A three hour bus ride north of El Calafate and the famous Perrito Moreno glacier is the not-so-quietly burgeoning town of
El Chalten. A warm, welcoming last stand of civilization before the cruelly beautiful park that is one of Southern Patagonia's last unpolished jewels. Visitors generally visit El Chalten between November and February when the temperatures are more tolerable and daylight lasts until late in the evening. The summertime temperature disparity between the enormous Patagonian Ice Cap and the valleys to the west creates powerful, icy gusts that scour El Chalten throughout the day. In the winter there is almost no wind, but the frigid temperatures and short days keep even the burliest of climbers from attempting legendary peaks like
Fitz Roy,
Cerro Torre and
Poincenot.
The three short days I had for my first visit to El Chalten were enough to realize one needs at least three months to explore this extensive surrounding National Park. We ended up hiking into Poincenot campground for two nights and using it as a base to do a few of the area's most
well-known hikes like Laguna del los Tres and Laguna Torre. During an afternoon spent staring up at Fitz Roy from Laguna de los Tres, I enviously watched several mountaineering teams traverse the surrounding glaciers. As I crawled into my tent that evening I decided that I would regret leaving Argentina without getting to the base of Fitz Roy and seeing the ice fields on the other side.
After researching dozens of possible routes and guide companies I felt overwhelmed with the options. Fortunately one of my coworkers was a climber and had recently done the Paso Marconi with a guide company he spoke highly of called
Serac-Andinismo. Paso Marconi is one of the lower, more accessible cols that is used to access the Patagonian Ice Field from El Chalten. It usually takes 6-8 days, half of which are glacier travel and consequently highly dependent on good weather. I had something shorter and more technical in mind so I reached out to Julian, the director of Serac-Andinismo, about what other options were available during January. Julian was really helpful and patiently explained the differences between the programs they offer over the phone. We ended up choosing
Paso Guillaumet because the route passes through some lesser-traveled parts of the park and is technical without involving vertical rock or ice climbing (ie. not a route we would have felt comfortable doing on our own).
The name is hard to remember but the route is impossible to forget. Paso "G" as we called it was incredible and stands out as one of the most unique and memorable trips of my life. Approaching the pass from the backside and then coming over the ridge to the base of Fitz Roy gave us the chance to see the towers from a variety of perspectives. As we traversed along the intimidating accordion of glaciers below Fitz Roy and Poincenot I couldn't help but feel microscopic and fragile. Our guides Julian and Diego told us that an unusual snowpack combined with glacial movement had made their usual route too dangerous to pass. Serac-Andinismo ends up taking one or maybe two groups per year along this route as it's one of the most technical programs they offer. One other guide company in the area offers a similar route, but they end up doing it even less frequently. As our guides were faced with charting a revised path around crevasses that could swallow a school bus, I realized how foolish it would have been to do this route unguided. Even expert mountaineering skills can't replace the experience local guides have crossing these glaciers.
If you have the chance to visit El Chalten and want to venture into the glaciers, experience the ice fields or do technical mixed climbing, I highly recommend Julian and Diego from
Serac-Andinismo. They are really experienced, professional guides who also know how to customize each trip and make it as enjoyable as possible. If hiking is more your speed then all you need is a good topo map and the Lonely Planet's
Trekking in the Patagonian Andes guidebook.
Getting to El Chalten:
Technically you can drive or take a bus from either Buenos Aires or Santiago but it would take the better part of a week. There is currently no airport in El Chalten, but you can fly in to El Calafate and take a 3hr bus ride to the town of El Chalten ($19 USD per person each way). There are also a few private companies that organize transfers directly from the airport in El Calafate to El Chalten for about double the price of the public bus. The El Chalten chamber of commerce has a
helpful page that outlines flight, bus and car options. If you fly, opt for
LAN rather than the less-than-reliable
Aerolineas Argentinas.
Places to Stay in El Chalten:
Argentina's president Christina Kirchner recently built an enormous luxury hotel in El Chalten and two of the towns four main streets were paved last year. Don't wait too long to plan your trip because it's only a matter of years before this sleepy, one ATM town becomes a mainstream tourist destination like
Torres del Paine.
