I caught the early morning bus from El Calafe to El Chalten. The road takes you past Lake Argentino and Lake Viedma. It is very spectacular countryside.
Just before entering the small town of El Chalten, the bus stopped at the National Park Visitor’s Centre. One of the Park Rangers gave a short presentation of the park and walks you can do. The weather was really good, however, the Ranger told that a change was on its way and that “if you were planning to do the Fitz Roy walk, you should do it early in morning” on the next day.
Short Walk
I checked into my hostel and headed off for a short to the south of the town. This actually took me away from Mt Fitzroy, however it provided great views over the town and back towards the mountain.
Restaurants with Wi-Fi are Popular
Back in the hostel the main topic of conversation among the guests appeared to be which restaurant in town had the best Wi-Fi. This seemed to be the major criterion to be used as to where eat rather than the quality of the food.
I found a place with Wi-Fi, however as with most places in Argentina, the speed was painfully slow.
Long Walk to Mt Fitz Roy
One of the options for getting to the base of Mt Fitz Roy was to take a min bus to the northern side of the park and walk from there. This means that you don’t retrace your steps for over 8 klms. I am not into retracing my steps.
The mini bus picked me up at 8 a.m. and did the rounds of other hostels and hotels picking up passengers before heading off.
It took about 50 minutes to get to the point where the walk starts. I headed off. It wasn’t too long before I heard a voice in South African accent say, “you are walking too slowly”. It turned to be bloke that I meet of the city bike ride in Buenos Aries. He was staying in a different hostel in El Chalten and had been taken to start of the walk on a later mini bus.
I continued the rest of the walk with the South African bloke who is in his thirties and is experienced ‘rambler’, a skill he has developed living in London for the past 15 years.
Steep Climb
After about 6 klms walking long a valley floor, the track turned west towards the base Mt Fitz Roy. I recall the Park Ranger saying in his presentation the previous day that “the path is very steep”. He wasn’t wrong.
The South African bloke powered ahead. I tried to keep up, but to no avail. I did notice, however, that I was overtaking people and no one was overtaking me. Having a ‘pacemaker’ does have an effect.
When I finally go to the top of the track, my ‘pacemaker’ was huddled next to a rock. It was freezing and the change, forecasted by the Park Ranger, had arrived.
The track end at a lake of the bottom of glacier that runs off Mt Fitz Roy itself. It is very spectacular. It is a pity that the weather had turned and that it was not possible to see the whole of Mt Fitz Roy. I guess , however, that this to be expected given the amount of rainfall in this part of the world.
After a brief stop, we headed down. I actually found walking down the mountain more difficult than the climb up. The old knees are really starting to show signs of wear and tear after nearly six decades of use.
As I descended. I came across lots of people still climbing up. Some were quite old and others very over weight. I wondered when they would be get back to El Chalten.
I finally caught up to my South African ‘pacemaker’ at the bottom of the steep part of the track. By this time the wind really strong. The walk back to El Chalten seemed to go on forever. By the time we go there is was pouring with rain.
Back to El Calafate
I caught the late bus back to El Calafate. There was lot of talk among the passenger about a possible bus strike the next day.
I decided to assume that there would be no strike.
Flickr
Garmin Link
Walk to the lake below Mt Fitz Roy. I inadvertently turned Garmin off for the walk back to El Chalten
billrider2013 