🏔️ Climbing Fitzroy: Patagonia trekking guide

Our journey through Argentine Patagonia, which began in Los Glaciares National Park, continues. The region is famous not only for its glaciers. Legends are also made about Latin American mountains. Of course, we are on the mainland, famous for its mountain ranges: the Andes and the Cordillera. We won’t risk storming their highest points; this requires special preparation. But Mount Fitzroy is an ideal option for mountain hiking lovers.

A trip to El Chalten and trails to Mount Fitzroy are among the top entertainment in the Argentine south. We will tell you how to make them safe, interesting and memorable in our publication.

How to get there

The route to El Chaltén, a village at the foot of Fitzroy, starts from El Calafate, the tourist capital of the region. The two locations are separated by 200 kilometers, which can be covered by car or bus. 

The first option is definitely preferable. Buses still do not run that often and require strict time management. It will not be difficult to rent a car in El Calafate, where the rental offices of the main dealers are located: Hertz, Europcar, Rentacar and others. Expect prices starting at $40 per day for the best option. You can find life hacks for traveling here.

Buses between El Calafate and El Chaltén operate on average six times a day. The first one leaves at eight in the morning, the last one at seven in the evening. The full schedule can be viewed here. Ticket cost is about $15.

Either a bus or a car will take you to your desired point in three hours. Why not faster is a reasonable question. After all, the distance is only 200 kilometers. No, there are no problems with the road, it is excellent. But I strongly advise you to respect the speed limit on the Argentine pampa. Despite the existing fences along the entire route, wild animals constantly cross them. You are guaranteed to be crossed more than once.

Travel lifehacks

A good experience on a trip to Mount Fitzroy does not even depend on your preparation. And more and more from luck. However, I will share a few tips on how to adopt the Argentine bird of happiness.

The first tip concerns choosing the time of year to travel. From June to August it is winter in Argentina. The bad news is that the weather in these months in Patagonia is very changeable and tends to ruin the experience for tourists. There are often cases when travelers are forced to spend several days in El Chaltén. And not admiring the beauty of a nearby mountain, but simply waiting for it to be safe and advisable to hit the road. After all, no one wants to look at the dense veil of fog that shrouds the valleys and ridges instead of stunning views.

But there is also good news. Traveling to Patagonia during the winter months is like going to a casino. You can break the bank. Accommodation and car rental in the low season (from May to September) in El Calafate and El Chaltén are two to three times lower than in the Argentine summer. If you add good weather to this, consider yourself to have hit the jackpot.

I can’t help but continue my favorite topic of saving. When making purchases online, be it plane tickets (this applies to flights within Argentina), bus tickets, car rental or hotel reservations, choose Argentine payment sites. And the currency of payment is pesos. The local economy is shaking, the country has two policies. The unofficial one is twice as profitable for owners of American dollars. When you pay on the websites of Argentine companies in pesos, after debiting the amount at the official rate, the bank will give you an unusual cashback. After some time, the bank will recalculate the amount spent at the unofficial rate, and the purchase will be almost twice as cheap. By the way, we collected more tips about paying by cash or card here.

El Chaltén is more expensive than El Calafate. And there are no unique souvenirs here. Therefore, it is better to postpone their purchase until returning to El Calafate. By the way, you can find out more about Argentine souvenirs here.

From saving money to saving health. Once again, be extremely careful while driving on the road to El Chaltén. Accidents are common, hitting an animal is easy, and repairing a car is not only expensive, but also difficult. The road is deserted, there is nothing at all between El Chaltén and El Calafate.

Arriving in El Chaltén, you need to register with the local “administration”. And get a free pass to the mountain. This is not done for the sake of bureaucracy, but in order to know where and who to look for in case of loss. I myself did not complete this item of the security checklist. Not because of its malice, but due to the lack of a registrar. We conclude: registering is not so necessary, they are unlikely to check and scold you, but it is advisable to do it for your own peace of mind.

Choose suitable shoes and clothing for your hike. Even if you go on the simplest trail for several hours. It is better to have walking poles or chains on your shoes. Getting up is not so bad. But going down when there is ice on the trails is fraught with falls. If you are going camping overnight, then also take care of warm clothes.

What will you remember about the road to El Chaltén?

The first gasps and aahs will be heard long before you approach Fitzroy. The 200-kilometer route through the virgin Argentinean nature will be etched in your memory like the cave paintings of the ancient Indians. I don’t even know what is more impressive: the fact that for hundreds of kilometers there are no traces of a person, except for a thin stream of asphalt. Or precisely the rare inclusions of human habitations that defied the harsh, inhospitable terrain.

What's in abundance here are llamas. Or rather guanaco. They graze in thousands on the endless slopes of hills and mountains. And, as you already understand, they strive to end their mortal existence under the wheels of rare cars. It remains an unsolved mystery for me that they are drawn to jump over the fence at the risk of their lives. It seems like the grass is the same everywhere. Meanwhile, some guanacos die during this attempt to escape from their half of the field. 

Mustangs here and there add variety to the llama landscapes. Wild horses, proud and rebellious, still gallop in the Argentine steppes, paying no attention to humans. 

And yet the most surprising thing was to see… cows. What a surprise, you say. But where do cows come from when there are no human habitations for tens of kilometers? 

Another attraction on the way to El Chaltén will be the lake with the eerie name Viedma. There is no Satanism in this. It was named after the Spanish explorer Francisco de Viedma.

The lake has several noteworthy features. Firstly, this is Argentine Baikal. Its depth reaches 900 meters, making Viedma one of the five deepest lakes in the world. Secondly, this is a glacial lake. It was formed by the melting glacier of the same name. From time to time you can see blocks of icebergs that have broken off from the glacier and are floating on the lake in an unsuccessful search for their Titanic.

What makes a trip to Mount Fitzroy memorable?

You can pass the village of El Chaltén with only a stop to obtain permission to climb the mountain. There is nothing remarkable about it: ordinary rural landscapes squeezed into extraordinary natural views. Therefore, we immediately head to the starting point of most trails – the rickety gate with the sign Sendero al Fitz Roy.

The park has a good dozen trails of varying degrees of difficulty. It is advisable to familiarize yourself with their full list in advance and choose the appropriate one. For those who are not confident in their own physical capabilities and prefer to take a leisurely stroll around the surrounding area, the two-hour routes Cascada Margarita, Chorillo Del Salto and Los Condores are suitable. Your instincts are right: Cascada really means waterfalls. Not so impressive, of course, but guaranteed to please you at the end of a simple path.

The optimal choice is half-day routes: Mirador del Torre or Laguna Capri. They take an average of four hours, allowing you to achieve the coveted postcard views of the mountain, even though you can’t reach it itself. 

For the most stubborn and prepared, there are several trails of increased difficulty: Laguna de los Tres, Laguna Torre, Loma del Pliegue Tumbado. They will lead to lakes and valleys of stunning beauty that will make every strenuous step up the mountain worth it. These are day trails. You need to budget seven to nine hours for them. I especially recommend taking a closer look at Laguna de los Tres, a favorite route among experienced travelers. The 23-kilometer-long trail will lead to such gorgeous views of the lake of the same name.

But even daytime trails will only lead you to the mountain, and will not ensure its conquest. Further steps are the lot of trained climbers. The climb directly to Mount Fitzroy is not considered difficult. At least 15 routes have been laid to the mountain peak. However, this is the work of professionals. 

By the way, you can literally see Chile from Fitzroy. Or even visit there without a visa – the border in this area between Chile and Argentina is not defined. And who knows what country you are in. 

My friends and I chose the Laguna Capri trail for our trip, the golden mean. And we didn’t regret it at all. The trail is not overly strenuous or difficult. It provides access to several top viewing platforms at once. The first of them is Rio de Las Vueltas.

The main challenge was not to cover several kilometers of the path, and not to hover over the stunning views of the river valley for an excessively long time. Because there was still a lot of interesting things ahead.

For example, these bulky witnesses to the foundation of the world: 

Or local wildlife that has lost all fear of paparazzi tourists:

Or Lake Capri, alas, frozen at the time of our ascent, but nevertheless beautiful:

And, of course, the view of Mount Fitzroy. Much closer, but still out of reach for our tired legs. 

Trails to Mount Fitzroy are a wonderful opportunity not only to get a better look at the pristine Argentine nature, but also to challenge yourself, discover your true abilities and motivation to discover new things. And also one of the most unusual events that can happen in this unusual land – Patagonia.