13th-16th.Februray, El Chalten, Mount Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre
This was the longest day with 10 hours driving along dusty dirt roads, although it did rain and was briefly cold around midday, so that the pic-nic was spent huddled behind the bus in a forlorn attempt to get out of the wind, in complete contrast to previous days. Amazingly as we approached the mountains it became hot and sunny again and the whole of the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre range was spread out in front of us. We drove directly toward it for 100 kilometers as it gradually increased in size. On arrival I could even see summit of Fitz Roy from my room and from my seat in the restaurant until it went dark, when we discussed tomorrow’s guided walk to the foot of the mountain.
During the three days at El Chalten I had been able to do the walks which I wanted to do. On the first day I walked further than the others to reach the Lago de Los Tres, a tarn in a corrie with a hanging glacier above it. To one side there is another larger lake, Lago Sucia, below a huge black cliff with water streaming down from another glacier above. The summit of Fitz Roy itself was in the clouds but it was nevertheless very impressive. The second day with the group the planned walk to Lago Torre took place, but unfortunately Cerro Torre was not visible at all. The third day was a reserve day and the group decided to hire the guide again in order to make a walk slightly further away from the famous peaks. However I wanted to try to see them close to again and have more time for taking photos. As it turned out to be a perfect day I repeated most of the walks of both previous days, except the climb to Lago de Los Tres. All three days I met the same people from a Hauser Trekking group who were camping by Lago Capri a beautiful lake half way between El Chalten and the mountains.