Hielo Azul Shelter: a dramatic place of wild nature and contrast

    Hielo azul shelter is a place you should really visit if you come to El Bolson and you are looking for adventure and great views.

    Hielo azul shelter isn’t available for everyone, it’s 2270 km. above sea level and the stroll which drives you is hard and wild. But the landscape is incredible, the path follows a brook in the last part and all along the way you have several viewpoints that provide you with an excellent panorama of Bolson and Mount “Pilriquitrón” on the opposite side of the valley. You have also the certainty that you will be going into an untouched legendary forest full of nature and flower-filled meadows, making a very dramatic contrast.

    It’s just about 15 km away from El Bolson (a picturesque town between two mountains and with a mild climate). You can go walking, and it will take you for about seven hours to reach the shelter and another 3 hours to reach the glacier. The path is wide full of nature and brids, like “wood peckers” and “chucaos”, and it’s a languagues forest.

    The Glacier Hielo Azul is wonderful and quite big, surrounded by a frozen lake and towering mountains covered in ice. The rise is a steep way up and you will go across snow and big rocks, but then you will reach a big plain from which you will be able to have the first sight of  the glacier. This glacier has such a remote beauty that will probably gasp you, and even more if you are traveling in summer, when it is melting and caves are forming in the ice.

    The shelter is very comfortable and rustic, and there you will be able to enjoy homemade food and typical Argentine dishes. In the dining room you will meet a lot of backpackers from Argentina and all places around the world; that creates a rustic and relax environment that allows you to know more about argentine culture and its people. But if you are looking for something more peaceful and quiet, you have the possibility of camping in the shelter’s park and still use the kitchen and the bathrooms.

      While you are in the shelter, you will find the “Lago Natación” (swimming lake) and his shelter, from about one hour and a half of walking. There, in summer, you can go fishing, swimming and sailing. It’s like a secret refuge hidden in the middle of an amphitheater, natural and relaxed.

      Finally, Hielo Azul shelter is the perfect place for you to connect with nature, know the Bolson from another angle and enjoy of an incredible experience in the summit of a frozen mountain.

     

Abril Federica Combetto