The bus from El Calafate takes almost four hours, across the dry Patagonian steppes, to reach El Chalten; stopping for coffee at a small hotel where Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid once holed up after robbing a bank in Patagonia (they did get around!) and the large turquoise Lago Viedma, with the glacier of the same name flowing down into it from the great southern icefield.

It was grey when we left El Calafate and raining when we arrived in El Chalten. Still, we found a nice place to stay and holed up for the afternoon in comfort. By 5.30pm, the sun was breaking through and it seemed a good idea to walk to the Mirador de Torres for our first look at these famous mountains.

Canyon of the Fitzroy River


Siempre el condor

As we set out in bright sunshine, across grasslands speckled with the odd colour of flowering herbs and orchids, we had little idea that we would return less than 2 hours later under heavy snowflakes swirling about in an icy wind. It was our first lesson in the weather of Fitzroy and the mountains had kept their faces hidden from us; tomorrow, we would try again.

At 6.30am I looked outside the window of our room; snow still lay on the ground in El Chalten and the hills around, but it was glistening ..... in the sunlight. A fine sunny day is a precious object in this part of the world and there was no time to dally. We were up, showered, fed and on the track by 8am, hoping to catch our first glimpse of the mountains of Fitzroy. With the promise of fine weather, we decided to head up the lesser known track to the the Mirador de Loma de Pliegue Tumbado, with the promise of a magnificent panorama of the two icons of this area - 3120m Cerro Torre and 3405m Monte Fitzroy.

As we walked quickly through the streets of El Chalten, the enigmatic shape of Monte Fitzroy appeared above the horizon, climbing higher as we headed southward down the main street towards the National Park headquarters and the start of the walk.

Fitzroy hiding behind the clouds - view from Mirador Condores

Leaving the ranger station, we headed off across a small flat area to the junction of a track leading up to Mirador Los Condores, 200m higher to our left. The clouds starting to form in the once clear blue sky were a bit of a worry, so I raced up to the Mirador to take a couple of photos (just in case) while the fair Nello pushed slowly on up the track. Not only were the mountains more impressive from the higher viewpoint, but the sight of El Chalten surrounded by snow-covered hills and grassy flats was spectacular.

Looking back over El Chalten

Rejoining the track, I hurried up past small stands of low-growing ñire beech, lining a stream that flowed out of a small gorge, crossing it on a wooden bridge. From the single set of well-known bootprints in the snow on the bridge, only the fair Nello was ahead - climbing steadily up through a feerique white-carpeted landscape, the shrubs and bright-green leaves of the lenga beech trees also wearing white mantles of snow.

Soon I caught up and we pushed on together, enjoying the stillness and the chillness of this wintry setting - it was good to be the only ones out here at this time. Or should I say the only humans, as the animals of Patagonia were also out and about, their footprints tracking through the snow in erratic paths. The condors were also out, one sweeping low overhead searching for old meat on new snow.

Climbing steadily upwards, we alternated between open grassland and groves of mature beech, while at times the spires of Monte Fitzroy and the needle-like Cerro Torre appeared through the gaps in the forest.

At one clearing we were watching a pair of hares at play, when a noise nearby attracted our attention. Watching us from the protection of the nearby beech grove was a huemul, the rare mule deer of Patagonia - it bolted when we crept closer. The track now turned westward to head up a long spur, once again entering the deep beech forest.

Almost on cue, the clouds parted to reveal one of the best alpine panoramas that we have ever seen; the incredibly sharp needle of Cerro Torre and the dark bulk of the south face of Monte Fitzroy standing guard on each side of Glacier Torre, curving down into the milky green waters of Laguna Torre. This is one of the few places where you can see both these icons in their full extent at the same time.

The swirling clouds lifted from the mountains to reveal ...

The wildness of the Patagonian Andes

After a long and slow lunch break, we forced ourselves to leave this magic setting, once again rounding the the saddle to start our descent, only to find that the world had changed dramatically. During our ninety minutes on top, the snow had almost all gone, leaving a shaley, pink-tinted rocky surface, colonised by mosses and cushion plants.

So what happened to the snow? The shaley surface of
Loma de Pliegue Tumbado revealed

The forest was dripping with melting snow as we passed through it and lower down, where we had walked up in white carpet, we were able to sit in the warm afternoon sun on a grassy slope, dotted with dandelions and alpine herbs. It was a very different trip down; what more can you ask for - two walks for the effort of one!

Tree line on the way down

What joy - a second fine day in El Chalten! Some high cloud was drifting in from the south, but the air was still and warm in the valley. We even slept in a bit and it was 9.30am by the time we set out for the signature walk of the region; the track up to Laguna de los Tres for a face-to-face look at mighty Fitzroy. We soon left the northern end of town and started climbing quickly up through old twisted beech trees at the base of the pink granite knob of Cerro Rosado, emerging at a point from where we could look down the length of the Rio de las Vueltas, winding through its broad flat bed beneath the Cordon de los Condores. As it should be, a pair of these magnificent birds soared high overhead.

The track wound around Cerro Rosado, climbing gently through open grasslands, covered with shapely mounds of low prickly shrubs and dotted with the yellow, cream and white flowers of alpine herbs. Soon, however, we were back in world of beech, some low scrubby ñire and some impressively mature stands of gnarly old lenga. The sound of "tac-tac-tac" stopped us in our tracks; looking up, we saw the brilliant red head of a carpintero hammering into the dead wood of an old beech, searching for its breakfast.

Pushing on, we entered another large grove of beech, wherein sheltered the Poincenot campsite. We did not dally as the track was starting to get crowded, and risked being moreso on the slower steeper sections, but headed on to cross the stony Rio Blanco on a log bridge and climb gently up to Rio Blanco climbers' campsite.

Here the climb started in earnest - 450m in 2km of zig-zagging track up an eroding spur (the national park has done a good job of repairing the track and defining the path, but with a hundred or so people doing this walk every day it is difficult for areas to recover).

Nearing the Mirador de los Tres

We soon settled into a rhythm and climbed steadily, all the way views opening up behind us of Lagunas Madre y Hija, Capri and distant Lago Viedma.

Still the best views remained hidden until, 45 minutes later, we crested the rocky scree to the magnificent vista of Fitzroy, directly in front of us above a softly snow covered glacier, its grey and pinkish-orange granite soaring majestically 2200m above the pristine frozen whiteness of Laguna de los Tres.

Reflections in Laguna Sucia (me parece muy limpia!)

We stayed for lunch, joining other trekkers to absorb the aura of Fitzroy and watching ice avalanches tumble down from the glacier into Laguna Sucia or, more impressively, tumbling several hundred metres off the spire of Poincenot high above. One by one, people began to leave and eventually we headed off as well; cloud having menacingly filled the sky behind the mountain! After passing a small bottleneck of walkers on the higher part of the track, we were soon back at Rio Blanco.

Spot the trekker in front of a massive boulder stranded here by retreating ice

Icebergs jammed against the shore of Laguna Piedras Blancas

The face of Glacier Piedras Blancas up close

Picking our way between, around and over this jumble we reached the outlet of Laguna Piedras Blancas, small icebergs floating in its leeward shore, a low-faced glacier at its far end and, high above, the magnificently contorted face of the upper glacier crowned with wierdly angled seracs - simply magnificent and well with the extra 5km.

Making the detour had one extra benefit; by the time that we returned to the Rio Blanco bridge, the crowds had vanished and we had the return trip to El Chalten largely to ourselves in the tranquility of the late afternoon - even the wind had left us.

Caracara being photogenic

A last look at Fitzroy across Laguna Capri

We pushed on quickly to Laguna Capri for one last view of Fitzroy, arriving to find a pair of caracaras boldly rifling through the campsite and a young woman sitting under a bonsaied beech on the lakeshore meditating in the stillness of the evening. Nothing seemed more appropriate, so finding our own spot a little back, we joined her to take in the silence of the Patagonian wilderness.