El Chalten, Cerro Torre and Fitzroy, 100 days

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El Chalten is a very new, very dusty and sometimes very windy place and you would not dream of coming here unless you wanted to see the hills. The bus from El Calafate stops at the Parque des Glaciares info centre to give you a pep talk and a map. As the ranger says "at El Calafate you get the bus to see the glaciers, here you walk". The map is good as it gives you the estimated time for different walks and the amount of uphill involved.

Checked in at our hostel and booked a table for dinner at the next door restaurant - as they have a curry style dish we didn´t want to miss. The chicken curry and rice turned out to be great. As the weather looked good we decided to do the walk to Laguna Torre the next day.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, it was also the 100th day of our trip. The walk turned out to be long (about 18 -20km round trip ) but with not too much ascent. At the first mirador we couldn´t really see Cerro Torre as it was shrouded in clouds with only the tip showing. As we admired the view, including the summit of Fitzroy, we met Swiss Martin, a man we had previously seen in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. He joined us for the next couple of hours as we walked on towards the Laguna. I had a packet of chocolate raisins in my pack as bribery for Susan when she flagged, but not needed until lunch by the lake. As we walked on the clouds swirled around Cerro Torre giving us occasional glimpses of the whole glorious sight. From the Laguna Torre the view is magnificent with the towering mountains, the glaciers and the lake all combining together.

As we walked back to El Chalten we realised that this was the longest single day´s walking Susan had ever done, and she was happy! In the evening, after long showers and a rest we met up with Martin for pizza and alcohol. We had idly speculated that he was a dodgy swiss banker making bullion deliveries to ancient war criminals, turns out he is a computer programmer, or in deep cover!

Sunday was a another bright day so we headed for the hills again, this time up to the Fitzroy mirador and around to Laguna Capri. Unfortunately the tops of the Fitzroy massif were clouded over today but still a great sight and a good 10km leg stretch. Back down the hill we had some ice cream and went to see the small chapel erected to commemorate the climbers killed on these hills. Rather a long list.

In the evening the wind really got up and a gale howled around all night, woke up to some horizontal rain. A good day to leave town.

Next time Ruta 40

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Photos

At Laguna Torre
Cerro Torre behind

El Chalten Chapel
for the climbers who didn´t come back