Overnight a weather front rolled in and the katabatic winds picked up waking me several times wondering if I had adequately staked the tent. When morning arrived our tent was still standing and I decided to hike up to Laguna Torre again for first light while Nico and Ray slept in. After shooting the panorama above, I hiked most of the way out to Mirador Meastri for a nice view of the glacier. When I returned, I was met by Ray and Nico and a bird of prey which I do not recognize.

The threat of imminent rain provoked us to skip breakfast and begin our 8km descent to El Chaltén right away. On the bright side, the precipitation behind us created magnificent rainbows.

Ray and I hiked down at about the same slow pace while Nico literally ran ahead. We made a plan to meet up with him at the trail head with careful instructions to take the left hand fork so as to arrive closer to our car.  When Ray and I arrived at the base, Nico was nowhere to be found and we concluded that he took the wrong fork (probably a good thing because we lost the trail and wound up with a VERY treacherous descent into town). Ray stayed with the packs while I hiked another 1km to the car.  We spent the next hour trying to locate Nico.  Fortunately, other hikers were quick to remember a man with one leg on the trail.  I finally found him after backtracking up the Laguna Torre trail.

With that bit of excitement behind us, we had a leisurely lunch in town before setting out for Calafate.  Realizing we needed to gas up for the trip we located the only gas station in town only to discover that they would not have fuel until tomorrow (maybe).  Thank God for Laura (our hostess at the Casa Andina).  She told us this was not an uncommon occurrence and had several liters of gas and hose on hand.  Without her assistance, the remainder of our Patagonian adventure and potentially our flight back to Buenos Aires would have been at risk.  Fortunately, the drive was uneventful and full of beautiful landscapes and fauna.

After dining in El Calafate we continued on to Lago Roca where we spent the night in a nice camping bunk house.