El Chalten & the Fitz Roy Massif

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[youtube=nIEUoQipwZ0][youtube=yISQ8thrb-8]

El Chalten is Argentina's newest town - est 1985! Built exclusively as a gateway for Argentina's hiking center, the Fitz Roy Massif. Situated in Nacional Park Los Glaciers.

Trekking here was an easy change to trails of Chile's Torres Del Paine. The trails were well marked and maintained. All streams and rivers had sterdy bridge cover and there were even steps formed into some of the mud slopes.

Our first trek was to hike to Laguna Los Tres - base camp Fitz Roy. With the weather being perfect it was the ideal time to see the range in all its glory. Only one hour into the trek came the first lookout. We were greeted with a dramatic consortium of rugged spires sitting calmly in the morning sun, with a back drop of blue skies and a scattering of cloud cover. Stuff to put you flat on your back!
We continued onto base camp, the Patagonian weather by this point seemed light years away. The final hike to Laguna Los Tres entailed an energetic climb to 1245m over some of the more parks more challaging terrain. As ever the effort was worth it. The lookout being close enough to see the contors in the rock face of Mont Fitz Roy and its counterparts. Sliding down the rocks to the base camp we had lunch under the sofening glow of the granite masterpieces whilst watch climbers preparing to scale one of the peaks.
Hiking back into town opened up the grassy lowlands and snowcapped peaks that we'd missed on the way up. Stopping for plenty of breaks to give our limbs a rest (a few niggles had been carried over from Torres) gave us plenty of time to take it all in, and a chance to sample some more stream water (the freshest water ever tasted!).

Being a purpose built town El Chalten is primative but has no shortage of infurstructure. So getting a bus out shouldn't be a problem. Well if we wanted to go south then no problem - getting north on the other hand turns out to be a different matter. Marroned again we were told six days minimum, thats three days longer than we'd planned. The result was to miss a stop to see 10,000 year old painted caves and straight onto Barlioche. Which consequently is a 35 hour direct bus journey. It has been said 'things in Patagonia take a little longer', they weren't wrong!

With my knee still niggling from Torres and the base camp. I spent the next couple of days taking it easy with a couple of gentle treks to local waterfalls and the ice cream parlour. But before long I'd booked myself onto a 12-hour guided hike to Glacier Torre to have a go at ice trekking and climbing.
Leaving at a dark 0630 the day ahead would be hard. On route to the glacier camping site, Patagonia reminded me how much I'd missed the trenchal rain, hale and wind. Visibility of a few meters at the lookout points of the glacier on-route to camp turned the journey into a case of just getting there. Picking up three more hikers and the ice guide we made our trek to River Fitz Roy. Over the next 90 minuets Fitz Roy changed from the pleasant easy to use area into a mini Torres Del Paine (reminding me of the rain soked 2m long slate rock I slipped on and surfed down, only somehow for instincts to take over and hop off before the end. On inspection, what was at the end of the slate would of made good use of the air ambulance). After crossing this desolate ridge we arrived at Rio Fitz Roy and the edge of the Glacier Torre, fed by the third largest ice field in the world, the Southern Ice field (13,000 square kilometers). Crossing the river by means of a zip wire, we then put the crampons on our shoes. After a short safety briefing we were walking comfortably on the ice over ridges, crevasses and streams. Close up the glacier takes on a different appearance. The almost translucent compacted ice reflecting deep blue streaks from the peaked surfaces. Water filled crevasses formed by rock erosion harbour ice blue glows whilst the surrounding ice releases air bubbles hundreds of years old into the water and back into the atmosphere.
As the rain stopped and the clouds parted for a few minuets, the surface of the ice glistened in the midday sun, allowing the glacier to display its golf ball like texture.

Ice climbing was also an interesting activity. Using crampons and ice axes to scale an ice wall is relatively quick and secure albeit hard work. But its the getting down bit thats interesting. At 12m being told 'trust your crampon' doesn't always install the greatest confidence whilst dangling by a rope!

After the strange sensations of ice trekking the group started the trek back to El Chalten. My knee started to tell me what a plonker I'd been to agree to a 12-hour long trek but the experience was well worth it. The talk of the 9 day expedition to cross the Southern Ice Field leads to my imagination canceling my onward bus journey. But thinking about it, it sounds better than the 35 hour bus journey.......

As we now look forward to Bariloche and the lake district it draws our southern Patagonian experience to a close. As each challenge this region gave us came unexplainable rewards. Every twist and turn unearthed dramatic landscapes. Vast unchartered lands full of jaw dropping, mind-bending espace, that just over the next ridge opens up into something different, something even more amazing. Nature showing the energy and power that she truly posseses, creating, crafting this magnificence over millions of years.
Again words and pictures cannot explain what this completely unquice region of the world contains.

Even now we're sitting in a small cafe with Argentinian football on the TV (beer and rowdy locals present and correct!). Out of one window the peaks of the Fitz Roy Massif are poking out over the towns sheltering ridges, out of the other the next ranges snow capped peaks sit peacefully in the evening breeze.

The one thing I won't miss however is the wind. Southern Patagonia, can keep it.
Full Photos on Flickr

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