El chalten and fitzroy
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
83
110
Trip End
Ongoing
El Chalten, ** and Fitzroy ****,
Argentina
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Well in order to complete any trip to Patagonia`s hiking spots, a trip to the incredible Fitzroy mountain range is a must and so, that`s exactly what we did. We arrived in El Chalten upon arriving, we knew that we would stay there only for as long as was necessary. We have had our fair share of Winter ghost towns since coming to Patagonia, but El Chalten tops the poll. The town was only built in 1985 to facilitate tourists who wished to come for a gawk at the impressive Fitzroy range so it`s not surprising that it failed to impress when there were so few tourists round.
The Fitzroy massif is located in the Northern sector of the National Park of the Glaciers
el fitz
. It contains two sharp peaks that are like vampires`incisors splitting open the Patagonian blue sky.(see photo)Mount Fitzroy, at 3445m, is at the centre of the massif.
The more interesting of the two Vampire peaks is the Cerro Torre. The Cerro Torre (3128m) is considered to be one of the most difficult peaks in the world to climb. It is not its altitude or surface that causes problems but rather the fact that the peak is quite literally a completely vertical face with a spire drop of 2km into glacier ice below.
The unpredictable weather of the area also plays a role with winds sometimes blowing up to 200km per hour and freezing temperatures that cause 20cm-thick crusts of ice forming on the rock wall. Ice in the shape of mushrooms also exists on the summit and has a tendency to break off and land the unsuspecting climbers below.
Controversy has raged over the years as to who was the first man to climb Cerro Torre. Italian Alpiner Cesare Maestri claims to have successfully climbed the peak in 1951. The veracity of this claim has always been questioned as his Austrian partner Toni Edgar died in an avalanche and brought the camera with him to his death.
Not to be defeated by the doubting Thomases of the climbing world, Maestri made a second bid to reach the top in 1970 and was successful in attaining the proof this time. He did not climb the ice mushroom on the summit, however, and so the official honour goes to another Italian Casimaro Ferrari who successfully climbed to the top AND defeated the uncooperative ice mushroom.
Naturally, it wasn`t the peak of Cerro Torre that was on Collins and my agenda upon arriving in El Chalten. We planned on doing a few day hikes up to the chief lookout points and catch a glimpse or two of the wonder that is the Fitzroy Massif or el Fitz, as it`s affectionately known as round El Chalten.
The Fitzroy range and National Park are quite similar to the Torres del Paine park in many ways when one considers the scenery such as glaciers etc.
One of the big differences, however, is that it is not necessary to get a bus to the Fitzroy massif as it is quite literally beside the town. The proximity of the park to the town meant we could do most of the walks on day trips.
Once again, we were lucky as leaping leprechauns with the weather the day we arrived. Collins and I set out immediately to make the most of the beautiful, clear day.
We did an easy hike up to El Mirador de los Condors where you could see the sharp peaks of Fitz perfectly with condors gliding past (For more on these birds, refer to my Arequipa pod). The four Irish that we travelled to El Chalten with went to bed with hung-over heads and were they sorry the next day when you could barely see your feet in front of you. We did two more hikes the second day but they weren`t really worth the slipping and sliding up the icy paths as we could see Nada.
We left El Chalten happy as we had seen the Fitz which was our chief reason in coming. Went back to El Calafate for the night as it was the only bus and then headed down south to Rio Gallegos...
