Argentina

El Chalten and surroundings

Tourist heart of Argentina

Petr Liška
Wrote 2409 articles and follows him / her 241 travelers
El Chalten and surroundings
Inserted: 15.11.2013
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Small town El Chalten, situated at the confluence of rivers Rio Fitz Roy and Rio de las Vueltas, was established in 1985 to „defend“ discussed border with Chile. Now it is nicknamed as the capital of the Argentine trekking, which is quite appropriate because local hiking trails are really amazing. An ideal starting walk from the town is to the lookouts Condores and Aguilas, where you can make a nice idea about the surroundings and in particular, you can admire for the first time the omnipresent view of Fitz Roy.
 

Monument at the entrance to the city

Right at the entrance to the town there is a nice monument dedicated to Fitz Roy with a nice view of it. There is probably nobody who has been to El Chalten and didn´t take a picture in this place /after the entrance to the town disappears this outlook of the mountain gradually behind the ridge of hill Cerro Rosado/.

Monument at the entrance to the city
Author: © gigaplaces.com

Rio Fitz Roy

If you are going to take a little walk to lookouts Condores (condors) and Aguilas (eagles) and make a first impression about the area, you shall go back a few meters along the main road and cross the bridge to get to the other side of Rio Fitz Roy. Even the views from the river are worth it.

Rio Fitz Roy
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Panorama of El Chalten

After crossing the bridge and bypassing the small industrial company continue along the path up to the crossroads. To the south from here lead less known but still very nice hiking trails in the direction to Tumbado mountain (1 490 m asl) , lagoon Toro or up to pass Viento. However, we turn left and get in a wide traverse curve over the cliffs to the outlook Condores, about 100 altitude meters above El Chalten. Be careful – this path seems to be very simple at first sight, but it can be very dangerous in case of strong wind which is here frequent

There is a nice panoramic view of the whole town from the outlook, which constantly expands thanks to tourism and beautiful location. On your left there is rock cone of Cerro Rosada, which is bypassed by the tourists trail leading under Fitz Roy. In the center there is lackluster, but mighty massif of Cerro Polo (1 188 m asl).

Panorama of El Chalten
Author: © gigaplaces.com

View of the entire ridge

The outlook is getting better and better with increasing number of meters – in fact you can see the entire ridge from Torres up to Fitz Roy. The sunrise would be absolutely great here as well.
 

View of the entire ridge
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Lagoon under outlook Aguilas

Other attraction along the way is a lagoon surrounded by woods, in an otherwise barren pampa.
 

Lagoon under outlook Aguilas
Author: © gigaplaces.com

Lagoon and Fitz

From the lagoon you ascent directly to the outlook Aguilas (566 m asl), which is the outlook mainly of a huge lake Viedma and endless pampa. You cannot see here anything until late afternoon, when the sun turns. From the outlook you can come down along not well distinct path (you need not go back around the lake), then along the same path. Count with around 3 hours.

Lagoon and Fitz
Author: © gigaplaces.com
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