Lago Argentino, Argentina - Polarsteps

A long, sweaty (heater at 26°C 🥵) bus ride took us further south!🚌 We drove for 22 hours through hostile landscapes, until we reached the beauty of El Chaltén: the hiking capital of Argentina! And well guess what... It's hiking-time again :D The place is well-known for it's massive mountain range: Fitz Roy!🏔️ The good thing of it is also the worst thing: it is easy to reach🤠. This means a lot of - lets say it the kind way - less experienced people find their ways up👸🏻. Fortunately not everyone has got a tent! ⛺ Although we preferred to have some days doing extremely nothing😴, the weather forecast forced us to lace our boots 🥾(because you know these boots are made for walking🎵). Day #1 we hiked the "long" path of 3.5 hours to Cerro Torre🦵. We pitched our tent in the sheltered forest next to the impressive three-peaked mountain (banana for scale: 2 kms higher than our position). For the rest of the day we had enough time to stare at the peaks and let the last clouds encircling the peaks disappear🌫️. Guess what; it did not happen. But nature got a present the next morning!☀️ (No clouds allowed in the sky 🎵) Day #2 after enjoying our breakfast at the Mirador with perfect views we had another 'long' hike of 3 hours to go to the one and only Fitz Roy, the biggest mountain in the park. To skip some crowds we decided to go late in the afternoon, which means we had time for chocolate fondue! 🤤🫕(Yesterday a Swiss-guy laughed at us for bringing a can🥫 up in the mountains (he considered it too heavy💪), well he must be jealous with what luxury we have left in our pockets :) To the Fitz Roy mirador it was another hour climbing🧗. We were in doubt wether we also wanted to spent next mornings' famous sunrise up there. 🌄However, on day #3 we were so happy we decided against it! Although we woke up at six, we were not the ones climbing the mountains in the dark at 3ish. The mountain is especially famous because of the red colour it used to get from the early sunlight. However, one thing was missing: sun 🌞🌥️. Even more on that, some rain clouds🌧️ were finding their way towards our valley together with really strong winds🌀. Well we took advantage of the wind, quickly packed our tent and in two hours we were back in El Chaltén! 🏘️Oh we didn't envy the people who climbed their way up: good luck with that... Side Story: the picture on top of the mountain was shot by a sweet Dutch 🇳🇱 couple from Groningen. Back in El Chaltén Kas approached Frank: "Could it be that we know each other?" Apparently they did a study project together🤓, what a coincidence!

Country Guides:

Argentina