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Published: March 14th 2008
After my visit to the Perito Moreno Glacier, I thought it was time to get back on the hiking trail. This time, my adventures led me to El Chalten and to Mount Fitz Roy. El Chalten is a small hiking village accessible from El Calafate, which is surrounded by towering glaciers, crystal lagoons, vast lakes, and the ever-looming presence of mount Fitz Roy. This is quiet village is often deemed the "National Trekking Capital of Argentina," due to its unparalleled access to glacial terrain. The area is also known, however, for recreational climbing, camping, horseback riding, fishing, and rafting.
It was an early morning start from El Calafate and a four hour bus ride to El Chalten. I befriended an Israeli couple on the bus and asked them if they wanted to hike together. The reply I got was “Are you in shape?” Hmm, am I in shape?? What a question!! I politely informed them that “yes, I was”.
Anyway, we set off together battling gale force winds and in pouring rain that was coming in horizontally. What a start. We battled the elements for about five hours and eventually we reached Camp Poincenot, located at the foot of
Fitz Roy Mountain. The mountain has a reputation of being "ultimate," despite its average height (although being the highest peak in the Los Glaciares park, it is less than half the Himalayan giants), because the sheer granite faces present long stretches of arduous technical climbing. Because it was pretty crappy weather we retired to our tents and lazed the rest of the day away.
The next morning we climbed (up a very step path) to Lguna de los Tres to get an uninterrupted view of Fitz Roy. Unfortunately the top of the mountain was covered in clouds and we didn’t the view that we were hoping for. Lucky for us we didn’t do the 5am pilgrimage to see the sunrise over Fitz Roy, because those that did were sorely disappointed - as well as a little sleep deprived.
We lingered a little to long at the top waiting for the cloud to disappear, so by the time we got back to camp we were running a little late. From Camp Poincenot we hiked about another three and a half hours to the very pretty Laguna Torre. On the way, the clouds disappeared from Fitz Roy and we hiked
with unbelievable views of the mountain in the background. By the time we got to Laguna Torre we were well behind schedule and we only had two hours to get back to the pick up point. The Israeli girl was starting to fall behind and we really thought that we might not make the bus. They told me to go ahead and hold the bus for them. So off I went at a hundred miles an hour, because there was no way that I was missing the bus. The estimated time to get back to El Chalten was two hours, and I managed to do it in an hour fifteen. Pretty good for such short legs!! The bus arrived on time, but alas there was no sign of my hiking partners. I managed to hold the bus for a while, but the driver was starting to get impatient. Just when I was about to give up hope, I saw them walking up the road towards us. Whew. It was certainly a close call.
The question I was going to pose to them on the way back to El Calafate was “So are you in shape??”
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