January 31, 2025. Volcán El Tronador, Bariloche, Argentina.
Volcán El Tronador (The Thunderous) is by far one of the most impressive sights near Bariloche. To visit it, one must endure an arduous 40-kilometer car ride over rough terrain. I would explain further, but for fear the rental car company reads this blog, I digress…
Before you arrive, Tronador begins to welcome you with its mighty presence among the smaller mountains. Regardless of the road condition, Tronador acts like a magnet, drawing you faster toward it, despite the bumps in the road. You can’t stop; you just drive toward it until you can’t drive anymore. There, you dismount, and your boots take over on the Sendero Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat Trail). At the end of the trail, you see a gaping hole in a cliff face spewing millions of gallons of water into the air. Melting water from glaciers high above has seeped through the inside of the mountain and is now free to continue its journey down to feed waterfalls, streams, and lakes.
From there, we descended to the Ventisquero Negro, a unique retreating black glacier formed by thousands of years of dust, rock, and snow accumulation. The glacier’s boundary melts into a lake, giving it a distinctive green/blue hue. Atop it is Glacier Manso (Gentle Glacier), its edge tottering over the mountain as if ready to avalanche. Tronador gets its name from the sound made by its seven glaciers when they calve, and large amounts of ice race down the mountain. We were lucky enough to experience it. All of a sudden, the sound of “hush…” by one of the tourist guides silenced everyone, and we saw Glacier Manso sacrifice a large piece for our listening enjoyment. The sound was just like long thunder from the sky, then quiet again.
Time for lunch. We descended to the Pampa Linda restaurant, a well-appointed restaurant offering light fare. We had sandwiches and a beer. Beautiful local birds walked by, foraging for worms or scraps of food from our table. Halfway through my beer, a kamikaze bee took a dive into my beer can. My decision was easy: continue to sip in the hopes of not swallowing it and enjoy the sweetness of whatever pollen she had gathered.
The treacherous road to El Tronador is one way only; you ascend in the morning and must wait until after 4 p.m. to descend. We still had time, so we took on El Sendero to El Saltillo de Nalcas (Trail to Nalcas Waterfall). This was a short trail to a beautiful waterfall, unique in that the water does not run down the mountain but rather forcefully spews and flies through the air until hitting the ground. We got to its very bottom and were baptized, à la Catholic style, in the holy waters of El Tronador. To the side of the waterfall were some benches made of halved trunks. The flat surfaces invited us to lie down, and the mist of the falls, the shade, and light winds conspired to put us to sleep. Once awake, we looked at our watch, and it was time to face the road again.
Our reluctant departure from El Tronador left us yearning to return, perhaps to spend more time in one of the well-appointed camping sites and enjoy the many trails available. El Tronador must be on your list when visiting Bariloche. Whether by car or bus tour, you must experience El Tronador, stay to listen, feel its water upon your face, and dip your toes in its glacial waters.
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