After departing the MV Ushuaia, I had most of the day in Ushuaia. My next destination would be Patagonia – but we had been warned not to book early flights as the ship often returns late. Air Argentina had merged two flights, so my flight was rescheduled an hour later, meaning I’d only have a short time to go from baggage claim to catch my bus to El Chalten.

The flight was even later than expected, but landed in El Calafate about 6pm. My bag was out within 10 minutes, and soon I was on my 6:30pm bus to El Chalten – timing couldn’t have been much better.

It was a bit surreal walking into El Chalten. This small town usually has at least one chapter dedicated to it in the autobiographies of mountaineering legends. To walk through the streets I’ve seen in so many mountaineering films was really something.

It had been cloudy when I arrived the previous evening, so I saw nothing that day. On my first morning, the legendary Fitzroy was visible. This is a peak so significant to big-wall climbing legend Tommy Caldwell that he named his firstborn after it.

Having just spent 10 days on a ship, I had no clean clothes – so I needed to do laundry and get some snacks before I could head out on a trail. Shortly after handing my clothes to a laundry, clouds had rolled in, and Fitzroy was gone.

One really cool looking peak in the area is Cerro Solo, which I had never heard of before. If I ever find myself back in the town, I’d like to have a go at climbing this.

In Peru, people eat alpaca. In Bolivia, llama. In Patagonia, guanaco. So naturally I found a restaurant that served guanaco, and I had guanaco ravioli for dinner. It was pretty good. I never had guanaco again, so it’s hard to tell how this compares to average.

The following day was a writeoff. It alternated between bucketing down and drizzling, with occasional snow and sleet thrown in. It was also windy. In a brief gap in the afternoon, I went for a 5km run. This was a very cold run – but I got to explore the town a bit. I saw a rockfall along the way, on the cliff behind the town. The wind was so strong at times that it felt like running with resistance bands on. But with this, I had finally ticked off my to-do list item of a 5+km run in Argentina.

The forecast for my third day was the best for the week, so after breakfast, I put my pack on and set off for Laguna Torre. I had two major goals for El Chalten – to see Fitzroy, which I had technically done on the first morning, and to see the legendary Cerro Torre.

El Chalten is known for its terrible weather. So much so, that approaches to big climbs are often done during the back end of bad-weather spells, to give climbers the maximum chance of summitting in the brief gaps.

Because of all the rain the day before, the river was very full.

The valley was beautiful, and it was a great hike – but neither Fitzroy nor Cerro Torre would show themselves this morning.

I eventually reached Laguna Torre. I was the first person there for the day, but was quickly joined by plenty of other people. Even in moderately bad weather, it’s a very popular destination. This makes sense for a reasonably easy hike.

One would normally see Cerro Torre reflected in the lake. The icebergs and glacier at the back of the lake were very beautiful, so it was worth it, even in the absence of one of the most iconic spires on the planet.

I was in no rush, and it kept clearing up a bit, so I spent a lot of time at the lake. I also walked up behind the lake to the end of the trail.

I eventually decided to turn back, as the snow began to increase. Sometime its just not your day.

The iconic viewpoint – I’ll take their word for it that you can see these from here.

Sitting in my room, the weather progressively got worse – till at 6:30pm, I saw some sunlight outside. I didn’t hesitate, I grabbed my pack and practically ran to the viewpoint.

I could see the bottom third of Cerro Torre, and Fitzroy was just sticking its head out of the clouds.

The forecast for my fourth day was terrible, so I didn’t set an alarm clock. For some reason, I woke up at about 5:30 to have sunlight streaming into my room. Once again, I didn’t hesitate, I jumped out of bed, grabbed my pack and went to the viewpoint for the third time.

As I came over the ridge – there they both were, Cerro Torre and Fitzroy. Bucket list item done!

I sat on the bench and enjoyed the view for a while. I then went back, had a quick breakfast, and set out for the Laguna Los Tres hike – which is the lake below Fitzroy.

The car park was very muddy, and there was a long queue of people at the entrance.

Stijn had suggested I do the Madre y Hija trail to connect Laguna Los Tres to Laguna Torre. This seemed like a great idea, and meant I was in for a very long day.

It was great to see the 6 major summits of the Fitzroy ridge – the film A Line Across the Sky, where Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold climb all six in a continuous push is well worth a watch.

Fitzroy is incredible. No photo will do it justice. Writing this about a month later – of the three major Patagonian peaks I wanted to see, Fitzroy is easily the most impressive. It’s funny, beforehand I would have probably said it would be the least impressive of the three.

I passed the turnoff to the Madre Y Hija trail, making a note of it for later.

Every time I stopped to enjoy the view, I’d take some photos. But no photo will ever do justice to this. I made a point of looking at the peaks without a camera in my hand as well.

The final climb to the lake is a stiff one. Bearing in mind that I did 8km before breakfast, I was feeling this hill!

There were over a hundred people at the lake, which probably makes sense for a clear Sunday morning.

The lake was frozen, so no reflections shots this time.

A fox came walking past, looking for food. I always feel sad when I see wild animals that are fine with getting so close to humans.

Not that I’d miss a chance to get a shot of a fox walking in front of the peak!

After spending about an hour there, I started making my way back down, to start the hike to Laguna Torres.

As I reached the turnoff, clouds had started rolling in, and Fitzroy disappeared.

The trail connecting the routes was fairly easy, going past a few lakes along the way. It was getting very windy, with occasional snow. I had been trying to keep my pace up, knowing I still had a long way to go – although, by this point I knew I’d finish well ahead of sunset. The upside of very long days so far south!

I reached the lake in very strong winds. There were waves on the lake, and I was actually pushed off balance a few times. I had nearly fallen into the river on a bridge crossing a bit earlier due to a gust of wind. Not fun. Naturally Cerro Torre was hiding in the clouds once again.

I would soon find myself back at the viewpoint for the fourth time in two days, once again without any views. But at least I had seen Cerro Torre that morning. That would bring my total distance for the day to 44km, with just short of 2km total ascent – one of my best hiking days ever, in terms of quality.

My last full day in El Chalten was another bad weather day, but I walked around the town a bit in a brief weather window.

The following morning, I had an early bus to El Calafate. Ironically this was by far the clearest day, and I could see Cerro Torre and Fitzroy from my bus window!

My final thoughts on El Chalten: it is really beautiful, but the weather is terrible. It is also expensive and very crowded. I think a lot of what made it special 50 years ago is gone today, which is sad. Nonetheless, an incredible experience, one of the highlights of my travels this year.