El Chelten

After a 36 hour (yes! 36) busride from Bariloche, we were unceremoniously dumped off on the side of the road at 5 AM during a windstorm in the tiny trekking town of El Chelten. Once the sun rose, we saw what a small town it really was. The government of Argentina incorporated the town in 1985 in an attempt to keep Chile from claiming the territory. Its main draws are the mountains surrounding it, including the jagged adn often cloud-covered Fitz Roy adn the glacier-studded Cerro Torre. Mountaineering tourism is the city´s bankroll and during the winter once the tourists leave, there are only 100 or so people in town.

Patagonia is famed for it´s harsh winds and likewise Fitz Roy is often shrouded in a cloudy haze, but we were lucky. During our 3-day trek we had two gorgeously clear days where we had 360 degree views showing Patagonia in all of it´s glory. The mountains and the flora supported by them looked somewhat similar to that in Bariloche, but the landscape had a certain vastness that was missing in Bariloche. In fact, the entire region of Southern Patagonia felt huge, with wide open valleys and big jagged mountain peaks.

Since we had decided against renting a stove while camping (I had mailed mine home a month prior and the rentals were too expensive) David and I dined on an assortment of salami, cheese, jam, tomatoes, onions and pastries from the bakery in town (those were gone after our first lunch). Our first night we camped directly below Fitz Roy and hiked up the vertical ascent to Fitz Roy´s mirador in the morning to catch the sun´s early rays on it´s peaks.

The second night we stayed near Cerro Torre where we collected our water from a river hat had recent memories of being a glacier. From our campground, it was a short hike to the glacier itself, along with it´s corresponding tairn and the source of our river. From Cerro Torre it was an easy three hour hike back into town and to the scrumptious hot-water showers and the friendly Alberto at our hostel.