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South America 2005 - part III

Fitzroy, Torres del Paine

Andreas Mayer
2005-12-03 18:17:42

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8/3/05 Antarctica Hotel, Ushuaia

Route 40

OK, back to the Route 40. I expected a romantic roadtrip, two days of fascinating scenery with lots of lakes, rivers and mountains, but really it tuned out to be a dull two day drive through flat pampa. We met Gorgie, a 47 year old Kiwi who had sold up at home to go travelling for a year and ended up hanging out with her for the next few weeks. It was good for Jo to have a female travelling companion, it made the group more balanced and Gorgie was a nice relaxed travelling companion anyway.

Fitzroy

Arrived into El Chalten late in the evening after the second day on the road. El Chalten is probably the most dreadful place I have seen in Argentina, windy and dusty, each building uglier the next one and rough looking dogs ruling the streets (though in fairness they were friendlier than they looked). But it is right next to the Fitzroy mountain range in the Los Glaciers National Park, probably the most famous and scenic mountain range in Argentina, with spectacular glaciers coming down the valleys fed from the massive Hielo Sur Ice Field towards the west of the range.

We did a four day hike around the eastern ridge of the range, an interesting but fairly standard route described in the Lonely Planet guidebook. Immense glaciers dropping into mountain lakes, stunning views of the granite peaks sticking out into the sky, a lot of walking with fairly heavy packs, good campsites, good weather and all in all happy hiking days.

On the downside though the trails are a bit like highways, there are quite a lot of people, some walking in jeans and trainers, some in large groups with guides, so there is not the slightest chance of a feeling of remoteness or adventure. Also the group dynamics were pretty bad (Gorgie had not really joined us full time yet) Dave ...