The Things We Do For a View – El Chaltén

After three strenuous days romping around the mountains near Cerro Castillo, it was time to settle in for two days of driving to El Chaltén, Argentina. Home of the iconic Mount Fitz Roy/Cerro Chaltén massif, we were anticipating this stop for quite some time, and it’s safe to say the mountains there did not disappoint…

22 & 23 January 2023

Maggie and I slept in a little to recover from our recent efforts. We took our time packing up, breakfast, showers, and lunch in town before we left…

We drove back into Argentina through Puerto Ibanez and Perito Moreno. This was perhaps one of our favorite border crossings. Driving along the dirt road next to Lago Buenos Aires, we came upon a couple of small buildings at the border. Maggie and I went inside and found one woman sitting at a large wooden desk. She was cordial, but relaxed in her demeanor. We handed over our passports, and the border agent pulled out a big ledger to copy down our information by hand. We sat on a bench a few feet from the desk facing the border agent. She paused, looked up at us and said, “I’m going to have meat tonight, asada.” I now know that asada is a bit of a special occasion, like a big barbecue, but Maggie and I just sort of smiled and nodded. After writing for a few more seconds, she said, “This might take a while, you should wait outside.” We said we didn’t mind, but the agent insisted that we go outside. Ok then… I hope we didn’t offend the agent with our ignorance on asada culture. Before long, the customs agent came out and returned our passports with a smile, and we were on our way back into the Patagonian steppe.

We turned south on RT40 to Patagonia National Park. Once again, the landscape reminded us of New Mexico, but more wind swept. On the drive, we saw our first guanacos, a rhea, a fox, and a crested caracara. Super cool wildlife! We camped at a free site in Patagonia National Park with two other groups. Maggie and I drank some wine with our windy dinner. A flaming sunset sent us to bed.

The next day was fairly unspectacular. We drove pretty much all day to get to El Chaltén. Somewhere in those two days of driving, we covered miles and miles of washboard dirt road. It was maddening, noisy, and I thought the rental car was going to vibrate into a million pieces. We persevered, but we were shaken.

The last few miles into El Chaltén gave us a preview of the epic mountains we hoped to hike around. Rolling into town, we were instantly struck by a relaxed mountain town vibe. People walking about. Tons of cute local shops. El Chaltén is not luxurious, but it is certainly not worn down. We found our AirBnb, and eventually found our host living on Argentina time.

Maggie and I walked over to a little vegan restaurant for a casual dinner. It was cozy with seating for no more than 20 people. A group of six was sitting at a table behind us, feasting on pizza and discussing technical climbing. One man had glacier glasses perched on his head. I had heard it was easy to find professional climbers in El Chaltén, but I still wasn’t sure who these folks were. As they were paying their tab at the counter next to us, a fresh faced, blonde British guy exchanged some pleasantries with me through a kind and enthusiastic smile.

Back at the room, I was scanning my mind to match a name to the face, when it finally struck me – Pete Whittaker. To confirm my suspicions, I messaged him on Instagram, and he replied later the next day!

Pete is a world class rock climber, known for sending hard off-width crack climbs, as well as solo climbing El Capitan under self belay in 24 hours. Here is a 30 minute film of his climbing in El Chaltén from the 2023 season.

With a decent weather window the next day, we made a plan to romp around the mountains and got to bed.

24 January 2023

Maggie and I got out the door a little after 10 am. Our objective was Loma da las Pizarras (Slate Hill), a little off the beaten path. With El Chaltén’s proximity to the mountains, we were able to walk from our BnB to the trail head. There we found hordes of hikers. I suppose it’s a classic case of “You’re not in traffic, you are traffic.”

We hiked fast and passed a lot of hikers on the Laguna Torre trail. Some combination of clouds, fog, and mist hung over the peaks we were heading towards, and they completely obscured the famous Cerro Torre. We never did see Cerro Torre…

As the conga line started to thin out, we turned off the Laguna Torre trail and headed uphill through the beech forest. We saw a trio of Magellanic Woodpeckers with their brilliant red heads, a bird we had been hoping to see.

After a mile or so, we turned again to head up the south east ridge of Loma de las Pizarras. This was more of a primitive trail, ascending straight up the ridge. It was steep, going up 1,500 feet in the first mile.

As we climbed above tree line, the wind gusts were mind blowing at times, sending dust and pebbles into our eyes. Overhead, the clouds were clearing up, and the warmth provided by the sun counteracted the chilly wind.

As we ascended over the rock and scree, Maggie said, “Whoa! You’re gonna want to see this flower!” She was right – Calceolaria uniflora – Patagonia’s Lady Slipper, growing straight out of the rock. What a wild flower!

The higher we got, the more we got to peek at the Fitzroy/Cerro Chaltén massif. After seeing these peaks so many times on a screen, getting a glimpse was thrilling. We saw one man coming down, from Salt Lake City. It felt improbable to meet someone who was virtually a neighbor in this distant corner of the world. He was one of two people we saw on Loma de las Pizarras all day.

At last, Maggie and I reached a high point. A small wind shelter and some nice sittin’ rocks compelled us to sit for lunch and enjoy the view. Blue replaced more gray in the sky, and I took a timelapse of the clouds whipping off the top of Cerro Chaltén.

As we were wrapping up lunch, Maggie consulted the map. Turns out we weren’t even at the summit yet. The description of the hike said it included some Class 3 scrambling, but we hadn’t done any scrambling yet. The summit was a mile ahead, past sketchy looking scree and talus. I was content with the hike up to this point, but Maggie can be very persuasive when it comes to hiking just a little further. We decided to go for it, and it turned out to be a great decision.

The initial ridge line proper looked a bit too technical, so we dropped to the right side. The scrambling began. The hillside dropped steeply into cliffs and gullies, providing some serious exposure. After contouring our way through the rocks for a bit, we reached an impasse. The obvious choice was to climb up a steep gully back to the ridge. We gave each other space incase of rock fall.

We topped out and saw some easier terrain leading to the summit. Hopping across the talus, and cruising up one last little climb, we made it. The view was nothing short of spectacular. From this vantage point, we could finally see Glacier Rio Blanco and creamy blue Laguna Sucia. We were absolutely stoked to just sit and soak it all in.

The wind was chilling us and we had a long way to get back to town. We turned back around 3:30 pm and retraced our steps across the spicy ridge.

It was an easy descent back to the main trail system. Maggie and I looked at the map and tried to make a loop over to some other trails, but the trail we wanted had been abandoned. It was over grown and impossible to follow.

We eventually gave up on this scenic detour and hiked back down the way we came up. Our day ended up being about 16.5 miles with a mile of vert. The final view of town, colorful buildings illuminated in the sunset, was welcoming after a day out in the mountains.

We walked straight to a restaurant, another cozy locale with all twelve seats taken. Maggie and I ordered to go and took the food back to our AirBnB. I got a guanaco burger, which was pretty good. It was bit richer and darker than beef, but not significantly different. We chilled for the rest of the evening, too worn out to go get a beer in public.

25 January 2023

The weather window had closed. Rain and wind battered our AirBnB for most of the night, and we woke up to gloomy skies. After making breakfast and lounging for a bit, the weather only gave me an excuse to continue lounging. Between all the driving and ambitious hiking we had been doing, I was content to take it easy. We did go out walk around town to get groceries and supplies for the road ahead.

Maggie eventually got restless and went out for an evening run when there was a break in the rain. She went for Laguna Capri, running through town, then the forest.

She said there were still lots of people out hiking, and many of them were supportive and impressed she was out running the trails. The view at the lake gave her a good look at Loma de las Pizarras and the ridge we had hiked the day before. On the way back, a little rainbow faintly highlighted Rio Fitzroy.

Maggie’s solo adventure

We went out for more of a fancy dinner – salmon ravioli for me, and veggie stew with potato wedges for Maggie. We were pretty happy with our quick stay in El Chaltén, but there was so much more we wanted to do. This is definitely one of the places we visited that we would like to return to someday!