Trekking to the still frozen Cinco Hermanos Lagoon in Ushuaia: the last stretch was the most difficult.

If you like the cold, Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego is one of the ideal places to go and enjoy it. In this destination, it's not common to find temperatures above 18°C even in the middle of summer, so during your visit you may see some snow even if it's on the highest peaks. This can be quite picturesque, although when it comes to trekking, sometimes the snow is not as beautiful as when the landscape is thawed. With this in mind, you should plan your outings well to enjoy nature at its best ❤️.

As I had already been to Ushuaia in the year 2023, I had already done many of the most touristy treks, thinking that I might not visit Ushuaia again. But as fate would have it, so on my second trip, I had to look for other treks that were a bit longer and more demanding. Beautiful scenery is what is in abundance in this part of my country, so I just had to choose one, find some companions and go.

Luckily, Couchsurfing helped me a lot with that, so finding trekking partners was no problem. The thing was that those treks I was missing were the ones that took you to beautiful lagoons. According to the pictures on the internet, these landscapes included very blue and beautiful bodies of water, but if they were frozen and covered with snow, they could not be well appreciated. At the time of this walk, it was mid-December and summer was just beginning, so there was a good chance that the ice was still lingering in these areas.

After putting together a small trekking group via CS, I told my occasional friends of my intention to visit the Cinco Hermanos Lagoon, but that it might be frozen and we would not see much. They were very adventurous and decided that we should go anyway, as at worst, we would see beautiful frozen mountains. This trek was a medium difficulty trek, so completing it would be a good challenge and off we went for the adventure.

This hike started 2.5 km from the exit of the city of Ushuaia and after visiting the Bridal Veil Waterfall, which we were passing by, we continued towards the lagoon. This hike was 8 km long and had most of the trail inside the forest, except for the last kilometre when we came out into the clearing and had to climb the steepest slope of all. As I always say, this stretch was quite tiring on the legs, but nothing that couldn't be done with patience and the desire to see the reward.

Three hours after we started, we finally reached the beautiful lagoon. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it was already 75% thawed, showing the beautiful blue colour we had seen in photos. Its entire shore was covered with snow, so it was necessary to pass carefully, but as there were already footprints of other people, it was not difficult to follow the path.

We stayed for a while at the lagoon, having a quiet lunch until the weather reminded us that we were in the middle of a mountain surrounded by ice and snow. I can't explain the freezing wind that began to blow, so much so that it invited us to retreat if we wanted to keep our body temperature at the right level. On our return hike, which was much easier than the ascent, we took a different path on the last part, which led us to what looked like the premises of an abandoned campsite. It would have been great if it had worked, as we really needed a hot drink at that point.

The trek to the Laguna Cinco Hermanos was one of the treks I had left pending on my first trip and finally being able to do it was a good experience. I was glad to be able to see the lagoon somewhat thawed, because the mixture of melted water and ice parts created a unique landscape. Throughout my stay in Ushuaia I never ceased to be amazed by all that beauty: it always ends up being much more beautiful than what you can see in a photo ❤️.

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