El ChaltenEl Chalten

Published on November 4, 2019 ⋅ 6min read

Silky sheets of snow draped the shoulders of the tall, upright mountains. Ribbons of cloud trailed the sky above, as if they'd been torn on the jagged peaks by the howling wind. A deep blue pool of water mirrored the sky; the surface strewn with cracked ice, as if it were shattered glass. The air, crisp and fresh, brought a shuddering chill with every inhalation...

Our stay in Puerto Natales was only very brief. We took a bus early the next morning to El Chalten, crossing the border and entering Argentina for the first time. The journey was broken into two parts, with a short stopover in El Calafate. After the long ferry ride, the 8 hours on the bus flew by. Despite taking most of the day, it felt like no time at all until we were in El Chalten.

With fantastic weather, and the convenient seating at the front of the double decker bus, we were afforded spectacular views of the majestic mountains as we drove down the highway straight towards them. Gone were the forested mountains of the fjords and instead, we found ourselves driving through a barren, desert landscape. Arriving at El Chalten in the evening, we withdrew some cash from the ATM at the bus station (the only ATM in the whole town) and walked the length of town to the campsite, where we once again went through our ritual of setting up our tents.

We paid a visit to the supermarket to stock up on some supplies for the next few days and then went to a Beer & Burger restaurant for dinner anyway, where I enjoyed a vegetarian burrito and dad had a delicious burger. For once, their "best burger in town" claim appeared to hold up to scrutiny, although we hadn't sampled enough to verify that. It was just a damn good burger, according to dad. We'd definitely be returning!

The next day, the weather held up, so we decided to hike up the trail to Laguna de los Tres, which was renowned for its views of Mt Fitz Roy, the tallest peak in the region. Still suffering from a sore leg/hip, I only managed to get to the first lagoon, about 2 hours along the trail. While I really wanted to go further, I was also very conscious of hurting myself more if I overdid it, so I decided not to go on. Dad was keen to make the most of the good weather, so I told him to keep going. I would return to camp at my own pace.

I sat at the edge of the lagoon, ate some lunch, and after about an hour I started limping back down to camp. I had climbed some 450m in altitude already.

Shortly after starting I came across a group of people stopped on the trail, quietly looking into the bushes. I approached cautiously, wondering what they were all obsessing over: there were two woodpeckers on the trees next to the track! No more than 2 or 3m away, I watched a woodpecker perched low on a tree trunk, pecking away furiously with its long sharp beak. Of course, dad had taken the DSLR with him! Unfortunately, with my phone camera's wide angle lens I wasn't able to get a good photo of the birds (they appeared far too tiny in the photo), so instead I just stood silently watching them for 15 minutes, enjoying the moment.

I continued limping down the mountain, plodding along at my own pace. I was overtaken by everyone. I got back to camp mid afternoon, a total of about 4 hours "walking". I was glad I didn't go any further. The last kilometre had been quite difficult.

Dad didn't arrive back until 7pm. He had made it all the way to the top lookout point and hiked for almost 9 hours, managing some 30km! He was proud of the accomplishment, which was probably the biggest day of hiking he'd do during our time in South America. He had, of course, taken many stunning photos at the top, so while I didn't get a good shot of the woodpeckers, it'd been much more worthwhile for him to have the camera!

With my leg still sore and dad having just hiked 30km, the next day we both decided to take it easy. We walked an easy 3km to a nearby waterfall that, to be quite honest, was wholly unremarkable. Still, it was a bit of movement and some stretching for my leg, so it was a decent "recovery" day.

Our third day in El Chalten signalled a turn in the weather. Up until this point, it had been lovely and sunny. However, now the wind had picked up and clouds were swooping in, threatening to bring rain. My leg was feeling better this day though, so armed with dad's trekking poles, we decided to attempt the walk to Lago Torre, approximately 10km away with an altitude gain of a mere 270m. The trekking poles helped immensely! I was able to offload some of the weight to my arms and it helped me avoid the limp, which had been plaguing me in recent days.

We made it the whole way to the top. The wind picked up dramatically in the last half hour, making it far colder. As soon as we stopped at Lago Torre, we pulled our jackets out of our packs. Shorts and t-shirt had been sufficient while hiking, but not once we stopped and our bodies started cooling down!

There were icebergs in the lake, lazily drifting across the surface in the wind. The terrain was barren rock and ice, with naught but tourists and a lone eagle scavenging for food as the only signs of life. The jagged peaks, like clawed talons tearing at the sky, were consumed by cloud. Fortunately we had had a fantastic view of them on the bus ride to El Chalten. Today, we were not so lucky.

As I sat and ate lunch, Dad busied himself taking photos, his own food forgotten. We were at the lake for about half an hour before it started to drizzle. The rain, combined with the wind, was enough to motivate us to head back down. It was a 3 hour walk to the bottom and the thought of hiking all the way in the rain wasn't a pleasant one. We packed up quickly and were soon on our way.

The drizzle didn't last long, thank goodness. We made good time on the way down, my leg feeling better than ever. By the time we reached half way, the sun was back out and you could have forgotten it had ever rained. We reached camp about 4:30pm, having hiked 20km for about 6 hours. Another delicious pasta dinner followed by a cup of tea before bed brought the day to a close.

Our final day in El Chalten was another "easier" day. My leg seemed pretty good once more, the sun was back and no sight of rain clouds on the horizon. The only downside: it was windy. Boy, was it windy. In the moments where the wind eased up, it was actually quite warm in the sun. Unfortunately, those moments were few and far between! We had been considering doing a trail to Loma del Pliegue Tumbado, a lookout point with spectacular panoramic views over the mountain range. But it was a 11km one way, and climbed about 1100m in altitude. It just didn't seem sensible to attempt that given my recent problems with my leg. So instead, we opted for a shorter walk to the Condor Lookout.

It was nothing special. We got an overview of the town in one direction, and a view over the large lake, highway and surrounding land leading into El Chalten... Which was basically a desert, so pretty boring to look at. And all the while, the wind raged.

I was glad to return to the campsite shortly after lunch, if only to be out of the wind. We spent the rest of the day chilling in the campsite common area before heading out for dinner in the evening to the Beer & Burger place once again. It was just too good to pass up. Especially after 3 nights straight of pasta.

After dinner, it began to snow.

Just our luck! We had to wake up at 5am the next morning to pack up our tent and catch an early bus back to El Calafate. Of course it had to snow on that night.

I woke up at 5am to a lovely temperature of -2 degrees.

One positive aspect was at least it wasn't actively snowing while we had to pack up our tents. Because it had dropped below zero over night, the snow had frozen into place. I tried brushing it off but my hands quickly went numb. Another idea struck me; I took the frozen fly sheet into the bathroom area (which was still relatively warm!) and draped it over the shower cubicles. The ice quickly melted and began to slide off. I left it there while I returned to pack up the rest of the tent. Once I warmed my hands up again, it didn't take too long to dismantle the rest. Moving all my stuff into the bathroom area meant I could pack it easily, without having to worry about getting things wet or muddy.

Overall, it turned out to not be so bad. Just cold. Really cold.