El Chaltén is rather a shock after visiting Villa O’Higgins. In Villa there are few well supplied shops, library with internet, radio broadcast station, little airport with maybe two small flights a day, no ATM and beautiful surroundings. A microbus few times a week arrives by a bumpy dusty road which can be waived down by a gaucho with his boxes/packs of baggage.
In El Chaltén on the other hand – a swarm of tourist clad in Goretex (aka Goretex ninjas), tour busses, vegetarian restaurants and other questionable establishments. They have ATM with a queue all day long (we heard sometimes it runs out of many), three smaller grocery shops, where supplies run out mid week – you cannot even buy an instant soup after. There is one advantage though – Fitz Roy massif can be seen as background to the town during clear days.
We celebrated our arrival to Argentina with a proper Argentinian steak dinner the first night. After a day of rest and preparations we set out to the northern part of national park Los Glaciares where the famous massif Fitz Roy is, on 6-Jan-2017. Campgrounds in park are free and so is the entrance. You cannot buy food within the park boundaries, but you are always within a day walk from El Chaltén. You won’t find solitude in the park though. On the trail it is more about dancing your way around other tourists and trying to make sure they don’t stick their trekking pole into your feet. In the Information center they said we can see pumas and huemul, but sadly we were not lucky. But we did see woodpeckers.
Map of our trek:
1st day, El Chaltén -> Campamento de Agostini (Laguna Torre): We left a box with unneeded stuff in the hostel and went into park. Although the weather was good, both Fitz Roy (3405 m) and Cerro Torre (3102 m) were in cloud cover. We were a little worried if we will get to see them at all during our 4 day trek. Our mood did not improve much when we arrived to overflowing Agostini campground with just one toilet booth.
2nd day, Campamento de Agostini (Laguna Torre) -> Campamento Poincenot: The weather in the morning was clear, we were lucky. The mountains were like a painting with azure blue sky as background, so it was not so bad to get out of the warm sleeping bag and run up to see the view at Laguna Torre. The trail between Agostini campground and Poincenot is a bit less busy and provides stunning views. Poincenot campground was also busy (again one toilet booth), but we managed to find a hidden place with a view of Fitz Roy!
In the afternoon we climbed to Laguna De Los Tres. There we stayed long into evening watching Fitz Roy over the lake, observing condors, eagles and listening to falling avalanches.
3rd day, Campamento Poincenot -> Campamento Piedra del Fraile: The mountain tops were hidden behind cloud, but we had great views of Glaciar Piedras Blancas. The thunder of falling avalanches can be heard there quite often. On the junction of the trail and road we met German cyclist, who spent Christmas with us in Coyhaique. He cheated though, he took a bus for part of the road :). In the evening the weather got rotten, it was cold and we were looking forward to a warm shower in Piedra del Fraile campground. Well, first we got surprised by the price (this campground is private and ridiculously expensive). The shower was cold and they even expect you to take away your garbage for that price?
4th day, Campamento Piedra del Fraile -> Laguna Capri: Weather was bad, so we skipped the planned climb of Cerro Electrico and went back to Poincenot. We took a trail from old guidebook, which is not described in new ones… finally an empty trail. We continued to campground Laguna Capri, which was so full that we just might have taken the last empty spot.
5th day, Laguna Capri -> El Chaltén: Fitz Roy showed itself again, so we just spend the morning watching it from the campground. Going back was painful. It is the most busy trail in the park, nice day and we were walking in the time when most people go the other way. We had to give way perhaps every 30 seconds, maddening!
It is a beautiful park, but sometimes it feels as if you were in a queue for tube than in nature. I guess it is better to go outside the season to avoid the mass trekking!
Good stuff
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Václav Černý
tel. +420 602 250861 e-mail: vaclavcerny@seznam.cz