In Argentinas "hiking-mecca"

Until we arrived in el Chalten the weather there was awful. And then suddenly sunny nice warm days were for casted. It was some kind of destiny or just luck, but Derek and me decided to take use of it and camp for two days in the Los Glaciares national park:

Fitz Roy
After a 4h hike we arrived at camp "Poincenot" on the foot of mount Fitz Roy. The trail to the camp side was already amazing with nice views of Fitz Roy, Poincenot and all other surrounding mountains...

Once we set up our tents we decided to hike up to the viewpoint of Fitz Roy. It was a pretty narrow an icy path, but once you made it, you stand in front of a small alpine lake with the Fitz Roy mountain range in the background, all covered in snow. Simply too beautiful to be true... :-)
The highlight was the sunrise on the next morning. The peak of Fitz Roy was covered in red sunlight from the first sun-rays of the day. We were stoned by this scene and decided to hike up again. And up there we were almost the only ones. It was so quite and peaceful and we just stopped and stared at the landscapes for more than 2 hours...

In the afternoon we hiked to the camp side "De Agostini", next to the Cerro Torre mountain and set our camp up there.


Cerro Torre
We got up very early so see the sunrise and how the first sun-rays of the day striked the peak of Cerro Torre. It was very spectacular but fu**ing cold. Again we stood at the shore of a small alpine lake and were watching the Cerro Torre and its glacier on the other side of the lake. Occasionally an iceberg calved into the lake and were swimming to the shore next to us.

We relaxed till noon, did some small side trek to a viewpoint and made our way back to Chalten in the afternoon.
In the evening we joined the national trekking festival in town. It is every march and commemorates the first attempt to climb Fitz Roy mountain. A Chilean band were playing in the gym of the school for free, was pretty nice.


Loma del Pliegue Tumbado:
On our last day in Chalten we made a day-hike to the viewpoint "Loma del Pliegue Tumbado".
We climbed a small mountain next to the viewpoint, where an unofficial trail leads to the top.
From there we had an amazing view of all surrounding mountains of Chalten, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre inclusive.

 
Every now and then we saw condors gliding on the steep mountain sides, using the thermal winds to getting high in the air. Sometimes they passed us very close and this birds are huge man...!!
Back in Chalten we took the night bus to Los Argentinos, which is on the border to Chile.

My further plans are making my way up to Puerto Montt and Bariloche in the lake district.
Visit some more national parks on my way up, climb a vulcano or do some wild water rafting... :-)