In Patagonia Part I

Our first stop in Patagonia was El Chalten in Argentina, a nice little town nestled right against the spectacular Fitzroy Massif (mountain range) in Los Glaciares National Park. This place is a mecca for rock climbers and trekkers alike. While the mountains aren't the highest in South America, they are among the most beautiful, Cerro Fitzroy being the tallest, but the insanely steep and jagged Cerro Torre remaining the ultimate prize for any alpine rock climbers visiting the area.

Since Mai and I's rock climbing experience is limited to an 8.5m high indoor wall in St Leonards (Sydney), we thought it'd be best to give the 3128m Cerro Torre (once thought to be the hardest mountain to climb in the world) a miss this time.

We did however do a pretty amazing 3 day hike through the park with it's many mountains and glaciers, camping and cooking each night whilst carrying heavy packs. We were reasonably lucky with the weather, the day before we started our trek it was snowing all day. However, we had relatively clear conditions the whole time. The second morning we were lucky enough to wake to a beautiful clear morning and as we'd been the only one's camping near Laguna Torre, we had amazing clear views of the lake and Cerro Torre all to ourselves.

The surrounding areas of El Chalten were equally stunning with lots of amazing scenery and wildlife. We couldn't help but like El Chalten itself too. It's just a nice, simple little mountain town that, despite it's incredible location, hasn't completely given in to tourism and holds a real Patagonian character.