As scenic as Torres del Paine in Chile? Tick! More accessible? Tick! Cool town? Tick! With stunning scenery and the perfect 2 day circuit suitable for even inexperienced walkers, the Fitzroy massif in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina, is a rewarding destination.

 

The Trekking Capital of Argentina

A 9km walk sounded a mere stroll, having just walked the Torres del Paine circuit in Chile, where 20 km plus days were alarmingly normal. On the other side of the border in Argentina, the Fitzroy massif has the added attraction of being totally free with no booking required to hike or camp and a gentle 2 day round trip through its mountains seemed the perfect ending to our walking experiences in Patagonia.

The little town of El Chalten nestles on a bend of the Rio de las Vueltas, totally surrounded by mountains. It is possible to be in their midst within minutes of leaving the town and their rugged cliffs are a magnet to climbers.

It is here, contained within the Los Glaciares National Park, that one finds the famous peak of Fitzroy, a huge 3,405m high granite tower. Its smooth sides are too steep even for snow and its first successful ascent was as late as 1937.

Approaching from the east, we had our first view of this iconic peak, surrounded by the lesser, but no less attractive heights of Cerro Poincenot (3,002m), Cerro Saint-Exupery (2,558m), Cerro Mojon Rojo (2,163m) and Guillaumet (2,579m). The spikey Cerro Torre (3,102m), Torre Egger (2,900m) and Aguja Bifida (2,394m)  cluster is also visible at this angle, making it one of the most scenic drives in Patagonia.

El Chalten has become popular with backpackers too, priced out of Torres del Paine and the buzzy town reflects this, with an big assortment of hostels and quirky cafes. It is common to find that the ground floor of a building is operating a fully functional business, whilst the second is still under construction: the place has a boom town feel to it with everyone jumping on the bandwagon.

However some effort seems to have gone into the trails, with good signage and ceremonial gates at the trail heads. Whilst the walking is fairly undemanding, it is very beautiful and there are a great variety of day walks . One gets the feeling that the place is trying hard and is definitely on the up – I can see it being a major place for adventure tourism in the years to come.

Walking to Laguna Torre

Some things never change though: on the day we headed out, Patagonia was doing its best to blow us off the face of the earth. Leaving our hire car at the Fitzroy trailhead, we took the southern trail up the hill towards Laguna Torre, a 9km walk with an ascent of only 250m.

We battled up the hill in the gusty winds, stopping to admire El Chalten from above then climbed on through a rocky landscape with scattered trees, low bushes and small hidden pools. The path led us up to a lookout from where we could see Cerro Torre, largely hidden in distant cloud, and the broad valley of the Fitzroy, the rivers miky tones betraying its glacial origin.

Skirting the northern edge of the valley, a huge bank of moraine became obvious in front of us, hiding the lower slopes of Glacier Grande. We walked through an attractive forest of tall trees and emerged beside the river for the final approach to the De Agostini campsite which was just beside it, still amidst trees. Though possessing little more than a basic long drop toilet , one could not have wished for a more pleasant spot.

After a relaxed lunch, we visited the Maestri lookout for a close up view of Glacier Grande. This involved following a huge ridge of moraine up the northern side of the valley for some 2km. Taking the high route up through the forest near the end, we came out at the ruins of a couple of old climbers refuges. From the second, a little path led to a huge rock and a birds eye view over the valley, with the glacier immediately opposite us.

 Further along, we could finally see the sheer peak of Torre Mountain from where one branch of our glacier descended. There was quite a gentle slope to this one though and no movement in the ice at all whilst we were there, though the great serried ranks of moraine behind us spoke of its previous glory.  We had the most fabulous view from our eyrie and finally retreated back to camp reluctantly for supper.

Looking for Fitzroy

Sunrise colours flared briefly on Cerro Torre, and in between falling clouds, we actually got excellent views of the mountains. To continue our circuit, we had to backtrack 3 km to a junction, where we then bore off northwards towards Poincenot campsite.

The track led uphill gradually through lovely scattered woodland with tall beech trees and rocky outcrops. It looked ideal puma country to me, but this big cat is very elusive. Not considered endangered, pumas are nevertheless protected within the national parks, though outside they are thought to be fair game by the sheep farmers.

At the top we had a view over low forest towards distant rounded escarpments. Our track levelled out and led us to the shore of the first of two pretty lakes: Hija, as in Madre & Hija or Mother & Daughter. Only small pieces of driftwood lay on its pristine shore of fine grey shale.

At the head of Madre, we passed over some colorful boggy areas to find Poincenot set amongst thick forest. The main draw here is the stunning view of Mount Fitzroy, a solid monolith of granite. However, it was lost in low cloud and the day was best summed up by an Argentinian tourist asking Where is it? in a bewildered fashion. Yes, even a 3,000m chunk of rock can hide itself in the wild Patagonian skies.

Instead we had to content ourselves with views of the Piedras Blancas glacier, a little further north from the campsite. This was a gleamingly clean glacier with lots of the deep blue tones which come from very compacted ice.

The fierce winds returned and it was not until the evening that we finally caught a tantalizing glimpse of Fitzroy before he hid himself again. Fed up with being sandblasted, we retreated to the tent thankfully.

Blue Skies

A rare event: a dawn of clear skies and no wind, the sunrise colours flooding Fitzroy in a rich red glow. The Tehuelche indians called the mountain El Chalten, meaning volcano or smoking mountain due to its peak seemingly being on fire when the sun first hits it. We only had to walk 10 metres from the tent to experience this, but after breakfast we took the 2km Laguna de los Tres trail which climbed steeply for 469m to bring us out at the large turquoise lake just below the mountain. There is actually another tiny lake behind this but it is quite difficult to see.

The views were worth the effort, the immense, sheer peaks a brilliantly sharp panorama unfolding in front of us. We dropped down to dangle our fingers in the lakes icy waters and climbed to another little knoll which gave us a perfect view of a teardrop lake below the  Sucia glacier. It was astonishingly beautiful: if you are lucky enough to get such a perfect day, take your time, take a picnic. Even better, if you have the energy and see clear skies at 4am, hike up for sunrise.

The 10km track back to El Chalten led us past Laguna Capri, a very pretty lake nesting amidst the forest. It was popular with the locals and indeed probably has the only beach of any sort for miles around. It is only a 1.45 hour walk in, but it also has a free campsite and grandstand views of Fitzroy over its waters. It would make the perfect 3rd night stop if you wanted to take this circuit even easier.

The trail continued down hill steadily, with great views over the Rio de las Vueltas valley and the town, before eventually decanting us back at the Fitzroy trailhead. This is conveniently close to the La Nona bakery just down the street, with tasty pastries and coffee. They also do decent bread, which can be quite hard to find in Argentina.

For the more energetic, it is possible to do a multi day circuit of Fitzroy which involves trekking on Viedma glacier, though this has to be guided. Most will be more than happy with this beautiful circuit.