El Chalten - Hiking To Famous Fitz Roy

We were up early to hike to the base of one of the most famous mountains in the world - Fitz Roy. It is famous not just because of its beauty, but because its mountain range is prominently featured on the logo of the Patagonia clothing brand.

We went early to avoid paying for the park fees (the rangers only show up at the booth at 8am), as they would've amounted to $45 each(!), which we thought for a single hike was rather ridiculous.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and our spirits were high. Next to the towers in Torres del Paine, this hike was the one I was looking most forward to. It's roughly 10km to get there and a relatively easy hike apart from the last 1km (we will get to that).

The views on the way started out to be beautiful, as after just a bit more than 1km, we reached a viewpoint with magnificent vistas over the valley behind El Chalten. Then it was another hour until we reached the 'Mirador Fity Roy', which is the point that offers incredible views over the Fitz Roy mountain range and is essentially Patagonia's logo. The sight was truly spectacular and we stood there for quite a while to enjoy the magnificent scenery, took lots of pictures and appreciated the place that we were in. We also had the luck of literally not a single cloud in the sky. To be here with my dad was definitely a special moment for me.

Continuing our hike, it was largely flat (nice!) and the mountain range was in sight (either right in front of us or to our left) almost the entire time. It was a really beautiful hike.

Then came the last km. It was literally just 1km, but to get to the base of Fitz Roy we had to climb up 400m of elevation. In other words, it was just straight up. It was definitely exhausting and even though we decided to each go our own pace, we arrived at the top after 45 minutes and just 15 minutes or so apart.

Once at the top, the view was literally breathtaking. It essentially looked like Fitz Roy and its sister mountains rising out of a base lake as if to tell us ‚look how beautiful I am'. It truly was a spectacular sight. We sat down to rest a little bit after that tough last km and to soak in the atmosphere and views that had unfolded in front of us - of course we also took quite a few cool snaps.

As there were quite a few people at the location, we decided to have a short walk to the left of the lake, as I had heard before that it offered an even more stunning perspective of the mountain range. And it was right. The views did get even better as now we not only had the base lake and Fitz Roy to our right, but another lake, waterfall and the continuation of the mountain to our left. Plus, there were less people there, which I found strange but welcoming.

Thus, we sat down - again - to appreciate the awe-inspiring view, had our lunch (I think leftover pasta) and took another round of really great photos. I think with a background like that, it is almost impossible not to take cool pics. We lingered there for quite a while and marveled at the sight, but also after 10km (c.5h), I thought we deserved to stay here for a bit. After all, it is such a beautiful place at sort of the end of the world that it was only fair to take it in as long as we wanted.

However, after enough time to enjoy the view, we were starting to head back, but not without wanting to do a little detour. I had seen prior to arriving in El Chalten, that on the way back there was the possibility to do a 4km detour (one-way!) to get close to a glacier. Remarkably, we still had the energy to try and check out that glacier. Unfortunately, it turned out that we were on the wrong side of the river (the way we wanted to take wasn't marked on the map, only the alternative way). We still had some nice views, but it wasn't the views we wanted and we were further away than we aimed for. Especially given the extra km we had to walk for this it felt a bit disappointing.

Ah well, I guess that's life. This little extra hike extended our already 20km hike by another 10km or so, so that by the time we arrived back in our accommodation, we had done a grand total of 57k steps that day. Fair to say that we were definitely exhausted. Very happy, but exhausted.

Apart from the detour, it was literally a perfect day. The weather, our spirit, the excitement, and of course the breathtaking views - every piece had fallen perfectly into place. I was extremely happy to have successfully done the hike and even more so that my dad was by my side - especially as he managed the entire day with what looked like ease. I really was very proud of him that day. Super well done!Read more