Trekking in El Chalten
El Chalten, “the trekking capital of Argentina”! With five days in and around El Chalten I got to experience a small piece of what this place has to offer. Other than hiking and camping, the area around El Chalten in also well known for mountaineering, rock climbing, mountain biking, and I’m sure much more. It’s a place for all sorts of adventures, and the town is the perfect little companion for anyone seeking adventure. It’s a small town, and definitely seems to have been built around the adventure tourism industry. There are some residential areas, but it doesn’t seem like too many people live there, and the main streets are full of hotels, hostels, restaurants, panaderias, tour providers and outdoor equipment stores; everything you’ll possibly need for whatever it is you plan to do there. And there is so much good food to eat, and many of the restaurants are open late! So you don’t have to choose between catching the sunset in the mountains, and eating a delicious dinner at a cozy restaurant. And there are lots of vegan and vegetarian options!
A view of the mountains from the middle of town
One could easily spend months, or years, here without running out of things to do, so with five days I definitely couldn’t do everything. This was the only part of my trip to Patagonia that I didn’t booked accommodations for in advance and only had a rough plan for what I would do. I booked one night at a hostel and then set out on a 4 day 3 night backpacking trip around the trail network that leaves from town. There are 3 free campgrounds in this area, so I spent one night at each. The hiking wasn’t too hard or long, which gave me plenty of time to take photos and hide in my tent from all the rain. I was very glad to have a good book with me.
This view was just a few minutes walk from my first nights camp at Camping de Agostini.
For my second night I hiked over to Campamento Poincenot. This is closest campground to Laguna de Los Tres, which is where you will find the classic view of Mount Fitz Roy. I ended up doing the hike from Poincenot to Laguna de Los Tres twice. I went up first for sunset, but the weather was cloudy, cold and windy, and it even snowed and hailed a bit! I did get a cool dramatic view of the mountains, but Fitz Roy was covered by clouds the entire time, so I had to go back the next day.
Mount Fitz Roy on a cloudy evening
While escaping the wind behind a big boulder a culpeo came out to say hi.
Culpeo’s look like fox’s, but are more closely related to wolves.
I’m glad I hiked back up to Laguna Los Tres the next day. The weather was perfect and I finally got to see Fitz Roy in all of its glory. The bright sunny daylight was great for detailed shots of the rock and snow.
I spent my third night at Laguna Capri. More bad weather made for less than ideal conditions for sunset and sunrise photos, but I had a nice night at the campground before heading back to town the next day.
I took this on my way from Poincenot to Laguna Capri
A view of El Chalten as I descended back into town.
I spent one more night at a hostel in town which gave me one last chance to grab some sunrise shots. There’s nothing like waking up at 5:00am and running cross town to the trailhead when you should have woken up at 4:30am. The weather wasn’t great again, but sometimes you just gotta get what you can get.
I spotted this view on my way back to town from my 4 day backpacking trip, and decided to head back for sunrise.
I had a great time hiking, camping and eating in and around El Chalten. I wish I had a few more days to spend there, I would have loved to have spent a day or two rock climbing. This is definitely a place I can see myself returning to.
This is the Hostel I stayed at. I’m not usually good at taking pictures of places I stay, but I was able to grab this shot from the bus as I was leaving town.
