Mount Fitz Roy

One more backpacking trip. Why not. It’s not like we’ve hiked (not including walking around towns and cities) ~160km in the last 3 weeks or anything. Its not like our legs are sore, and our bodies chronically exhausted. It’s not like we’ve visibly lost weight since the start of the O-Trek. Nahh, this one will be easy.

We gathered supplies in El Chaltén, splurging on hiking food like pasta sauce and spaghetti. The morning of departure was raining, so we waited it out until the skies cleared. We only had a plan of 10km or so for the first day.

Los Glacieres
Distance: 37.4km
Elevation: 1437m

Hiking near El Chaltén is super easy. There are a lot of free, no book campgrounds with an outhouse that you can just show up at. Many trails weave around the peaks. We plotted our course to the two most famous points in the area, Laguna Torre and Laguna de los Tres, which had a view of Fitz Roy. We planned to sleep at the camps near both of the lagoons, traversing between the two, and doing the in and out ascents during times with good weather.

The area also has a circuit called the Huemul circuit, a 4 day mega adventure that has gotten very popular over the last few years. It includes rope crossings over streams, and does not include a marked path. A lot of people were up for the adventure, but not us this time. Too much walking. Still, we watched a lot of ill prepared head out on the journey. I hope they did well.

Day 1: Laguna Torre
Distance: 9.37km
Elevation: 395m

Finally the rain cleared, and we set out for Laguna Torre. We were joined by Avi, an enthusiastic Indian who had dreamed of Patagonia for the last 5 years. He had little major hiking experience, but wanted to see Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine. So he made it happen for himself. He was on a short walk to Cerro Torre as a warm up, a lookout point an hour away. We made it in quick time, but clouds obscured most of the mountains. Disappointed, Avi went back to town. We headed towards the clouds.

The walk was a steep uphill to start, but after Cerro Torre it was mostly flat, with some lagoons poking through. The mountains slowly clearing up from the fog.

We made it to camp, then it started snowing on us. It was a bit of a scramble to get the tent up, as we just wanted our spaghetti. But mother nature had other plans, so tent first. Dinner ended up being fantastic. We’ve became gluttons for store bought pasta recently.

The camp was only a few hundred meters from Laguna Torre, so we decided to head up there while the sun set. We’re in the mountains, so it gets shady and cold well before there are any fun colours. When we got up to the lagoon though, we were in for a surprise.

Icebergs! Glacier Torre feeds into the lagoon from the other side, and icebergs from that glacier had floated over to this side of the lagoon. We even watched one fall apart in half. Across the lagoon was the more intimidating sight of Mount Torre. The jagged straight edge granite spire was shrouded in cloud, with hints of glacier behind it. It was an imposing sight, like where the big bad guy’s evil lair is in a fantasy movie. We watched the lagoon for half an hour or so before we got cold and went to bed.

Day 2: Laguna de Los Tres
Distance: 19.89km
Elevation: 985m

This was supposed to be an easy day. Three easy days we said. This day was not easy.

We started the morning walking along the rim of Laguna Torre to about halfway down the lagoon, where we could see the glacier touch the lagoon. The glaciers here are all connected by ice to the glaciers of Torres del Paine, all part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The weather was totally, clear, and we could see in full view the previously imposing Mount Torre. Much less intimidating in full sun.

Back to camp to pack up, and head out for the day. The plan was to make it to Camp Poincenot, which is located at the base of the ascent to Fitz Roy. If we were feeling good, we would head up in the afternoon, if not, it was a morning journey up. We were feeling tired and sore, but in good mental spirits.

The path moved through the forest, but uphill for the first bit. We had a pass to make (though these passes are much smaller than their Peruvian counterparts) that didn’t take too long at all. We could tell that our bodies were quite tired. Our legs didn’t move as fast at they have been the last couple weeks. Each uphill ache groaned with the ghosts of 160km past. We powered through, it wasn’t that big of a hill.

After the pass, and a couple fake summits of it, the path began a nice slow descent, and the scenery opened up to two lakes, Lago’s madre y hermana (mother and sister). The path ran right into a lovely pebble beach, which we decided to have a break at. The sun had warmed the rocks nicely. The water too, as it was a shallower clear lake. There was a decent wind, but that didn’t matter if you were lying down. I ended up falling asleep in the sun for a short little time. There were other hikers that had the same idea.

One good power nap later, we put the bags on and continued the journey to Poincenot. The trail here was more of the same, bobbing in and out of the trees to views of the mountains. One major difference though. We could now see the famed Mount Fitz Roy. Its granite pillars towering above every other peak in the area. Its pillar siblings flanking to either side, in all the glory of the afternoon sun. A lovely boost of morale in the afternoon.

The camp was very busy. A common activity is to rent a tent in town, camp here, then get up at 3:30 for a sunrise view of the mountain. The morning sun shines on the peaks. We found a little spot nestled between tents and trees, as flat as we could get late in the afternoon. We had a nice lunch of dehydrated pasta. They do these boxes right in Argentina. And we decided we were solid enough to head up.

The ascent started with a bit of humour. A group walked by us, and we overheard their conversation. One line in particular stood out.

“I wouldn’t want to camp here, there’s nothing to buy.”

Each to their own. After a chuckle, the up started quickly. We were greeted by a 1h to the the top sign, followed by another 20 minutes later. Progress.

The joints were sore headed up, as this was just a steeper version of the final ascent to Torres del Paine. But we hauled up, to a much different sight. The lagoon was frozen! Lots of snow at the top everywhere. There was an off trail paths where someone climbed up a lot to ski down a patch of snow. Other people went down to the lagoon to walk around. We were too tired for that, so we just stayed at the top to enjoy the view. Tomorrow, we may come back and do that for sunrise. Depends on how we feel at 3:30 in the morning.

Day 3: El Chaltén
Distance: 8.14km
Elevation: 57m

We didn’t feel good at 3:30. Too tired. We fell back asleep. No sunrise Fitz for us.

We instead got up when we wanted to, which was around 7:30 or so. A nice breakfast of our favorite curry noodles, and a slow pack up, and we had an easy walk back to town. It was mostly gentle downhill, which was really good for our now further chronically tired bodies. The weather was lovely, with a nice sunny sky in cool air. The forest trees provided necessary shade for us.

We saw our friend Kasey from the O-Trek on the way up. She had more trekking in her world, the same loop we did now, and then the Huemul circuit after. Apparently that was quite an adventure. But it was good catching up with her one last time, as we missed her on our swan song final day just a few days prior.

In El Chaltén, we repacked everything for the buses, and returned all of our rental equipment. Our universal plug in broke too, so I spent a good hour running around town trying to find any store that carried another. Finally after traversing across the whole town, the 6th shop an answer.

We have no more nights in El Chaltén, and in fact a pretty tight schedule. We have another outdoor adventure planned for the next day, and its over 300km away from El Chaltén. So back on the bus we go, for a day trip that Camryn has been looking forward to for months. We will see you there!