Fitzroy Section of Los Glaciares National Park
We spent the next three days camping in this Park which is located in the area known as Austral Andes, Argentina, on the border with Chile. Los Glaciares National Park is a mecca for mountaineers and hikers.
The main peaks of the massif are: Fitzroy (11,703'); Cerro Torre (10,280'); and Poincenot. Fitzroy is in the northern extreme of the park with peaks, lakes, woods and glaciers. The name, Los Glaciares, refers to the glaciers born on the Ice Caps or the Patagonic Continental Ice. There are 47 big glaciers and more than 200 smaller glaciers.
Around a 37 km drive away, is the small village of El Chalten.
This day's hike was long, dreary and extremely cold.
And at one point, "ex-Marine," Linda and I sped out ahead of the group heading down the mountain as fast as we could - hoping for a warm spot at the bottom. Victory...there was one of our vehicles waiting to take group back to camp. We jumped in get out of the drizzle, warm up and wait for others when suddenly the driver zoomed off down the road with us in it! Shouting, "no...grupa, grupa..." (that was our limited Spanish trying to tell him to wait for the rest of the group), but he kept on going into El Chalten. Turned out he had mechanical problems and wanted to get the vehicle fixed before the others showed up. Fixed the car, back to base of mountain, and there were the others, freezing their #*!!#*#'s off, mad as hell, thinking that the three of us just went back to camp! Not happy....
The next day was an out-and-back hike View image with boulder hopping, (they nearly yanked my arms out of the sockets getting me on top of the boulder) trying to cross the river...
...coming across a -- Cow's head? -- marking the intersection of several trails. First time I've ever seen a trail marker like that!
Unusual, to say the least...
