I spent most of March 2019 hiking in southern Patagonia, beginning with five great days of day hiking from El Chalten.

This small town (year-round population, 1,000) is close to Mt Fitz Roy and several other very scenic peaks and is the ideal base for exploring Los Glaciares National Park.

The town has one main street, which is almost entirely restaurants, bars, hostels, hotels, hiking gear stores and travel agents. There are a couple of supermarkets and a pharmacy. The only bank machine is in the bus station, and many businesses only take cash, so suck up the fee for taking out cash (about $10) and head into town.

There are many day hikes from town, ranging from less than an hour to eight hours. All the trails are well marked and easy to follow with the guide map from the tourist information booth in the bus station (170 pesos, a bargain!). We were there in March (the southern equivalent of September) and were blessed with five days of warm clear sunny weather, so we managed six excellent hikes.

Laguna Capri (4 hours)

This is a good first hike as it is only about four hours, allowing time for a leisurely breakfast and some lunch shopping before, and time to check out the restaurant and bar scene after. Walk to the north end of town (away from the bus station, towards the mountains) until you see a small white caravan which is Primo’s Bar and Coffee shop on your left. You then walk through a parking lot to a well marked trail head. After 0.7 km of hiking up hill you get the first mirador (view point) looking out over the river and giving a good idea of what a remote and desolate area you are hiking in.

The trail continues for a couple of hours, mostly level and through woods, until you come to a well marked loop. You can either go right to a mirador, or left to Laguna Capri. It does not matter which order you do these in, but the gravel shore of the lake makes a nice place to have lunch.

The hike is completed by finishing the loop and returning the way that you came.

Madre and Hija Lake Loop (8 hours)

The next day I invented a long circular trail taking in the Madre and Hija (Mother and Daughter) lakes. From the trail-head in the centre of El Chalten (near the Kaiken hostel, which you can find on Google Maps), I ascended a little way to a mirador overlooking some cascades and continued on to Mirador Tore. From there a level trail passes through scrub-land with great views of Cerro Solo and Cerro Grande and the Grande Glacier. Thirty minutes after the lookout there is a path on the right which is signposted to the Madre and Hija Lakes. The path which ascends about 150m through pretty woods, before levelling out. About 30 minutes brings you to the south end of the lakes, where there is an easy walk along the right side of the lakes, with great views of the mountains. The path eventually turns further to the right and climbs away from the lake. Just before Poincenot, there is another right turn which takes you back to Laguna Capri and from there into El Chalten.

Laguna Torre and Mirador Maestri (7 hours)

This time we started from the trail head at the north end of town. Turn off the main road by the little white caravan called Primo’s, which sells coffee and beer at picnic tables, go past the Vientos del Sur apartment, follow the road round tot he right and you will see a path on your left). Ninety minutes of gradual ascent gets you to the Mirador Torre where a sign labels all the mountains. About 30 minutes after the turnoff for Madre and Hija there is a junction in the woods. We took the right turn. labelled Prestadores Turisticos. This ends up with a short steep climb up the terminal moraine of Glacier Grande, from where there are spectacular views of Lguna Torre.

From that viewpoint you can either go right, along a fairly level but rocky path, to Mirador Maestri, or do as we did and go left to join the throng of people hanging around the lake’s edge near Campiamento De Agostini. From there it is a pleasant walk by a rushing river for about 30 minutes before you return to the trail you came in on. Shortly after the Mirador Torre the trail divides. The unlabelled left trail takes you back the way you came, to the north end of town, the right fork takes you the middle of El Chalten.

The short southern hikes – Mirador Condores and Mirador Aguilas (2 hours total)

After two long days of hiking, we decided to head to the very south-east end of town, past the bus station and over the river, to investigate the trails from the Visitor’s Centre. This option takes you further away from the mountains, but in return offers impressive panoramic views.

Condores is a very wide and well maintained trail which ascends gradually and loops around and up to a spectacular look out over the town site and mountain range. It is well suited to people who do not usually hike but are up to walking uphill for 30 minutes, or to people on a day trip.

The Aguilas trail heads south, away from the mountains, and ends at a lookout with a view over the plains to Lake Viedma. From there you can go back the way you came, or turn to the left and scramble to the top of a small peak with panoramic views. A path continue northwest and rejoin the original trail in about 15 minutes. There is also a third and longer (6 hr return) trail to Mirador de la Loma del Pigue Tumbado which is suppossed to have great views but we did not attempt this one.

Laguna Los Tres (Mt Fitz Roy) hike from El Pilar (8 hours)

This left me with only one of the classic El Chalten hikes left to do: The short steep ascent to Laguna Los Tres, right in the heart of the Fitz Roy massif. For a change of approach, I wanted to get to the base of the ascent from the north, instead of doing the Laguna Capri approach. If I had planned things, I would have arranged for a 900 peso taxi or a 300 peso transfer up to Hosteria El Pilar, but when I was first offered this choice both options seemed a lot for such a short drive. I ended up hitching a ride in the back of a pick-up truck after waiting five minutes. The workers were going directly to the Hosteria and refused my offer of gas money.

The Hosteria looks like a nice small inn, and the trail ran parallel to a stream through woods.

After about an hour there is a viewpoint looking across the river to the Piedras Blancas glacier and lake. The trail continues to a campground at Poincenot where you turn right and cross the Rio Blanco to reach the foot of the 500m Laguna Los Tres ascent. It takes a bit over an hour of steady trudging up a steep slope to eventually come out onto a more gentle walk over an open gravel area which leads to the spectacular lake. There is one large stone in the lake that everyone poses on. take time to explore the area, and in particular look southwest and down to Lago Sucia.

• 

• 

The hike back is quite straightforward and now familiar. From Poincenot there is a short level walk by a stream which becomes familiar from the Laguna Madre and Hija hike, and heads to Laguna Capri and back into El Chalten.

Logistics

Travel: Getting thereto El Chalten is a bit of an issue. Air Canada has an 11-hour overnight flight from Toronto to Buenos Aires. You then have to switch airports and take an Aerolineas Argentinas flight to El Calafate, which takes about three and a half hours, then take a bus to El Chalten, which is another three hours.

Accomodation: We stayed at Vientos Del Sur, a small modern red and white apartment block at the end of town, which was cozy, quiet and comfortable. The managers spoke excellent English, and were very casual and friendly. For example, left our room key in an unlocked office for us, as we arrived at 9:30 after the 12:15 flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate and a 6 pm bus from there to El Chalten. They came by a couple of days later to check out our passports and credit cards, and to talk about what we wanted to do. There is a wide range of hostel, hotel and apartment accommodation in Chalten, but it is very busy in the hiking season so it is best to book in advance. We used Booking.com, which we found very helpful.

Language: Throughout the trip, we found that most people who deal with tourists speak enough English to do their work. People seemed to appreciate an effort to speak Spanish, especially in places like supermarkets or other stores tourists rarely get to.

Technology: We had quite good WiFi at our apartment, so we did not look for other places to connect. There are no McDonald’s, Starbucks or Internet Cafes. There is no cell phone coverage in the park, but from time to time we found that text messages got through. If you download an offline version of Google maps for the area this works well for navigating in town. Your phone uses GPS to locate you fairly accurately, without using data. Outside the town, the Google map is just a sketch which shows the rough position of the lakes but does not mark any trails. Google translate can be very useful. Download the Spanish language package when you have WiFi

That pretty much covers the El Chalten hiking options in five long days. There is a short hike north of town which follows the road and leads to the Chorillo del Salta waterfall, which appears on some postcards. If you have more time there are hikes around Lago Desierto, a short drive north of town. Tour operators also offer a boat ride on the lake and kayaking trips.