Ahhhh. Patagonia, down at the southern tip of South America, above the straits of Magellan.
And now you're probably asking, "Where or what is Chaltén?"
To answer the where, click on the map below. In the lower right-hand corner is Rio Gallegos, where we
flew in. In the upper left, is scenic downtown el Chaltén. We stayed at el Pilar, some miles north
along the river.
To view a larger image, click on the picture you want to see. Return to this page by
clicking on "Back".
Now, as to the what. At 3,405 meters (11,236 feet), cerro Chaltén (Fitz Roy) is the highest mountain
in the area. It was not successfully climbed until 1952. And nearby cerro Torre, a midget at only 3,102 meters
was not scaled until 1970! Anyway, here are some of the pictures from there.
On the first day coming up from Rio Gallegos, we encountered this rather surrealistic scene at dusk:
We reached el Pilar well after dark, and in the morning, we started a hike up to lago de los Tres, the
lake at the foot of cerro Chaltén. Along the way, we saw these views, an owl, and a hanging glacier in
a neighboring mountain.
Our route is shown on the map below.
About one third of the way, we were rewarded with a rare sight of cerro Chaltén!
Continuing on, we crossed the Rio Blanco, and ascended to the morraine at the end of the lake.
Chaltén is totally obscured by clouds...
The next day we hiked to Laguna Torre. Here's the route...
Here's what we saw along the way...
At last we reached the end, and saw this iceberg. Crouching out of the wind, we also ate lunch.
The last shot shows the terminal morraine where we stopped.
Don't cross without harness from this rope die a woman.
The puma follows the wild fox.
No doubt, Eastern mysticisms of some sort. The first was on the sign by the gorge shown below.
It is fairly easily explained when you read the spanish -- they're trying to say that if you
don't use a harness crossing the gorge, you might die like some woman did. The second is
more obscure, not revealed yet, but must certainly be a beautiful thought.
A somewhat more beautiful thought, if not as mystical, was what became known as
the "beer place". We went there at the end of each hike for well deserved, and wonderful,
beer.
The next morning, we were due to leave to go to Lago San Martin. Chaltén decided to
give a last look as the clouds momentarily parted. In the first shot, we were all excited
because we thought we had seen Chaltén. What we had seen was actually the lesser peak, cerro Poincenot, which can be seen on the left in the fifth photo. The second photo shows blowing snow looking back behind
the crowd.
The follwing shots don't really belong here, but I couldn't figure out where else to
put them. We were driving on the way to El Calafate, and spotted an armadillo, which guide
Florencia caught. Here he (or she?) is, and in the final shot, scampers for freedom.
