Falling for Fitz Roy

Trail head right outside of town

[8-11 de Marzo, 2014]  El Chalten, Argentina is a small town in the middle of a National Park (Parque Nacional Los Glaciares). When you stay there you can step outside and start hiking from your doorstep. The town is fairly new. It has wide streets with hardly any cars. There are pretty street lamps and sidewalks on avenues that lead nowhere. Many houses are under construction and a few resorts are being built up on the hill. Large and vacant, it will be interesting to see how the town changes as the rooms become filled.

However, today, the town is charming and inviting. Nature lovers stroll the streets, in winter clothes on warm summer nights, pretending they aren't chilled to the bone by the breeze coming off the Southern Patagonia Ice Field. One of my favorite stops on this South America trip, I particularly liked returning to town tired after a hike. You trudge slowly up the streets looking for smoke coming out of a restaurant chimney to finally relax with a beer and spot next to the fire.


Senda a Laguna Torre The first hike we did was to a glacial lake called Torre Lagoon. The hike followed a river valley back into the mountains that surrounded El Chalten.

Torre Lagoon and Glacier

Well, the first thing we encountered was snow. This was the first hike we took which snowed, though if we were to stay in Patagonia longer, it wouldn't be our last. In March, the end of summer, the snow is there to stay. In fact, Torres del Paine had a snowfall a few days after we left that reached as low down as the campsites. We were very lucky we missed it.

The hike in was snowy and cold. Then it got worse. When we made it up the lagoon, which sat at the base of a glacier, we were nearly knocked over by the wind. To walk further you had to crouch or hug the ground to not get knocked over. It was pretty but you couldn't stand upright for long enough to appreciate it.

Our Polish friends braving the wind

A couple of Polish girls we had met approached us speaking Spanish. Eli immediately exclaimed how happy he was he could understand them and we hung out with them the rest of the day, practicing our Spanish. It seems the girls were having trouble understanding Chileans and Argentinians as well, but our elementary Spanish was perfect!

Back in the warmth of El Chalten

Sendero al Fitz Roy

If there is a reason to fall in love with El Chalten it is because of Mount Fitz Roy. The hike, Sendero al Fitz Roy, follows another river valley out of town.This river is wide and meandering and the hills around it are full of fall colors. It was a very pretty scene, and today, it wasn't snowing.

Not long after starting the hike, you walk up to a lookout and there it is. In the center of this high and jagged ridgeline is Fitz Roy. 

The icon of Patagonia (the clothing brand) is said to be based on this mountain's profile. What do you think?

This hike was, section by section, one of the most beautiful I have ever been on. The mountains are so jagged they often have their own clouds around them blocking the view of the peaks. Walking beneath Fitz Roy and the huge glaciers below it we felt small. The clouds moved quickly and we would see glimpses of granite appearing high up in the sky, looking out of place. We had lunch outside the campsite that sits below Fitz Roy and when we were finally finished with staring at it, we returned back to town.

Fitz Roy

On our final day in town we walked to the top of an overlook on the opposite side of town. From here we could see the dry valley behind the Andes mountains in Argentina. We could see Lago Argentina and other glacier blue lakes. We even had Eli's shoe, our only Patagonia product, photographed in it's birthplace.

Welcome home shoe

Timed jumping pictures gone wrong

Granite of Fitz Roy in the sky