El Chalten and Los Glaciares National Park

Our first proper camping and trekking expedition down here in Patagonia took us to the wonderful town of El Chalten and the nearby Los Glaciares National Park.
We decided on a three day two night trek covering some 50km of tracks and trails up to the majestic Cerro Fitz Roy standing some 3405m high. This sheer lump of rock is a beast and commands respect, the weather was constantly changing but we managed to get a good day to hike - one without rain! and the sun was just perfect watching it set over the peaks.

Camp number one was surrounded by forest, which we thought would offer us protection. But the morning we were packing up the wind was so vicious that it ripped a 10m branch with a 35 inch diameter clear off a tree - right in front of us!! Then we realised why all the trees were ripped to shreds in the area, the wind is CRAZY!

Day two took us to Lago Torre and the big glacier that dumps huge chunks of ice into the lake, we trekked up the valley and set up a nice camp where we cooked more nice pasta and soup in our little tent as we were subjected to non stop rain from 2pm to 6am - at least the tent held up!
The following day we went the long way back to El Chalten and dived into our welcoming hostel to have hot showers and fresh warm cups of Yorkshire tea, it was a welcoming taste of home after a long, windy few days.

The views are outstanding, the glaciers are like slow moving sculptures capturing moments in history as they creak and grow and the fresh wild landscape puts everything into perspective.

We loved it.