Patagonia Hiking

Mt. Fitzroy starts to clear, 1.5 hours walk [one way] from El Chalten, Patagonia.

El Chalten [ pop. 140 and growing rapidly], a tiny and imperfectly formed village four hours by bus from El Calafate gives easy access to possibly Argentina's best hiking, ice treks and climbing in the Andean peaks of Los Glaciares National Park.
Mt. Fitzroy is the undisputed king of this castle, with Cerro Torre next in line.
The walks are magnificent, well marked and range from about one hour to seven hours [one-way], with most around three or four hours one-way. The average gradient rise during that time is about 300metres.
Other areas with primo mountain hikes in Argentina are Ushuaia, Bariloche and Mendoza.

Best hiking months are March and November: fewer bugs, no too hot, not too cold, no snow on trail but snow up high.
Winter is from May-August with snow in the valley and deep drifts higher up.
Summer is from Dec-Feb: busy on the narrow trails, expensive facilities, big bugs and lots of them, hot hiking.

A typical easy hiking trail in the El Chalten area with the Rio de las Vueltas flood plain in the centre and backed by the Cordon de los Condores mountain range. Of course, if you prefer a tough trekking challenge there are plenty of hikes that will ring your bell!

Argentina's newest town, El Chalten [rough translation: The Ugly Bastard].

Hurriedly slapped together in 1985 to claim the land before Chile could get their hands on it, El Chalten is an uncontrolled mess of randomly sized, styled and placed buildings in varied materials and colours, replete withhalf-dug trenches, dangling cables and carpets of dandelions. El Chaos would be a better name for the place. This is tragic because the location is totally magical and deserves a coherent, well-constructed base, not a half-assed mishmash of partly-assembled junk.
Is there a governor out there? If so, he should be strapped to Fitzroy's heights until his head clears.
On the positive side, there are some excellent people, hostels and eateries in El Chalten, and the trekking is stupendous.

Information: Argentina Travel Guide | Argentina Map | Argentina Tours

Pictures: Buenos Aires | Iguazu Falls | Ushuaia | Perito Moreno Glacier