Climbing Fitz Roy (almost)

At 4:15 our alarms went off. The Swiss dad had told us that sunrise was going to be at 5:45, so naturally we trusted that. It was pitch black in the forest, and very cold. At 4:45 we finally had all our layers on to fight that, including rain pants even though no rain was predicted. Carrying not much more than water, bread, and some muesli bars, we set off with our headlamps on, crossed the river delta next to the campsite, and started climbing. The goal was to see Fitz Roy turn red at sunrise, but sadly the sky seemed almost completely covered by clouds. Not having lost all hope, we hiked on. It was just a bit more than 2km to Laguna De Los Tres but the 450m elevation gain made it a steep 1,5 hour hike. On the bright side that meant we weren't feeling cold for very long, and had to take off our rain pants and several layers of jackets.

Even though we did not arrive at sunrise and there was no sun anyways, the views up there were amazing. The peaks of Fitz Roy (3405m) and his siblings look mighty even without sunlight hitting them, and it's crazy to realize 2 guys traversed all these peaks in 5 days. We briefly considered repeating that feat but then decided against it because we probably hadn't brought enough muesli bars. Maybe next time.

We had our deserved breakfast watching over the frozen Laguna De Los Tres with the mountain peaks in front and the valley behind us. The difficulty was staying warm up there, as some of our layers were soaked from sweat and had to be taken off or replaced by dry clothes where possible. We climbed around a bit to regain some heat, and to have a look at the very blue Laguna Sucia. We didn't get tired of the views, but had to return to the campsite again before noon as afterwards we still had to reach our next campsite. The hike down wasn't as demanding in terms of energy but definitely more demanding for our knees.

Returning to our campsite we had a quick brunch of warm oat meal with milk powder, before packing our tents and gear. In the meantime a Japanese group sat down next to us eating whole plates of sushi. Being all packed again we started the 10,5km hike to campsite D'Agostini at Laguna Torre. Being already quite tired, we were happy the trail was rather easy. Arriving at the campsite we set up our tents and cooked some radioactive mac & cheese. Then we had a quick view of Laguna Torre and the reason why it's there: one of the more than 300 glaciers of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The next morning we planned to try another sunrise tour.Read more