El Chalten and Mount Fitz Roy
El Chalten, the town.
We both really loved El Chalten. It is a small town, built in 1985 and now has 700 inhabitants, mostly (all?) geared to tourism, but some is serious climbing as well as the kind of trekking we were doing.
In many ways it seems like a "frontier town" with many small square buildings, many only partially built out of brick blocks (mainly). There are many restaurants and hotels and they are really interesting designs, using lots of wood and different angles and furnishings. Quite a lot of character.
Just across the road from Los Nires (our hotel) is an old small wooden building with half on stilts like a queenslander, and it is a chocolate place that makes the most fantastic, rich but not over-sweet hot chocolate. Inside is old climbing gear and a staircase with a ski as a railing takes you to the small upstairs room where you sit in the sun with views of snow capped mountains to drink the brown hot warming comfort! YES!!
Our walks.
Well, when we arrived after a 4 hour reasonably pleasant bus trip, we were lectured to by a park ranger (Alejandro) with a fantastic sense of humour to tell us the rules (no smoking on the trails, garbage in, garbage out etc etc). It was SO good and he had such passion that I was informed, entertained and moved.
Our first day it when we arrived, it was clear but clouding over, so we walked just 10km in the afternoon to a lovely waterfall just out of town. The waterfall was quite high and we enjoyed being just the 5 of us (Heidi and Paul as well as our fantastic guide Marcelo). Eva chatted to people and I danced about on the rocks and took photos. A lot of the walk was along a dusty 4wd road, but the last part was really nice.
Next day, was more overcast and we had just a spot of rain along the trail, and much of the mountains were not visible. We went on a 7 hour 22km hike to Laguna Torre and back. It was a fair bit of uphill, with views to the valley below and then over flat plain and a little forest to a glacier that we could see and its green coloured lagoon in front. We walked on the moraine and saw the most wonderfully coloured rocks, glistening with the rain. We had lunch on them, and also ate some blue berries and red berries that Marcelo found. They were juicy but not too sweet.
On the way back the weather did not improve, but the forest was lovely with different coloured leaves - more autumn colours here.
The next day we got up to a firey red colour dancing amongst the clouds, that turned golden yellow soon after. Despite my¨"red sky in the morning" sayings, the day cleared up spectacularly! However, as we were walking to the start of the track in the fairly strong wind, we saw the temperature was 6 degrees celcius (or with the wind, minus 2 on the testicle scale!) as we headed for the 13km ascent to Lago de los tres. It was quite an uphill walk, with increasingly better views as we ascended.
We crossed fast flowing rivers, walking in low and high forests and finally got to the really steep bit for 3km. Eva went up with the strength of an elephant and the elegence of a gazelle, and I followed with the strength of a gazelle and the elegence of an elephant. It was REALLY steep, but so worth it. We got to the top and were greeted by Fitz Roy - just there in front of us, and a couple of glaciers with their lakes in front. Marcelo wanted us to go up another hill, which we did, and just as we arrived to another glacier, there was a huge avalance - spectacular. We found some rocks to shelter from the wind and ate there in the sun - staying for ages, with no other people around us. Magic, magic, magic!
The way down ( that was 13km too!) was much harder for my knees, bu the adrenaline pumping through me, generated by the amazing views in all directions kept me going. 26km was quite tiring!
Day 3 - walk to Loma del Pliegue Tumbado.
This was a steady 12km climb of 800m and then a 12km walk back downhill. The day was unbelieveable - NO clouds whatsoever! We walked up behind the town giving us views of the glacial valley to the north with its distant snow covered mountains, the 15om high granite walls next to the town dwarfing the buildings.
We got to a beautiful forest, and walked inside it for 45mins. Marcelo again showed us some bush tucker as we ate "Indian Bread" a white fungus that is on Lenga trees and is about the size of a thumbnail and looks like an apple. Not much taste and rubbery texture.
The views of the mountains were beyond belief. It was SO clear. Chalten was the name orginally given to Mt Fitz Roy and means Smoky Mountain, because there is always a trail of cloud at the top. NOT TODAY!!
Once we left the forest we were above the treeline and walked on broken rocks in a minefield of fossils. I broke open a flat rock a little larger than my hand and covering the whole large surface was a fossil (no, not a picture of me, a real one). It was one of those spiraly shell-like things (tech name: spiraly shell-like things). There were lots of different plants along the way and some pertified wood that had only been discovered in the area a few years back (by Marcelo). We walked on the gently sloping hill, looking toward the mountain as we made our way to the top, where we could see many many peaks as we looked down far below us to Laguna Torre, where we were on the first day, and now we could see what was hidden in cloud before - and MUCH more. All had a light dusting (or more) of snow, and we would have stayed much longer that just the hour it took to have lunch, but we had to go sometime.
On the way back we paused for about 30 mins, just above the treeline to lie in the sun and watch the parrots and other birds near us. Earlier we had seen condors.
This was a most fitting walk on Rudi´s birthday, and we were tired when we got back.
So, that´s really all our walking till we get to the inca trail in a couple of weeks or so. Now we are in El Calafate again and will fly to Buenos Aires tomorrow - what a change that will be.
We will miss the mountains, and the passion and friendship of Marcelo. I thoroughly recommend the Fitz Roy area!
Hasta Luego!
We both really loved El Chalten. It is a small town, built in 1985 and now has 700 inhabitants, mostly (all?) geared to tourism, but some is serious climbing as well as the kind of trekking we were doing.
In many ways it seems like a "frontier town" with many small square buildings, many only partially built out of brick blocks (mainly). There are many restaurants and hotels and they are really interesting designs, using lots of wood and different angles and furnishings. Quite a lot of character.
Just across the road from Los Nires (our hotel) is an old small wooden building with half on stilts like a queenslander, and it is a chocolate place that makes the most fantastic, rich but not over-sweet hot chocolate. Inside is old climbing gear and a staircase with a ski as a railing takes you to the small upstairs room where you sit in the sun with views of snow capped mountains to drink the brown hot warming comfort! YES!!
Our walks.
Well, when we arrived after a 4 hour reasonably pleasant bus trip, we were lectured to by a park ranger (Alejandro) with a fantastic sense of humour to tell us the rules (no smoking on the trails, garbage in, garbage out etc etc). It was SO good and he had such passion that I was informed, entertained and moved.
Our first day it when we arrived, it was clear but clouding over, so we walked just 10km in the afternoon to a lovely waterfall just out of town. The waterfall was quite high and we enjoyed being just the 5 of us (Heidi and Paul as well as our fantastic guide Marcelo). Eva chatted to people and I danced about on the rocks and took photos. A lot of the walk was along a dusty 4wd road, but the last part was really nice.
Next day, was more overcast and we had just a spot of rain along the trail, and much of the mountains were not visible. We went on a 7 hour 22km hike to Laguna Torre and back. It was a fair bit of uphill, with views to the valley below and then over flat plain and a little forest to a glacier that we could see and its green coloured lagoon in front. We walked on the moraine and saw the most wonderfully coloured rocks, glistening with the rain. We had lunch on them, and also ate some blue berries and red berries that Marcelo found. They were juicy but not too sweet.
On the way back the weather did not improve, but the forest was lovely with different coloured leaves - more autumn colours here.
The next day we got up to a firey red colour dancing amongst the clouds, that turned golden yellow soon after. Despite my¨"red sky in the morning" sayings, the day cleared up spectacularly! However, as we were walking to the start of the track in the fairly strong wind, we saw the temperature was 6 degrees celcius (or with the wind, minus 2 on the testicle scale!) as we headed for the 13km ascent to Lago de los tres. It was quite an uphill walk, with increasingly better views as we ascended.
We crossed fast flowing rivers, walking in low and high forests and finally got to the really steep bit for 3km. Eva went up with the strength of an elephant and the elegence of a gazelle, and I followed with the strength of a gazelle and the elegence of an elephant. It was REALLY steep, but so worth it. We got to the top and were greeted by Fitz Roy - just there in front of us, and a couple of glaciers with their lakes in front. Marcelo wanted us to go up another hill, which we did, and just as we arrived to another glacier, there was a huge avalance - spectacular. We found some rocks to shelter from the wind and ate there in the sun - staying for ages, with no other people around us. Magic, magic, magic!
The way down ( that was 13km too!) was much harder for my knees, bu the adrenaline pumping through me, generated by the amazing views in all directions kept me going. 26km was quite tiring!
Day 3 - walk to Loma del Pliegue Tumbado.
This was a steady 12km climb of 800m and then a 12km walk back downhill. The day was unbelieveable - NO clouds whatsoever! We walked up behind the town giving us views of the glacial valley to the north with its distant snow covered mountains, the 15om high granite walls next to the town dwarfing the buildings.
We got to a beautiful forest, and walked inside it for 45mins. Marcelo again showed us some bush tucker as we ate "Indian Bread" a white fungus that is on Lenga trees and is about the size of a thumbnail and looks like an apple. Not much taste and rubbery texture.
The views of the mountains were beyond belief. It was SO clear. Chalten was the name orginally given to Mt Fitz Roy and means Smoky Mountain, because there is always a trail of cloud at the top. NOT TODAY!!
Once we left the forest we were above the treeline and walked on broken rocks in a minefield of fossils. I broke open a flat rock a little larger than my hand and covering the whole large surface was a fossil (no, not a picture of me, a real one). It was one of those spiraly shell-like things (tech name: spiraly shell-like things). There were lots of different plants along the way and some pertified wood that had only been discovered in the area a few years back (by Marcelo). We walked on the gently sloping hill, looking toward the mountain as we made our way to the top, where we could see many many peaks as we looked down far below us to Laguna Torre, where we were on the first day, and now we could see what was hidden in cloud before - and MUCH more. All had a light dusting (or more) of snow, and we would have stayed much longer that just the hour it took to have lunch, but we had to go sometime.
On the way back we paused for about 30 mins, just above the treeline to lie in the sun and watch the parrots and other birds near us. Earlier we had seen condors.
This was a most fitting walk on Rudi´s birthday, and we were tired when we got back.
So, that´s really all our walking till we get to the inca trail in a couple of weeks or so. Now we are in El Calafate again and will fly to Buenos Aires tomorrow - what a change that will be.
We will miss the mountains, and the passion and friendship of Marcelo. I thoroughly recommend the Fitz Roy area!
Hasta Luego!
Comments
Seriously great text and photos - as expected!
So thats what it is like to finally shake of the kids and head off in the big world...I hope I can be fit enough to do it when my chance comes around...looks like some additional years have been added to my timing to do so....we have been advised my medical practioners that time zero to count forward to such a possibility will be from end September 2008. "respire hondo"..The fact is that another French addition to the family has been prescribed!!!!
The shrimpette is approximately 7cm and all are delighted. Have to love blogs if this news gets through to you in the back of woopwoop! Enjoy your holiday, Love SIS xxx