Log Four: El Chaltén
hiking to Cerro Torre & Laguna Torre
The weather remained dodgy, with high winds bringing systems of rain across the mountains and just as quickly whisking them away again to let sunshine and blue skies tempt everyone outdoors. The forecast called for a very wet ladder part of this day, so Olivia and I headed out for another day hike.
Fingers crossed, tomorrow would be our day to hike out to the Fitz Roy.
We walked out of town along the same trail I had ventured down my first day in El Chaltén, the trail head is called Calle Riquelme. On that first day my knee injury had me hobbling along. Today my body felt great and I was looking forward to a long walk. We got off to an excellent start, at the first mirador distant clouds cleared every so slightly to reveal Cerro Torre (3128 m ) capped in glacier and crowned by a rainbow. It was unfortunate that our hike was leading us away from sunshine and towards weather sitting stubbornly in the mountains, but we were glad to have this view.
Laguna Torre & the Glacier Grande (left)
The trail concluded at Laguna Torre, the lake at the base of the Glacier Gtande which crawls down one side of Cerro Torre. I would describe the hike as moderate and it took around 6 hours, out and back.
On a clear day you would be able to see Cerro Torre and much more of the glacier snaking down. I believe you might also have a view of some towers in the Fitz Roy Massif, ones called Doblado and Nato, located on the right side of the lake.
There is an additional mirador called Maestri, up on the mountain to the right of me in the photographs below. However, we heard it is a scramble and slippery when wet. I didn’t think my knee could handle 2 km across loose rock so we played with some icebergs in the lake, enjoyed the little bit of glacier we could see and then headed back.
