Video vlog by Nate Buchanan documenting a hiking day near El Chaltén in Patagonia (Glacier National Park). The group planned a 13-mile round-trip hike to Mount Fitzroy Base Camp with about 2,000 ft elevation gain but, after heavy rain, guides Roberto/Guido decided to skip the steep ascent and continue a loop trail instead. The video highlights seeing the first glacier and a glacial lake, walking through a valley with a long footbridge, having lunch by a lake (about 30 minutes), and ending the day with coffee and hotel views. The narration includes practical notes (drive time to trailhead, new boots) and local history (settler house).
Questions this video answers
30 minutes
13 miles round trip
About 2,000 ft
About 30 minutes
Chapters
Today was our first full day in El Chatan with southern explorations. We left bright and early for our hike. We had a 30 minute drive to the trailhead where we would start our hike through Glacier National Park.
The plan was to hike 13 miles round trip to the iconic Mount Fitzroy Base Camp while gaining 2,000ft in elevation. The weather was questionable. However, the wind didn't feel as fierce as it looks.
Once we entered the national park, we caught a glimpse of our first glacier of the entire trip. It was massive and right below it set a beautiful glacial lake with waterfalls pouring into it. We took way too many pictures and it got us really excited for our glacier trek that we'd be taking a few days later.
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention yesterday I finally gave in and bought some pretty cool boots.
Around this time it started raining pretty, pretty hard. So our guide Roberto made the executive decision to skip the harsh, steep hike to the base camp, knowing we wouldn't be able to see Mount FitzRoy. Instead, we continued on the loop trail looking for a pretty lunch spot.
My favorite part of this hike was walking through this valley.
I loved the long footbridge and the grass blowing in the wind.
We were surrounded by mountains with more glaciers, but they weren't as blue as the first one we saw. Then our guide Guido said their Spanish name translates to dirty glaciers.
We found a great spot by a lake to eat our lunch. It was still raining, which made us feel a lot better about skipping the trek to the base camp. Our hotel had packed us a much needed lunch and we spent about 30 minutes resting our legs, soaking in the views and the rain.
Sam.
One of my favorite things about this trek is how it was organized. That's the road we drove in on. That means that we drove to the trailhead in one direction and we got to walk back to the city in another direction. So we did zero backtracking on this entire trek.
Roberto pointed out a little house in the valley. He said the first settlers of El Chatan lived there and ended up living there for 50 years and it is still in their family four generations later.
We ended today with hot coffee and a beautiful view from our hotel. Despite the rain, we still had a great time in the mountains, especially since we were in good company.
