The day after our spectacular tour to the Viedma Glacier, we were planning to do an easier hike to the Mount Fitz Roy via the Laguna de los Tres. The easy hike turned out to be an 8-hour roundtrip. It was only around 12 km (8 miles) long in total but the hike was rather hard since especially the last part was really steep.
But let’t start in the morning. We started our tour at the Hosteria el Pilar which is about an hour drive from El Chaltén. The hour is not the problem in itself – the bad thing is that it’s an hour driving on pure gravel road. The hike starts off really easy besides a river bed, continuing through a lovely forest. The path is more or less in the shadow so we very quite happy since it got quite hot when the sun was out. We passed a few spectacular view points and after a couple of hours arrived at the campsite that rock climbers use to camp before their ascent to the summit. After that, the last part of the tour takes you on a pretty steep track. Good shoes and good physical condition are absolutely essential if you want to reach the top.
All the way up you are being rewarded with an absolutely breathtaking view on the Mount Fitz Roy with his blue lagoon laying beneath. When you are there prepare yourself for some extremely strong and gusty winds. We saw countless hats flying away.
Facing the elements in such harsh conditions was an awesome experience and when I close my eyes today and think back, I can still feel how the winds tried to push me over and I had to counter the gusts with all my body weight. Make sure you don’t miss this trip when you are in the area!
