A day to climb, a better day on Fitz Roy

I camped one night at Laguna Capri, it was beautiful, and a bit chilly as morning approached. My tent, a Marmot Limelight 2P, is more of a summer tent, lots of mesh, lots of mesh for the Patagonia winds to blow through. I was a tad bit chilly in the morning, but regardless, enjoyed a great breakfast of bread and peanut butter, and instant coffee. I then took off down the trail towards Poincenot campground, the winds were still blowing, but things began to clear, including Fitz Roy. So, even though I was not really planning on another time-lapse shoot (I had no ropes to anchor the tripod), I set up along the trail anyway, and began another 2+ hour time-lapse sequence. I set the camera on Aperture priority and  the interval at 5 sec, and I think I programmed the camera to shoot for 2.5 hours (or so), and stood there, trying to protect the camera and tripod from the wind, chatted with hikers as they passed. It was cold, but the shoot worked out ok. It looked like a much better day to climb Fitz Roy, as long as the wind did not blow you off the rock face on your way to the top.

Cerro Fitz Roy, or Cerro Chalten, named after the captain of the HMS Beagle made famous by Charles Darwin, was first climbed by two French alpinists in 1952. At 3,405 m (11,171 ft), Fitz Roy is not a high mountain, but it is technically difficult to climb, and the wind and weather can be horrific. The mountain was first climbed by Americans Yvon Chouinard and his three friends, Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones and Doug Tompkins in 1968. They made a film of their ascent, 'Mountain of Storms' (1968), filmed by Lito Tejade-Flores. Then in 2014, between the 12th and 16th of February, Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold completed the first ascent of the 'Fitz Traverse', climbing across the ridge line of Cerro Fitz Roy and a number of other peaks. They also produced a film, 'A Line Across the Sky' (2015, a Reel Rock 10 film, from Sender Films and Big Up Productions). Both short films are amazing to watch, as Fitz Roy is an impressive hunk of granite, and with the typically unpredictable weather in Patagonia, it is a real accomplishment to summit this peak.