Hiking around Fitz Roy & Cerro Torre

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I spend a couple of relaxing & sunny days camping in El Calafate where I meet Sonny, a backpacker from Lithuania traveling around as part of a photography contest he won. Sonny’s also a serious mountaineer and we talk for hours about some of his bigger summits in Turkistan (7500 meters!). We team up for the hiking circuit around the mighty Mt. Fitz Roy (3405m) and equally impressive Cerro Torre which is notoriously hard to summit.

Laguna Torre by night

Sunrise at Laguna Torre

Over the course of three days we hike around the entire area, from Laguna Torre, up to Laguna De Los Tres and the extreme northern limit of the park, before doubling back on ourselves, hiking most trails more than once. We’re up every morning before sunrise for photos and fall into bed late at night after star photography. On the morning we plan to rise at 4.30am for shots of Fitz Roy I can’t summon the courage and roll over, back to sleep. Sonny enjoys the famous “red flash” sunrise all alone, before we hike over 15 hours for the day. Dedication.

Laguna Torre

Cerro Torre (3102m)

Highlights include swimming then sunning ourselves on the pebble beach at Laguna Hija and eating ice recently calved from the active Glacier Piedras Blacas. Although we hear the glacier cracking and moving, we can’t see any action from our vantage point.

Mountain reflections

Thinking hard**

Breathtaking mountains deep in Southern Patagonia. Does it get any better?

The famous "Red Flash" sunrise**

Cerro Torre

-Dan

** These photos are taken by Sonny, using his very tricky Leica camera. Checkout his photography blog to see his amazing photos.