Chile is not the only country with great Southern Patagonia Ice Cap mountain scenery and hiking country. Across the border, Argentina too has its own climbing and hiking meccas, around the towns of El Chalten and El Calafate. That’s where we went next after leaving Puerto Natales. We’d done with camping, but not quite yet with hiking. Our first stop was El Chalten, in the shadows of the fabulous Mount Fitzroy range. Compared with Torres del Paine, El Chalten has the advantage, depending upon your perspective, that the best scenery can be accessed by long day hikes from the village; there’s no need to camp out. That suited us.
So on two consecutive days, after fortifying ourselves with a solid breakfast at our hotel, then empanadas and pastries at the cafe opposite, we set out on 22 km return hikes into the Fitzroy range, returning in the early evening in each case. And that was enough; we were happy to spend our other two days in Chalten resting up, wandering around town and sipping coffees and nibbling pastries in local eateries. But the hikes, and scenery, were certainly worth the effort and sore muscles. Both had a combination of open country, woodland, and of course the inevitable steep climb leading to a fantastic mountain vista. Our second hike, to great views of Mount Fitzroy peak itself set behind a small glacial lake, involved an ascent of 2,200 feet, the last hour up a steep rock and boulder field. And of course the same altitude change coming down, so there was plenty of insult and outrage for muscles and knees.
In sections of the low-lying woodland we passed through it sounded like there was a lot of construction work going on but it turned out to be gangs of woodpeckers hard at work. We’d never seen these birds before and were surprised at how hard (and loudly) they strike the branches and tree trunks with their beaks. Don’t they get brain concussion from all that head banging? They all seemed still to have their wits about them, so apparently not.
After five days in Chalten we moved on to El Calafate for two nights. 80 km from Calafate in Los Glaciares National Park is a fantastic sight, the huge and currently advancing Perito Moreno glacier that descends from the Southern Patagonia Ice Cap. Its stats are impressive – 30 km long, covering 250 squ km, and with a face that’s 5 km wide, and an average of 170 metres high! 70 metres of this is above the water level in the lake where the glacier ends; the other 100 metres below. That’s some wall of ice!!
