What a wonderful world?!

So this is it! We drove hundreds of kilometers to a remote place in the argentinean part of Patagonia. The weather was finally on our side. We're fit and motivated. The bus ticket was paid to guarentee a lift to the starting point of our one day hike. Vamos!

At 8am the bus picked us up right in front of our cabaña. We're transported through the valley north of El Chaltén to the starting point of our hike: the Hosteria El Pilar. Without hesitation we started the hike and walked through more or less dense but also beautiful forest.

Every now and then we sneaked a peek of our destination for the day: Monte Fitz Roy

At the mirador Piedras Blancas we spotted the east glacier of Fitz Roy bursting out into the Laguna Piedras Blancas

An enchanted forest surrounds the Fitz Roy massif

We're tired from the day before but happy to come closer to Fitz Roy

After 1 1/2 hour we realized what was waiting for us: a steep ascent (500m)

Finally after 3 hours of hiking we reached a lower summit vis-á-vis the east side of Monte Fitz Roy. About 1500m of solid granite are spanning from the frozen lake in front of the mountain to it's peak. The "skyline" of the massif has been climbed in one attempt not long ago (see this).
We even spotted a condor who circled the area in a very majestic mannor.

The reward of our struggle

Looking back never hurts

We took our time at the lake and finally started the 4 1/2 hour hike back to El Chaltén (mostly on a different route and also faster then predicted). Again it was very rewarding to look back from time to time.

Some views we catched on the way back to El Chaltén

Personally I was totally wasted while Aleix and Anton seemed to be fitter. But one thing we had in common: we're all looking back on a great day and kept pictures in our minds which we'll never forget.

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Pictures copyright by Dennis Willam. All rights reserved.