We set out from El Chalten after our breakfast of delicious bread and eggs at the hostel. The trail was just on the outside of town, so we walked there to begin our trek. With food for only 3 days, our packs actually felt light compared to the Torres! That was soooo nice! The hike to our campsite was only a few hours, so we got there pretty early in the afternoon, and set up camp. We could see Mt. Fitz Roy from camp, pretty much right from our tent actually, so we just spent some time staring at it. Then a guy selling sandwiches and beer came around! Awesome! So we got a beer and then watched the mountains some more. There were some clouds in behind that seemed to be almost hugging them, so as the sun went down, the clouds started to glow bright white creating a halo effect framing the peaks. It was absolutely stunning!
The next morning we woke up at 6 am for the early morning hike up to try to catch the sunrise creating the glowing pink mountains we had heard about (but missed) at the Torres. The trek up to the mirador was an hour of straight up. It felt really tough at 6 am let me tell ya! But it was beautiful out with a full bright moon lighting our way, and a clear sky. Conditions looked good for our view. We got to the top and a few minutes later it happened!!! The sun popped over the horizon and lit the tips of the Fitz Roy and surrounding mountain peaks and with a pink glow like I have never seen! It gradually moved down, and soon the entire granite spires were aglow with a reddish pink. The moon was still up in the sky and the reflection of the whole thing could be seen in the lake below us making the scene even more unbelievable!
We hiked the next day to the Cerro Torre. This is a mountain that was once though to be unclimbable. But in the 70´s a group of climbers apparently reached the top. I say apparently because the climber who had the camera with pictures of the ascent died in an avalanche near the top and the camera went with him. The team had been using a generator powered drill to install climbing bolts to assist the climb, but they had left the generator on the mountain instead of bringing it back down with them. That route has been aptly named the generator route. The generator route became very controversial in the climbing community and many people believed the first team never actually reached the top because of the 'convenient' death of the photographer. So when some other climbers actually repeated the route a few years later, they found that the bolts did not in fact go up to the summit of the mountain and the generator was still hanging there. Obviously the first climbers were sketchy!! But it´s an interesting story. We looked to see if we could actually see the generator still hanging there, but no such luck.
We were happy to find out that the sunrise at the Cerro Torre was easy to view, with a 10 minute walk from camp. So this morning we got up at a leisurely 7 am and made the grueling 10 minute trek (just joking, we were wearing flip flops!! and brought coffee!!) to the lookout spot. We got the glowing red mountains again! It was absolutely beautiful. My head was exploding with the beautifulness of the scene!
Then we hiked out back to town, and after a short detour up the side of a mountain that was not technically part of the hike... (nice trailfinding Ry haha)... we made it back to town.
Hiking Fitz Roy was amazing. I think it was almost better than Torres Del Paine, if that´s even possible. The trails are right on the outskirts of El Chalten, which makes it super easy to access. The hikes are pretty short, only 8-10 k a day and easier than the ones at Torres, but still challenging. The campsites are all beautiful, clean and quiet and best of all free as is the park entrance fee! The views are more easily attainable here. I would argue that Mt Fitz Roy is even more stunning than the Torres. I don´t know why it´s not more popular! If you are ever in Patagonia, this is a must do. Hands down.
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