View of Fitz Roy from mirador
View of Fitz Roy from mirador
Details
Length- 17 miles (27 kilometers)
Time- This one took us a good 10 hours. It was the final day of 3 hiking days that saw us cover nearly 50 miles (~80 kilometers), so we were sore and tired from the get-go.
Difficulty- Definitely the most difficult of the hikes we did in El Chalten. It was long and tiring, and the final ascent to the lakes and viewing point of Fitz Roy was brutal. Straight up for about 90 minutes, and I mean straight up. This can be done by beginners, but know what you’re getting into before setting out. It’s not the most challenging hike we’ve ever done, but it was a tough day hike. An alternative may be to camp halfway and make the trek up to the top the following morning.
Trail Description
Trail Head- The same as the hike to Lago and Glacier Piedras Blancas, the trail head begins at the end of Av. San Martin.
More glaciers greet hikers on this trek
Route- The first 2/3′s of the hike is the same as Lago and Glacier Piedras Blancas before crossing the Rio Blanco. After crossing, instead of turning right and following the river, you need to continue on and up towards Camp Piedras Blancas (also known as Camp Rio Blanco). Remember that this camp is only for climbers. Once through the camp, it’s up, up, up for the next hour and a half. This was one of the most challenging parts of any hike I’ve done, and the fact that it was coming at the end of 5 straight days of hiking didn’t help matters. It was slow going, single file all the way up. Because this is one of the more popular hikes around the area, this final part was rather crowded, more than any other hike we did around El Chalten.
But once we arrived at the top, it was all worth it. We saved our lunch until getting here, and what a view for a meal. We were up close and personal with the peak we had been seeing all week long, with lakes and a glacier surrounding it. Walking around to the other lakes was amazing, and the views back towards the way we came were nothing short of spectacular.
NOTE: This hike will not really be worth it on an overcast or cloudy day. I know it’s next to impossible to tell when you set out on the trail what the weather will be like 4 hours in the future, but keep an eye on the skies and the forecast. If we did this hike the previous day, Fitz Roy and the surrounding peaks would have been completely obscured by clouds.
Camping- There are a few campsites along the way if you’d like to combine this hike with a hike to Laguna Capri or Lago and Glacier Piedras Blancas and make it into a multi-day trek. The first campsite, Capri, is only about an hour and a half from the trail head. Camp Poincenot is further along the trail and before you reach and cross the Rio Blanco. The final site, Camp Piedras Blancas (also known as Camp Rio Blanco), is found after crossing the river, but it’s a climber’s only camp.
Notes- This was an amazing hike with a wonderful pay-off. Getting that close to Fitz Roy was remarkable, and we almost didn’t do it. We told ourselves before we went to sleep the previous night that if it was raining or cloudy the next morning, we wouldn’t bother going. We woke up to sunny skies, so the weather gods wanted us to go.
Pictures
As with the other posts about Lagos Torres and Piedras Blancas, I had to include some of our favorite pictures. We got lucky with the weather, so we were fortunate enough to get lots of great shots. We had so many great pictures that some didn’t make the cut for these posts, so be sure to come back tomorrow to check out the pictures only post from our time spend in El Chalten.
A sunny start to the day
View from the major viewpoint of the hike
Glimpse of Fitz Roy along the trail
The final ascent (notice there's no pictures of the first 80 minutes of the ascent)
The payoff
Close up of Fitz Roy
Fitz Roy, lake, and glacier--doesn't get much better than this
Another lake and glacier around the corner
Spin around 180 degrees, and this is what you see
