In the southern Argentinian province of Santa Cruz, one will find a wonderland of mountains, glaciers, and breathtaking vistas. The first stop we made was the town of El Chalten. I knew the Austral Andes would be beautiful, but I had no idea how impressive El Chalten would be.
The town was founded in 1985 for two reasons. First of all it was to support hikers exploring Los Glaciares National Park. Secondly, it was to lay claim to the area. For years Chile has had its eye on expanding its territory and would love to have more of the vital water supply of the continental ice sheet, which is the largest in the world after Antarctica. The name Chalten means “smoking mountain” in the native language of Tehuelche. The indigenous people originally thought it was a volcano that was constantly steaming not realizing what they saw was not smoke, but clouds. Chalten is the name of both the town and the mountain. The mountain is more commonly referred to as Cerro (Mount) Fitz Roy after the captain of Darwin’s ship the Beagle. The two most famous peaks visitors come to see are Fitz Roy (3,405 meters) and Torre (3,128 meters). The area was demeaned the trekking headquarters of Argentina and it makes sense why. There is an abundance of well signed and maintained paths with several clean camp grounds. It would be easy to spend more than a week just camping and exploring all the area has to offer.
We arrived in town and made ourselves comfortable at the Patagonia Traveler’s Hostel. It is by far one of my favorite hostels I have stayed in. The facilities were nice, but most likely it is the type of people Chalten draws that made it so special. Everyone was very friendly and I met a ton of people while politely fighting for burners in the kitchen. One French man even gave me his burner simply because I offered to arm wrestle him for it. One person we met really stands out above the rest though. His name is Carl and he is from Colorado. He is currently pursuing his dream of snowboarding in Antarctica. He is a high school teacher and took off an entire semester to train in Bariloche, travel around with his wife and sons, and finally make the leap down to the most difficult continent to reach. It took him ten years of prep and saving to make it happen. Carl if you are reading this, congrats. One of the things I respect the most in this world is chasing your dreams. My father always told me that if I had a goal, write it down and there is no reason not to reach it. I full heartedly agree with this thought process. During my last trip home, I actually found a bucket list I wrote when I was 16. It had 50 items on it. I have accomplished/done 47 of them. The last three will take some time, but I know I will be successful. My problem is every time I cross one thing off the list, another ten jump into the bucket. I guess that is why they say life is about the journey and not the destination.
Our first day out and about we did the easy two hour round-trip walk to the Chorrillo del Salto. On the way we met three members of the Olympic Austrian sail team. What a cool lifestyle they have! The government funds for them to travel around the world to train year round and to compete. A huge benefit of their sport is that they will be able to compete until a much later age than most sports since so much of the sport is knowledge/experience based and less demanding on the body.
After a day of prep, we hit the paths with our bags way over packed with food. We calculated that by day three Nico’s pack was at least 16 kilos lighter due to our food consumption. Regardless of how our backs were feeling, it was by far the best leg of our South American adventure thus far. The hike to Camp Poncenot was stunning. The sky was clear and when we reached the first view point of Mount Fitz Roy I couldn’t help but yell, “Heck Yes!” I have been to many amazing natural spots around the world, but Fitz Roy on a cloudless sunny day takes the cake. There is something about the composition of its jagged peaks, its gray/orange rock face, and its massive ice sheets precariously balanced just waiting for an excuse to cascade down into the lagoon below that make this spot something very special. We set up our tent and decided to chase the sunlight by hiking up the steep hour long path to the Laguna de Los Tres. It is by far the most important spot to visit in the area. Unfortunately most people are tired when they arrive at the top and they see the first snow covered lagoon and assuming that is it, they head back down. Having seen photos of an ice sheet sliding into a turquoise lagoon, I was under the impression there was more. Due to the lack of light we agreed to do the tiring hike back up in the morning and to look around more.
During the night we had a visit from a fox. He successfully freed our garbage bag from its not so secure location and vigorously cleaned all our tuna cans. I remained awake due to my lower extremities feeling like icicles. It snowed throughout the night. I kept thinking, “At least it isn’t raining.” Well it didn’t matter much. When we got up, everything was wet. We spent several hours trying to dry everything out and repacking our packs. Luckily, by the time we were ready to head to Camp Agostini, the sky had cleared and we were able to make our second go at Laguna de Los Tres. I was really hoping I was right about there being another lagoon. If I dragged Nico all the way up there to have the same view as the day before, I was going to feel bad. It was another AHHHHH YEAAA moment though. We passed the ledge where all the hikers stop and continued down along the lagoon and up a rocky hill to be met by a brilliant turquoise lagoon spotted with large sheets of ice. Mission accomplished! We spent so long taking in the view that it became evident we were going to have to stay at Camp Poncenot another night.
The next day was a long long day. We had to make up the mileage from the day before. We ended up doing almost 30 km with our big packs. We hiked along Lag. Madre e Hija (mother and daughter) to Camp Agostini. At the camp we dropped our bags and booked it up to Laguna Torre. We persevered past the strong wind gusts and walked along the narrow stony path to reach the closest view point of the glacier and Cerro Torre itself. We knew we were going to be pushing daylight yet again, but decided to head back to town. Before leaving the lagoon, we took a jump photo with a nice group from South Korea. One of the guys even had a portable printer in his bag and he printed me a copy of our jump photo! So cool. I love Asians.
Even though Torre isn’t that tall, it is one of the hardest mountains to climb due to its sheer rock faces. The mountain has a very interesting and dramatic history. In 1958, Walter Bonatti (one of the most famous climbers of that decade) climbed about 500 meters and announced that it was not possible to summit Cerro Torre. In 1959, Bonatti’s rival Cesare Maestri accompanied by Toni Egger took on the mountain to prove Bonatti wrong. Maestri claimed to have been successful, but during the descent Egger fell to his death. Egger had been carrying the duo’s camera and thus there was no evidence of a successful summit. For years it was contested and argued. Today most agree that Maestri’s claim was nothing but a hoax. Climbers in the 70’s found evidence of Maestri and Egger’s climb up to the 1,000 foot mark, but nothing in the remaining 1,500 feet. The deception and stories that revolve around Cerro Torre make it one of the most interesting peaks in alpinism’s history.
We impressed ourselves and made it back to town with half an hour of daylight. We were tired, but still up for more trekking for sure. So on our last day in town we hiked up to the Los Cóndores and Las Águilas viewpoints. We really lucked out with clear weather. Supposedly, Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy are usually encircled with clouds 300 days out of the year. It was a fun day with weirdo and we got some awesome photos.
I highly recommend coming to Chalten and spending at least three days trekking and if you can even longer. Next up walking on a glacier in El Calafate!
The town was founded in 1985 for two reasons. First of all it was to support hikers exploring Los Glaciares National Park. Secondly, it was to lay claim to the area. For years Chile has had its eye on expanding its territory and would love to have more of the vital water supply of the continental ice sheet, which is the largest in the world after Antarctica. The name Chalten means “smoking mountain” in the native language of Tehuelche. The indigenous people originally thought it was a volcano that was constantly steaming not realizing what they saw was not smoke, but clouds. Chalten is the name of both the town and the mountain. The mountain is more commonly referred to as Cerro (Mount) Fitz Roy after the captain of Darwin’s ship the Beagle. The two most famous peaks visitors come to see are Fitz Roy (3,405 meters) and Torre (3,128 meters). The area was demeaned the trekking headquarters of Argentina and it makes sense why. There is an abundance of well signed and maintained paths with several clean camp grounds. It would be easy to spend more than a week just camping and exploring all the area has to offer.
We arrived in town and made ourselves comfortable at the Patagonia Traveler’s Hostel. It is by far one of my favorite hostels I have stayed in. The facilities were nice, but most likely it is the type of people Chalten draws that made it so special. Everyone was very friendly and I met a ton of people while politely fighting for burners in the kitchen. One French man even gave me his burner simply because I offered to arm wrestle him for it. One person we met really stands out above the rest though. His name is Carl and he is from Colorado. He is currently pursuing his dream of snowboarding in Antarctica. He is a high school teacher and took off an entire semester to train in Bariloche, travel around with his wife and sons, and finally make the leap down to the most difficult continent to reach. It took him ten years of prep and saving to make it happen. Carl if you are reading this, congrats. One of the things I respect the most in this world is chasing your dreams. My father always told me that if I had a goal, write it down and there is no reason not to reach it. I full heartedly agree with this thought process. During my last trip home, I actually found a bucket list I wrote when I was 16. It had 50 items on it. I have accomplished/done 47 of them. The last three will take some time, but I know I will be successful. My problem is every time I cross one thing off the list, another ten jump into the bucket. I guess that is why they say life is about the journey and not the destination.
Our first day out and about we did the easy two hour round-trip walk to the Chorrillo del Salto. On the way we met three members of the Olympic Austrian sail team. What a cool lifestyle they have! The government funds for them to travel around the world to train year round and to compete. A huge benefit of their sport is that they will be able to compete until a much later age than most sports since so much of the sport is knowledge/experience based and less demanding on the body.
After a day of prep, we hit the paths with our bags way over packed with food. We calculated that by day three Nico’s pack was at least 16 kilos lighter due to our food consumption. Regardless of how our backs were feeling, it was by far the best leg of our South American adventure thus far. The hike to Camp Poncenot was stunning. The sky was clear and when we reached the first view point of Mount Fitz Roy I couldn’t help but yell, “Heck Yes!” I have been to many amazing natural spots around the world, but Fitz Roy on a cloudless sunny day takes the cake. There is something about the composition of its jagged peaks, its gray/orange rock face, and its massive ice sheets precariously balanced just waiting for an excuse to cascade down into the lagoon below that make this spot something very special. We set up our tent and decided to chase the sunlight by hiking up the steep hour long path to the Laguna de Los Tres. It is by far the most important spot to visit in the area. Unfortunately most people are tired when they arrive at the top and they see the first snow covered lagoon and assuming that is it, they head back down. Having seen photos of an ice sheet sliding into a turquoise lagoon, I was under the impression there was more. Due to the lack of light we agreed to do the tiring hike back up in the morning and to look around more.
During the night we had a visit from a fox. He successfully freed our garbage bag from its not so secure location and vigorously cleaned all our tuna cans. I remained awake due to my lower extremities feeling like icicles. It snowed throughout the night. I kept thinking, “At least it isn’t raining.” Well it didn’t matter much. When we got up, everything was wet. We spent several hours trying to dry everything out and repacking our packs. Luckily, by the time we were ready to head to Camp Agostini, the sky had cleared and we were able to make our second go at Laguna de Los Tres. I was really hoping I was right about there being another lagoon. If I dragged Nico all the way up there to have the same view as the day before, I was going to feel bad. It was another AHHHHH YEAAA moment though. We passed the ledge where all the hikers stop and continued down along the lagoon and up a rocky hill to be met by a brilliant turquoise lagoon spotted with large sheets of ice. Mission accomplished! We spent so long taking in the view that it became evident we were going to have to stay at Camp Poncenot another night.
The next day was a long long day. We had to make up the mileage from the day before. We ended up doing almost 30 km with our big packs. We hiked along Lag. Madre e Hija (mother and daughter) to Camp Agostini. At the camp we dropped our bags and booked it up to Laguna Torre. We persevered past the strong wind gusts and walked along the narrow stony path to reach the closest view point of the glacier and Cerro Torre itself. We knew we were going to be pushing daylight yet again, but decided to head back to town. Before leaving the lagoon, we took a jump photo with a nice group from South Korea. One of the guys even had a portable printer in his bag and he printed me a copy of our jump photo! So cool. I love Asians.
Even though Torre isn’t that tall, it is one of the hardest mountains to climb due to its sheer rock faces. The mountain has a very interesting and dramatic history. In 1958, Walter Bonatti (one of the most famous climbers of that decade) climbed about 500 meters and announced that it was not possible to summit Cerro Torre. In 1959, Bonatti’s rival Cesare Maestri accompanied by Toni Egger took on the mountain to prove Bonatti wrong. Maestri claimed to have been successful, but during the descent Egger fell to his death. Egger had been carrying the duo’s camera and thus there was no evidence of a successful summit. For years it was contested and argued. Today most agree that Maestri’s claim was nothing but a hoax. Climbers in the 70’s found evidence of Maestri and Egger’s climb up to the 1,000 foot mark, but nothing in the remaining 1,500 feet. The deception and stories that revolve around Cerro Torre make it one of the most interesting peaks in alpinism’s history.
We impressed ourselves and made it back to town with half an hour of daylight. We were tired, but still up for more trekking for sure. So on our last day in town we hiked up to the Los Cóndores and Las Águilas viewpoints. We really lucked out with clear weather. Supposedly, Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy are usually encircled with clouds 300 days out of the year. It was a fun day with weirdo and we got some awesome photos.
I highly recommend coming to Chalten and spending at least three days trekking and if you can even longer. Next up walking on a glacier in El Calafate!
