We took a bus on Monday from El Calafate to El Chaltén, a small mountain village at the base of Mt Fitz Roy. We were lucky to have clear weather and snapped a few shots as Fitz Roy greeted us. It’s like the skyline of Patagonia.
We signed up for a trek on the Viedma Glacier, the largest in Patagonia. We took a one hour boat ride across Lake Viedma to where the glacier met the lake.
The boat docked and let us off on the rocky shore next to the glacier. We climbed for about 20 minutes before putting on crampons and hiking onto the glacier.
From our trek:
Bailey’s was a fine reward after a couple of hours of trekking on the glacier. On the rocks, provided by the glacier, naturally.
Day two started with cafe (sin leche!) y media lunas.
From town, you can just see the peak of Fitz Roy.
We set out on a trek to a base camp for climbers. Incredible views along the way before clouds rolled in.
Our trek concluded at Laguna Torres, a lake formed by ice melt from the Grande Glacier. You can see how clouds rolled in to obscure views of the peaks.
A rope crossing signalled the end of the trail for us. The 20 meter crossing over rushing ice-cold water with no net and a sign to not make the crossing without a park-sanctioned guide and proper equipment also factored in the decision.
So we snapped another self portrait and headed back to town.
Seven hours of trekking earned us a couple of microbrews. Salud!
