Patagonia, covering the bottom third of South America, is home to the second largest ice field outside the arctic and some of the most spectacular hiking in the world. In our first week of hiking in Patagonia we discovered why El Chaltén is the Argentinian heart of the region.
Hiking in Patagonia: El Chaltén
It’s difficult to put into words our visit to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and Los Glaciares National Park. It’s something you’ve dreamed about for years, never really sure if you’ll ever get there and suddenly it’s in front of you.
And it’s even more spectacular than you’d imagined.
South From Bariloche
It’s a short flight from Bariloche to El Calafate, the small Argentine town on the edge of Lago Argentino and main entry point to the region. From the plane window we get our first glimpses of the Patagonia we’ve seen in the tourist brochures and we get more excited. We’re beginning the part of the trip that was the inspiration for our entire South American holiday. A woman in the row in front of us points out the Viedma Glacier at the end of Lago Viedma, and the distinctive peaks of Fitz Roy. The water in the huge lake sparkles with a distinctive glacial blue hue. People in the aisle seats lean over their seatmates to snap photos through the right-hand windows.
Landing in El Calafate Airport, we spend an hour in the airport cafe waiting for the bus to arrive to take us to our first official stop in Patagonia, El Chaltén.
The Bus from El Calafate to El Chaltén
The bus ride from El Calafate to El Chaltén is two and a half hours of barely contained excitement from all the passengers. We spend almost an hour navigating around Lago Argentino, the largest lake in Argentina, before eventually turning north on the famous Route 40. The odd car appears now and then on the single lane highway, reminding us of just how remote we are. At this latitude we’re already further south than Australia and New Zealand.
An occasional tree dots the landscape, one dominated by wide plains and rolling hills of yellow dust intermingled with low grey shrubs. The colours here evoke the muted tones of army desert camouflage gear. Homesteads with driveways stretching a mile back from the highway periodically appear to give some sense of scale to the scene, and guanco (cousins of the llama) languidly graze in the endless fields.
We reach the halfway point at La Leona Hotel, famous for serving as a staging point for many summit attempts over the years before El Chaltén was established, and infamous for once housing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We stretch our legs and wolf down an empanada and submarino (hot chocolate) before being herded back onto the bus.
As the bus turns west onto Route 23 and begins to trace the shores of Lago Viedma, the El Chaltén mountain range appears in the distance and talking on the bus drops to muted whispers. There is a palpable air of excitement. We’re finally here.
You can see why Mount Fitz Roy has captured the imagination of climbers and hikers for so many years. As we turn a bend in the endless flat of scrub, Fitz Roy suddenly appears. An imposing, sharp spire rising to the sky, the range is covered in a thick coating of snow despite the fact it’s the height of summer. Clouds lurk at its edges, revealing and concealing its spires as the ever-present wind pushes and pulls them across the sky.
El Chaltén Town
El Chaltén means ‘Smoky Mountain’ in the local Aonikenk language. A town of 3,000 people founded in 1985 as a tourist hub for trekkers and mountain climbers, it also served an important purpose for the Argentinian government to put a permanent settlement in the area and demonstrate sovereignty over this part of the Southern Patagonia Ice Shield during a (still not fully resolved) dispute with Chile.
Our first night in town, we drop our bags at our Airbnb and sit down at what looks like a cozy spot just steps from home called The Asadores. We sit down and Francesco informs us it’s a five course fixed menu dinner. And wine’s only available by the bottle. Oh, well, when in Argentina. Four courses in and with our stomachs straining, he takes pity on us and substitutes dessert for a local sparkling wine. We totter off to bed in preparation for a week full of hiking.
Hike One: Mirador Los Condores and Las Aguilas (5km circuit)
Death and taxes. And if you’re in El Chaltén in summer, wind. Here on the lee side of the Andes, warm winds from Australia hit the cold air across the ice fields and drop into the valley, gathering velocity and ferocity in their descent. When planning your hikes, wind (as well as rain and snow) needs to be a big factor in when and where you go. Downloading the app Windguru is the first recommendation from the park ranger at the visitors centre.
We’d built in some rest/windy days into our 9 days here in El Chaltén, and today sees us getting settled in to town before tackling a very small hike behind the visitors centre, but still one that offers stunning views of Fitz Roy and the surrounding peaks. Ironically, it also turned out to be one of the clearest days we experienced.
The hike up to Mirador Los Condores (Condors Lookout) is short and accessible, and a popular option for the many tour buses. From the top we’re given our first breathtaking view of the peaks that make up the Fitz Roy range.
The Patagonia clothing company uses the silhouette of these peaks as its logo. Quick, go and check your T-shirt and you’ll see it.
From Los Condores we follow a clockwise circular route out to Mirador Las Aguilas (Eagles Lookout), on a trail which isn’t actually shown on the park’s trail map. We found it via Alltrails, and would absolutely recommend taking this alternate path. As we walk south towards Las Aguilas, we find ourselves constantly looking over our shoulders at the increasingly spectacular views of the Fitz Roy range.
Clicking on any of these pictures will open a new tab with a gallery of our pics of El Chaltén!
After a short hike we reach Mirador Las Aguilas where we’re greeted by the site of the huge, brilliant blue glacial Lago Viedma – the second largest lake in Argentina. The lake is fed by the constant melting of the huge Glaciar Viedma, tucked behind the neighboring ridge. Unfortunately this is the closest we’ll get to the mighty glacier, as ice trekking on its surface was stopped a number of years ago due to the instability of the glacier.
Throughout the hike we’re battling the wind; we’re actively have to lean into it and still we’re being buffeted. Without our head scarves our hats would be long gone. Back at the Visitors Centre the ranger dispels any preconceptions we might have had – ‘Today isn’t windy.’ Oh.
Channeling our inner grannies. These neck thingys are a miracle at keeping your cap on while also keeping the wind out
We take in the various dioramas of the trails we’ll be tackling in the coming days. All of them are easily over 20km return. Our shoes are covered in glacial flour, the fine dust constantly being created by the glaciers in the ice fields grinding away at the underlying rocks. This is going to be fun!
The red lines are three of the five hikes we did.
Hike Two – Laguna de Los Tres (26km out and back)
We make an early start for our hike to Laguna de Los Tres to avoid the high winds predicted for later in the day. This has the added benefit of avoiding most of the day trippers coming from El Calafate for this popular hike, and one we’d recommend for all hikes in El Chaltén.
It’s a couple of km through town to the trail head, from which point we begin our ascent up towards the glacial lagoon. Rio Las Vueltas (literally, the river of turns) is on our right for the early part of the hike, before we gradually veer away as we follow the ridgeline and across a wide valley. The first 8 or 9km of the hike is what we’d now call ‘Argentinian flat’ – i.e. some up and down but nothing like the elevation gain of >300m over less than 2km to the trail’s end.
At the top we’re treated to a stunning glacial lake, but also bitingly cold wind and driving rain. We shelter behind a large boulder, layer up and enjoy the view. In front of us is the base of Fitz Roy – in fact this trail is the starting point for those attempting its ascent. Fitz Roy is largely covered in cloud, but the bowl is still showing, double rainbows periodically appear as the sun cuts through the clouds. We can see Glacier Rio Blanco and Glacier de Los Tres, named after the three peaks that surround it (Fitz Roy, Aguja Saint Exupery and Aguja Val Biois. Aguja means ‘needle’ in Spanish)
It’s way colder than we’re making it look
After eating our lunch we stay at the top for about half an hour and then begin our descent. We’re frankly amazed at the number of people now coming up with little to no protection against the weather. T-shirts, no rain gear, in many cases no extra clothing of any kind. Our feeling is that someone is going to get themselves into serious trouble up here one day through a lack of respect for the conditions.
8 hours later we’ve made it back home, exhausted but excited about having our first ‘real’ hike under our belts. We go to dinner at La Cerveceria Chaltén— anyone with ‘beer’ in their name has to be good – and indeed it is good, with a delicious lamb ravioli for Michelle and lamb meatballs for Al (Lamb is a thing in Patagonia, so…).
Hike Three – Laguna Torre (20km loop)
Yesterday was a rest day, as the weather took a turn for the worse with high winds and lashing rain. Today Windguru tells us the wind has settled and the clouds should clear if we leave early.
One of the best things about the hikes in El Chaltén is that they’re literally at your front door. We quickly reach the trailhead and into the Rio Fitz Roy Valley, where we’re greeted with a sign describing the various ways this glacial valley could kill you. We carry on regardless.
Today’s is a relatively easy hike, mostly flat, with sections of Argentinian flat. The last section becomes steeper but the reward is a stunning (and completely unexpected) scene of Glacier Grande curving down and around into Laguna Torre, where 50-odd icebergs are floating.
The site strongly resembles an open pit mine, but it’s actually been formed by the glacier’s movements and the surrounding mountains constantly shedding rocks. The lagoon is a grey colour, unlike the brilliant blue of Laguna de Los Tres. We can only guess that this is because it has a lot of sediment suspended in it, but not the all important superfine glacial flour.
We spend an hour exploring, watching a hiker cross the river with a suspension cable, and headed up the ridge for a higher view. At one point an enormous condor flies right over us, its 2m wingspan just a few meters above our heads. It didn’t flap its wings once, but expertly used the constant winds to cruise up and around the lagoon looking for prey.
Not a condor
This did not go to plan
Following the hike we drop into La Viñeria – anywhere with ‘wine’ in its name must be good! – and it is, with a great selection of Argentinian wines by the glass, friendly staff and savoury snacks. We end up sharing a table with an Austrian/French couple and have a great evening swapping travel stories.
Hike Four – Loma del Pilegue Tumblado (20km out and back)
Literally ‘Hill of the Lying Fold’, today’s hike will give us an alternate viewpoint of yesterday’s Laguna Torre. The hike starts off as an idyllic meander through meadows, past grazing cows and bulls(!) with more and more of the mountain and valleys in view as we climb steadily. A short stretch of forest of low trees is eerily quiet – no rustle of small critters in the undergrowth, no wind in the trees, no bubbling creek, just an eery silence.
As we emerge above the treeline into another meadow, a large bull gives a us a good stare down but thankfully decides to wander off the other way. The meadow gives way to a rocky near-tundra, and in the distance we finally see our destination: a cone of a hill with a narrow path snaking its way to the top. An incredibly steep climb with the shortest ‘switchbacks’ we’ve ever seen, it’s a 400m elevation gain in less than a kilometer.
But at the top we’re rewarded with the most amazing 360 degree views. The Fitz Roy range and Valley de las Vueltas, around to the iceberg-filled lake we’d seen yesterday, across to the Rio Tunel Valley and the huge Viedma Lake stretching out to the horizon.
Our calves aching from the steep hike, we make our way back home some six hours later. We return to La Vinería, which is a bit naughty because there’s lots of great restaurants here, but we can’t resist.
Hike Five – Laguna de Los Tres via Glacier Piedras Blancas (22km)
Today’s hike is the exception to the rule; the only time we’ll need to drive to a trailhead in El Chaltén. We decided on this hike to have another shot at a clear day up at Los Tres while taking a road-less-travelled trail.
We arrange with a taxi for a 7am departure, and the drive out of town immediately changes from ‘paved’ to ‘rocks’. Every time we head towards a bend in the road the driver readies his hand on the handbrake, and we’re not sure if we should be reassured that he’s ready for a skid or concerned that it seemingly happens that often. We follow the Rio de Las Vueltas as it winds its way through the valley and about 40 minutes later we’re deposited us at the entrance to El Pilar Hosteleria.
No longer the ‘official’ start of the trail, we walk through the grounds of the hostel until eventually finding a sign indicating we’re on the right path. This is a very quiet trail along the valley floor, with several miradors of the spectacular Piedras Blancas glacier shining bright blue in the morning light.
Eventually we rejoin the main trail to Los Tres for our ‘favourite part’, the 2km of straight up we’ve already experienced the first time we did this hike. But today the weather is clear and calm, with just a few clouds to remind us of how lucky we are. Today we’re able to venture down into the bowl to the lake’s edge, and then across to the left side where we can peer down to Laguna Sucia. We didn’t even know there was a second lake the first time we were here!
Those four tiny black dots in the middle of the picture are hikers on the glacier
We relax on the rocks and soak in the views on this, our final hike in El Chalten. It’s been an absolutely incredible week here, and we would be much sadder leaving here if we weren’t going on to even more incredible-ness as our Patagonian adventures continue, for another week or two anyway.
We ran into this guy on the walk home. Carpintero Patagonico
In A Nutshell: El Chaltén and Hiking in Patagonia
To reach El Chaltén you pretty much have to go through El Calafate. We weren’t huge fans of El Calafate, so would recommend you spend only one full day there, to see Perito Merino. (See our separate blog post on El Calafate!).
There are buses from El Calafate Airport (as well as in town) direct to El Chaltén. Check busbud. There are a number of different companies providing service to Chaltén. Ours was 30 mins late, which seems fairly normal.
Most places take credit cards, but bring cash with you. There is no Western Union here. Getting cash from an ATM is likely to be problematic (we didn’t try).
One simple solution to avoiding the crowds: Get.Up. Early. If you’re out on the trail by 7:30, you’ll avoid most of the daytrippers coming from El Calafate for the day (or even the people in town, many of whom will come out a little bit later in the day).
The whole town is walkable in 20mins as it’s only 2km end-to-end. So if you’re arriving by bus it’s easy to walk to your accommodation.
The joy of the town is that you can hike directly from the edge of town on the main trails. If you’d like a ride to any further away, there are taxis who are happy to take you. There’s also a shuttle bus from the main hostels.
There are some excellent restaurants in town. We had been led to believe that it was a tiny town with basically nothing. I had images of a post office and one pub. Which maybe it was a few years ago, but it’s tripled in size in the last 10 years and now there are lots of good (even great) restaurants and cafes, a reasonable supermarket and even a health food store with some good staples.
Several of the stores have items that work well for travellers, like small packs of spice mix and single-serve mayonnaise, individual eggs etc.
La Roti has delicious, large empanadas – the best we’ve had so far on our trip and the staff are really friendly.
