It's really peaceful walking around at 8am, the sun is just about to rise so the sky has the soft pink peach colour, very pretty. The beauty of the surroundigs wakes you up instantly.

Heading in the right direction, we see the board showing us te beginning of Fitz Roy trail. Can't be that hard can it?

Off we start up a muddy hill, pathway doesn't seem to bad, although we needed to stop every 15 minutes for Lil breaks to catch our breath. Whilst me Reens and Devs were messing around taking silly photos, Tanna would dissapear far ahead! The more we began to walk the warmer we started feeling, slowly the layers came off!

After climbing what feelt like hundreads of steep muddy steps we reached a viewpoint where a breathtaking view welcomed us. With the sun slowly rising, you could see a whole view of the town, mountain range and our first glimpse of Fitz Roy with snowy spiky peaks.

There wasn't a clear pathway paved out, it was more following other hikers footprints. Occasionally there were random signs which gave me a peace of mind that we were heading the right way.

Often we had to cross rivers with a diy made bridge with a log and a few wooden planks! Balancing across them was not an easy task! I secretly had my camera on standby for any falls I might capture ; ) (I needed some entertainment in the morning!)

Once the sun had come out, the mountain range view was even more beautiful. Almost looked fake! No matter how much we describe or show people pictures, we agree it's one of those things where you need to see it fr yourself to get a real feel of the beauty!

We didn't want a repeat of Ilha Grande were we were fighting against sunlight, so we kept a constant eye on our watch and gave ourselves of reaching the peak point by 1pm.

Suddenly the terrain changed from muddy to icy and snow! There were a few slippery moments and of course sore asses!

We passed Lago Capri an icy frozen large lake where we sat on the rocks for a quick energy refuelling break.

Soon after there was no ground to be seen, the whole surface was covered in snow, luckily it was only 2-3 inches deep!

Phew another sign showing Laguna De Los Tres treck oneway endpoint is 2.15 hours.

By now we had full sunshine and just a few clouds in the sky.

Before we knew it the snow got deeper almost knee high! Silly me had taken my waterproof trousers off earlier as it was getting too hot and I didn't have ye energy to put them back on! Tanna lost het shoe a few times! As it was fresh snow it was scary as you put your foot in you wouldn't know how deep it would go in! At one point we were waist high in snow.

Where is everyone? Been over an hour and a half and no signs of humans! Lukily for us we started noticing wooden yellow tipped posts indicating the route... Follow the yellow wood post, follow follow la la la (Wizard of Oz mode).

Oopsy were behig schedule, target changed to 1.30pm. Wohoo sone flat icy terrain and a rock ice mini lake frozen!

By now we had all split off (within eye distance) at our own pace. Everynow and then I would hear a scream or laughter and all I would see is Reen's face poking out of the snow and her body sunk deep in! What started as rare moments soon became more frequent as we walked on!

Ohhh nooo I spoke to soon had my first fall flat on my ass!

Time was starting to run out so we tried to pick up our pace to reach the top but by now we had an injured Devi with a painfully knee from landing awkwardly in the snow and Reens with a battered body and an exhausted Tanna, but we were determined not to head back!

2pm now and we still haven't reached peak of Fitz Roy! Fustrating par is you can see it ahead of you and vguely point out the yellow posts but it looks never ending! Walking became alot tougher as the snow was reallly deep and the mountain now really steep almost vertical with no paved out path.

Knowing time was very limited (by this time we should of already been on our way back) I decided to go ahead so I could reach the top!

It was not easy, every step I took required a huge mental and physical push. I'm not going to lie, several times I contemplated giving up and turning back. As I looked up I just saw post after post, kept saying to myself 'it's bot that nuch further, you can do it!' plenty of self motivational talk was needed! It was soo steep, I never knew where or how my foot would land. At one point I was crawling with my hands, clutching onto and plants I saw.

In the back of my mind I was worried about the girls, I didn't want then to wait for me and for them to run out of daylight just because I wanted to get to the top.

Using all the willpower and strength I had in me I kept going up and finally getting to the top the view was breathtaking and so worth the pain. To my suprise the trail didn't stop there it continued on further but I knew I had to head back. So much for ou plan of having lunch at the top.

Mentally and physically exhausted I made my way back down. My foot would just fall, but the snow would support my footing, well at least that's what I thought. Mentally exhausted I couldn't even think straight of where I was placing my foot, I stumbled and fell many times, even slid down on my ass a few times thinking it would be easier. Damn crosstrainer knew I should of been using the step machine at the gym grrrr!

Further down I could see the girls slowly walking up and an injured Reena trailing behind. You could see Tanna and Devi were in two minds of whether to continue up. After a quick motivational and what I hope was an inspiring talk they decided they were going for it. They had done so well getting this far it would be a shame to turn back. To make it easier, stupid mr volunteered to take their daysacks down with me.

Bad idea walking down hill with three backpacks, can just about see over them! Many falls later I reached Reens. Poor girl looked exhausted and disheartened that she couldn't go further. As she was injured and it would take her longer we started to make our way down hoping the girls would catch up with us.

We walked back in silence as we were too exhausted to talk. In my mind I was beginning to get really worried about daylight. Apart from the hotel receptionist, nobody else knew we were out here. We wrote a note in the snow saying 'TARDs hurry up'. Not long after we realised that they would have no water as we had all their bags, so we left another message with a water bottle stuck in the snow! Aww we are such caring friends!

Eventually we were all reunited after a quick share of stories we continued down. Tanna and Dev met some people on their way up who told then it would still take a minimum half an hour to get to the top. Although it doesn't sound that long, when your running out of light every minute second counts!

Not long until we runout of sunlight! Let the battle begin. We hadn't really thought this treck through! We didn't carry enough water, a first aid kit or a torch between us.

I think Reens and Dev had gone delerious with lack of water food! Tanna went ahead with Reens whilst I stayed back with Dev. An elderly Japanese man passed us. I'm sure we were all thinking how the hell did he do it!

The whole way down all we were doing was talking about food and what we wanted to eat!! Dev craving Sprite!

I kept lying saying it's only half an hour from this point when reall in my head I knew it was much longer! Hey, reverse pathology works!

Yes!! Huge smiles and sigh of relief when we saw a tiny glimpse of light flickering from town! Nearly home sweet home!

With about 5 minutes to go till bo daylight and pretty much fullon darkness we walked through the entrance of the trail. If you saw us, it would of been a sight, we all collapsed on the wooden bench!

What was supposed to take 8 hours took us over 10 long gruelling hours.
So proud of the girls. Tanna really does under estimate her strength! Both injured Dev and Reens kept going!

Heading straight to the first restaurant we see. Italian it is : ) Treated myself to a well deserved glas of vino and off course girls got their much craved Sprite! Of course we over ordered and munched our hearts out before we slowly staggered our way back to the hostal where we partied the night away...as if!! Straight to bed!

Lesson of the day, if you need Tanna to wake up or walk faster just talk about food : )

Quote of the day:
'wash ur dishes'
'U shud tuck ur waterproof in your socks'
'i want Sprite ice cubes'