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| View of the Fitz Roy from the pizza parlor in town. Clearest day I had. |
Before arriving in Chalten I came up with the infallible plan of walking around town, finding someone to climb a moderately sized peak with, and venturing off with them to capture the greatest Facebook profile pictures ever. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out that way.
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(A tip for meeting climbers: You'll probably want to stay in one of the many campsites around town as opposed to a hostel or hotel. After spending the month previous to my visit inside a tent and having run out of reading material I elected for nicer accommodations -- Albergue Patagonia -- a fantastic hostel in the center of town.)
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| My hostel. Highly recommended! |
I attribute my failure to climb a big peak to Chalten's epic weather, though, to be fair, my lack of nerve probably played a role. After a week in Chalten the weather takes on a personality of its own -- and it begins to haunt you. One minute its sunny and warm and the next it's sleeting and gusting wind so hard you're literally being knocked off your feet.
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| A sunny moment witnessed from inside the coffee shop. |
This meant that a good deal of my time in town was spent pouring over weather reports. Strangely, the reports we used were taken from a windsurfing website and each hour of the day was marked with stars indicating conditions. Five stars meant great surfing while no stars meant surfers should stay home. This is strange because (a) I didn't see too many people dragging surfboards to the base of the mountains and (b) lots of stars meant horrible conditions for climbing.
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Despite staring at the charts for hours, hoping things would change, my fate in Chalten was settled: I had arrived on a five-star week. But I decided to make the most of it nonetheless and on my first day set out for Lago de los Tres -- a small lake that sits 15 miles from town at the base of the Fitz Roy. The lake is fed by three glaciers and on clear days the view of the mountain range is spectacular (see here). I, however, did not set out on a clear day. (And because this is my blog and I can complain as much as I want I'll add that it also was rainy and cold.)
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| Beginning of the trail. |
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| Views along the way. |
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| Fancy Patagonia trees. Someone told me they only grow in Southern Patagonia though he later added: "Well, they also grow in New Zealand." |
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| Glacier No. 1. |
Upon arriving at the lake I met the worst wind I'd ever encountered and the thought of actually crossing onto the glacier and climbing one of the peaks later in the week seemed outright crazy. So plan A was ruined (or maybe it was never really much of a plan from the start).
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| Glacier No. 2. The Fitz Roy sits behind the rock face and would be the star of the show on a sunny day. |
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| Glacier No. 3. The "small" peak in the middle was my planned objective. |
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| Me. (Not shown: The rock I huddled behind in order to avoid getting blown over.) |
So I changed to plan B and headed for the crags that sit just outside town. (My advice for anyone looking to climb in the mountains -- or just experience the best of Chalten in good weather -- is to visit for a long time with no set departure date. You may get lucky and arrive to perfect weather but it's unlikely and chances are you'll need a window of at least two weeks. And then just be patient and wait. One of the most experienced climbers in Chalten who's lived there his entire life told me: "You don't go up unless the weather is perfect. Otherwise, bad things happen.")
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As it turns out, Plan B may well have been the highlight of my entire trip, as it was on the crags of Chalten that I led out the hardest pitch of my life. (I should note that the route itself was not formally rated. So maybe it was just a high gravity day.)
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| One of the many rock climbing spots around town. (Full disclaimer: This area had recently been closed to climbing by the local farmer who owns the land, citing liability risk. This was a huge issue for locals and I have mixed feelings about the situation. To avoid the politics we climbed just to the right of the face shown in this picture.) |
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| All you need to have a good time in El Chalten. Well, almost all you need . . . |
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My experience climbing the pitch reminded me of a recent Modern Family episode in which Phil (the dad) was attempting to become a world-famous tightrope walker. He's practicing on the family's garden hose set close to the ground and failing miserably. Watching with disappointment his son tells him he's figured out the problem: the consequences aren't high enough. So the pair raises the rope ten feet and Phil succeeds.
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I had the exact same experience on this climb. I climbed it first with a top rope -- limiting the distance I could fall -- and things went terribly as I fell twice somewhat spectacularly while using a "lay back" technique. As I got to the top I thought, "No way I'm leading this." But for some reason when I lowered and my partner asked, "You gonna climb it lead?," I replied, "Ya, I'll give it a shot." What!? Anyway, things worked out and I returned to town victorious, though I'm not sure raising the stakes is always the best way to ensure success.
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| First few bolts of my achievement. |
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