Mt. Fitz Roy

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El Chalten is located at the northern endo of Los Glaciares National Park. It was founded in 1985 due to border problems with Chile. Since then it has become the trekking capital of Argentina because it’s the starting point of trails that leads to views of Fitz Roy (3405 m), Pincenot (3002 m), Cerro Torre (3102 m) and many others.

Our guide set our expectation of seeing Mt. Fitz Roy and everything else in Patagonia low because weather is highly unpredictable and most often clouded over or raining. The day started out with iffy weather but slowly blue sky moved in. On the trail to Mt. Fitz Roy we saw condors and heard woodpeckers. We could see most of the peaks except Fitz Roy until we got to the last steep part near Laguna de Los Tres, named in honour of the trio of French climbers, Rene Ferlet, Guido Magnone, and Lionel Terray, who were the first to scale Mt. Fitz Roy in 1952. Then it cleared up and we could see Mt. Fitz Roy in its fully glory, just like the postcard photo! It’s kind of like the Rockies but different. Lago Sucio (Dirty) is next to it, so named because of the floating bits of ice in the glacier lake.

On the way back we stopped at Lago Capri. Our guide had a thermometer and the lake temperature was +15°C, rather warm for a glacier fed lake.

Total distance hiked = 25 km, time = about 10 hours.

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