Crazy El Chalten, and Cerro Fitz Roy

Cerro Fitz Roy and other peaks in the "Line Across the Sky", El Chalten, Argentina.

On the road again, and this time, into Argentina, and heading for El Chalten. This was to be only my second border crossing, and for some reason, I am always worried, just not sure how things will go with my van. I headed out of Chile Chico, picked up two hitchhikers heading for the border where they had left their motorcycles, Israelis, and quickly got to the Chilean side of the border, dropped off my passengers, and after a quick visit to immigration and customs, I was off for Argentina. I pulled into the line of cars, place was pretty busy, but it turned out that most were leaving Argentina, not entering, so whole process only took about 40 minutes. The last step is always the inspection by customs, but this time, they did not care about fruit, vegetables, meat, coca leaves, all they wanted to talk about was Trump, what happened? I had to laugh, and also had to pull out of the line, to the side, so we could chat about Trump, and implications for Argentina, Latin America, the world. I got to keep my fruit and meat. Then soon, down the road into Los Antiguos, Argentina. I quickly noticed a difference, nothing bad, just different, I was no longer in Chile. I also quickly picked up more hitchhikers, a young German couple, and off we went for Ruta 40, Perito Moreno and eventually El Chalten. Ruta 40 is kind of like Ruta 7 in Chile, the Carretera Austral, as many popular tourist destinations are reached off of Ruta 40, the main north-south road in western Argentina. We had left Chile, and the habitat made that clear, we were now in the pampa, dry and windy, really windy. We stopped in Perito Moreno, and I could not believe how windy it was, blowing like crazy down the main street in town. After a quick stop (I wanted to try and get a new sim card for my phone, but most stores were closed, some holiday in Argentina), continued south on Ruta 40, fighting the wind all the way. We ended up wild camping along Rio Chico, northwest of Gobernador Gregores, very windy, so glad I was not in a tent, though van did rock-and-roll most of the night. The next morning, packed up and headed for El Chalten, windy again, just crazy how windy it gets down in Patagonia. After another brutal stretch of ripio, dirt/gravel road, got off Ruta 40 and headed up Ruta 23 along  Lago Viedma towards El Chalten. It was still very windy, but as we approached El Chalten, the Fitz Roy massif came into view, impressive. The top of the peak remained mostly in the clouds, but was still an impressive, exciting sight, really cool to see such a famous Patagonian peak.

The town of El Chalten is actually very young, basically created by the Argentinian government in 1985 in order to get people there, and make sure the Chileans do not take over in that area. Apparently, the exact border between the two countries is not clear when you get south into Patagonia, and Argentina wanted to make sure they had a town there, so they build one, and encouraged the development of tourism in the area. This was easy, as Cerro Fitz Roy, and other mountains, were there, and in some ways, this area is the Yosemite of Patagonia, a mecca for climbers from around the world. Today, the town is a crazy place, busy, very busy, with hikers, trekkers, climbers, and other tourists from around the world. I stayed in a campground along the Rio de Las Vueltas, El Relincho, place was crazy. I climbed to my observation lounge on top of my van one evening, enjoyed a beer, and tried to count the number of tents in the campground, quit at 65 tents. The town was crammed with tourists, hikers and trekkers of all sorts, and from around the world, plus many older tourist who arrived by tour bus. There were also a number of overlanders, and as usual, some had some really impressive rigs. It was interesting. The German hitchhikers and I picked our campsites, me over by the fence facing the river, the German couple behind some bushes to get a break from the wind (not possible, place was crazy windy). I would see them later in the kitchen area, but they were off the next day for wherever. I would spend five nights in the area, four at El Relincho, and one at a Campamento Capri along Laguna Capri. It was amazing to hang in the town, and on a clear day, look up Fitz Roy, very cool. 

I biked from town up Ruta 41 past Chorrillo del Salto, much of the way to Lago del Desierto, and back, nice to get in a ride, though ate lots of dust kicked up by the cars moving along the dirt road. I also hiked the 4 km up to Laguna Capri, and back one day, before loading up my backpack to hike back up to Laguna Capri to stay a night or two. There are many trails to hike, and there are three campgrounds, all part of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and all free. There was no entrance fee for the park, and no fee to camp. This might in part explain why the place was so busy, and why there was so many people camping at Laguna Capri; I counted 37 tents after my night camping there. It was a great hike  up, all uphill, but good trail, and I got lucky and snagged a great spot to pitch my tent, at the edge of the "tent village", overlooking the lake. There were lots of trees around, and still windy, very windy, but a beautiful place to camp. I shot a time-lapse sequence in the late afternoon, and another one the next morning. There were some great views of Fitz Roy, and adjacent peaks, including those climbed in sequence by Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold (see "Line Across the Sky"). I wish I had more time, and energy, as the campsite at Poincenot was supposed to be great, plus the views from the trail Laguna de los Tres are supposed to be amazing. I felt so lucky to get great views of Fitz Roy, a place I have read about for many years. Has been a crazy season in these mountains, little climbing, too cold and too much rain, so lots of ice on the walls. I met a number of wonderful people, and, guess who I ran into again? I ran into Thomas the Dane, along with his two friends from Australia, very interesting. They had ridden down to Villa O'Higgins, end of the Carretera Austral, and rode and hauled their bikes across the border and eventually made their way down to El Chalten. It was good to see Thomas again, sure I will see him again on our way south. El Chalten is a crazy place, very busy, but definitely worth the trip. 
​

---