Mt Fitz Roys Home base
Trip Start
Feb 28, 2010
1
12
50
Trip End
Jul 18, 2010
Where I stayed
Cant Remember the name
El Chaltén, Santa Cruz, Argentina
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The plan was to catch a flight from Buenos Aires and head down to El Calafate then catch a private bus to El Chalten.
The airline had other ideas that day. As we prepared to leave the airport, it turned out that the plane we were supposed to catch had a flat tyre, so after an hour dealy they ended up putting us onto another flight that would eventually take us to Ushuia (aka The End of the Earth!) From there we needed to wait in the plane an extra 45 minutes until they would then fly us back up to El Calafate. Not a bad start to the tour hay.
Anyway we eventually arrived in the small town of El Chalten, where i immediately got the feeling i would love the town. Its a small town that was developed not that long ago which pretty much relies on tourists (mostly climbers and hikers) who come to tackle Mount Fitz Roy.
That night i lined my stomach with a delicious meal that would set me up for the following day which had us set out for a 10 hour trail hike up the the base of Mount Fitz Roy. For the record you should all know it was a photo of the base of this mountain which is what sparked my interest in Patagonia in the first place (youll see when you look at the pics).
So the hike began about about 9am the following morning where we trailed through all kinds of terrain where there were all kinds of greens, blues, browns yellows and all that.... Pretty impressive actually. The highlight of this day was definitley the final leg at the top of the mountain where we caught a glimplse of the famous granite spires until coming over and witnessing a pristine lagoon at the base of the peaks which is probably the most perfect colour of blue i have seen so far. In a place like this its pretty hard to know when to stop taking photos, so if the pics seem to be repetative you know why.
I should also note that the weather here was unbelievabe and we were apparently very lucky we didnt experience the ¨real ¨patagonian weather. We had claear blue skies, no wind and no rain...it was perfect day for a hike.
The following day was an ice day, there was an option to ice trek or ice climb. I guess you all know which one i chose. Anyway the whole point of this day was to head out to a massive glacier, don the climbing shoes and axe and climb some ice walls...
So that morning a bus picked three of us up from our hostel and took us to a dock where a ferry was waiting to ship us to the glacier. The scenery in patagonia is amazing so all the pics are mostly scenery....and me!
So once we get too the glacier we get off and hike to out base camp where we unloaded and set up for climbing..this landscape was bosly rock formations that looked like massive boulders rising out of the pristine lake until it collided with the glacier.
The climbs were pretty cool and so was the trekking, we met a few other groups doing the same thing which ofcourse led to climbing races..i ofcourse represented the great land of Oz. Dont worry i did you guys proud.
Once climbing was complete we trekked along the glacier before stopping for lunch in front of an amazing view. Once we returned to the ice we entered a turquoice cave which lit up as we entered (youll notice the pics are all bright blue!) This was pretty incredible.
The day ended with a few glasses of Baileys in the glacier. Another awesome day with amazing weather.
So after 2 days here we did not experience the famous region of extreme weathers and we consider ourselves very lucky that we could withness this land in sublime conditions.
Next stop....El Calafate!!!
Comments
Chad!
I'm happy your finally making us Aussies proud... took you long enough!
I bet ya that you thought of cliffhanger when you were climbing... yes JD I know that you were daydreaming!
Keep it real.
ummmmm...so where r the pics??
plus. I hate you :p
A load more pics and blogs to come for Patagonia and Peru, but im leaving for the inca trail tonight and will have to get onto it when i return in 4 days.
Check in soon.