In mid-May 2022, my wife and I flew down from Buenos Aires with a very short window, enough to spend the night in Calafate, drive a rental car to El Chalten, spend the night there, meet our guide the next morning, one day up and back from Laguna de los Tres, one more night before driving back to Calafate and flying back to BsAires that afternoon. We were exhausted! But, we had such a great experience (not so much our knees from the hike back down to town…) that we swore we’d bring our two teenage sons the following year.
We kept our promise, returning in early-April 2023, with full camping and hiking gear. Spent three nights on the trail this time, including back up to the Laguna, before hiking to Cerro Torre for another night. Due to overcast conditions, we didn’t get to see those peaks. The trails both times were pretty empty most of the time, due to the off-season, particularly in our first trip.
If you go, dress warmly (including windproofing…) and keep your food well packed, though I’m sure the ratones in the Fitz Roy base camp will find a way in. One little ba——d chewed a hole into the tent my wife and I shared; imagine that experience at 20º F in the middle of the night…
imoretti wrote:
In mid-May 2022, my wife and I flew down from Buenos Aires with a very short window, enough to spend the night in Calafate, drive a rental car to El Chalten, spend the night there, meet our guide the next morning, one day up and back from Laguna de los Tres, one more night before driving back to Calafate and flying back to BsAires that afternoon. We were exhausted! But, we had such a great experience (not so much our knees from the hike back down to town…) that we swore we’d bring our two teenage sons the following year.
We kept our promise, returning in early-April 2023, with full camping and hiking gear. Spent three nights on the trail this time, including back up to the Laguna, before hiking to Cerro Torre for another night. Due to overcast conditions, we didn’t get to see those peaks. The trails both times were pretty empty most of the time, due to the off-season, particularly in our first trip.
If you go, dress warmly (including windproofing…) and keep your food well packed, though I’m sure the ratones in the Fitz Roy base camp will find a way in. One little ba——d chewed a hole into the tent my wife and I shared; imagine that experience at 20º F in the middle of the night…...Show more →
Yup, on one trip I spent 2 weeks between Chalten and TDP. Never saw Fitzroy and El Cuernos were draped in clouds most of the time. When it partially clears in the fall it is much, much prettier than the summer, but it is a bit of a crapshoot whether you see anything on a 2-3 day visit.
This one is from 2011, when the only good light we had was on the last morning of the trip. But when the light appears, it is not just good, it is great
