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| Tour of Fitz Roy and El Chalten Area, WW | |
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| | Tour of Fitz Roy and El Chalten Area, WW | | | |
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Tour of Fitz Roy and El Chalten Area, WW
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| Hiking | 34.47 Miles |
5,688 AEG |
| | Hiking | 34.47 Miles | 2 Hrs 43 Mns | | 18.14 mph |
| 5,688 ft AEG | 49 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | The last stop on our trip to Patagonia was the El Chalten--the hiking capital of Argentinian Patagonia and the home of the iconic Mt. Fitz Roy (of Patagonia company label fame). It's an eclectic little town, attracting everyone from the jet-setting elite to guys dirtbag travelers who've been living out of their cars for the last 5 months.
We only had one full day in town, so we planned to make the most of it. You never can predict Patagonian weather, and it so happened the "our" day wasn't looking particularly promising. But we forged ahead anyway with our marathon hike plans--literally, 26 miles.
We made a pre-dawn start up the trail to Laguna de Los Tres, which is leads to two gorgeous glacier fed lakes at the foot of Fitz Roy (Laguna de Los Tres itself and Laguna Sucia). Along the way, we visited several other lakes (Laguna Capri) and took a side trip to the glacier cascading down in to Laguna de los Piedras. All were amazing, despite the low-ish cloud cover that shrouded the upper reaches of Fitz Roy.
The final climb to Laguna de Los Tres is a bit of a lung buster, but views make up for the work.
After taking in LdlT, we backtracked a bit, and then headed over to the second most iconic hike in the area, Laguna Torre. Along the way, we passed the emerald green waters of Laguna Madre and Laguna Nieto.
By the time we reached the shore of Laguna Torre, the wind was fierce and the cloud level low, so visibility wasn't the best, but it was cool to see the river of ice coming down the mountain and some substantial icebergs in the lake.
We returned to El Chalten just before sunset and called it a day.
The next morning, we had a few hours to burn before returning our rental car to El Calafate and hopping a bus back to Puerto Natales, so we did a short hike out to a nearby waterfall (Chorillo del Salto) and squeezed in a six miler along part of an alternate trailhead to Laguna de Los Tres (from Rio Electrico).
I included all three hikes in this triplog.
If you get a chance to go down to this area, take it! |
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