Location: El Chaltén village Map
Elevation: 3,359 m (11,020 ft)
Mount Fitz Roy Monte Fitz Roy is a mountain on
the border between Argentina and Chile. The closest settlement
to Mount
Fitz Roy is a El Chaltén
village. Monte Fitz Roy mountain reaches a height of 3,359 m (11,020 ft).
Mount Fitz Roy is a magnificent mountain in the Andes Mountain range
on the border between Argentina and
Chile. It reaches a total height of 3405 meters above sea level.
Mountain was named by explorer Francisco Moreno who dedicated it to
Robert Fitzroy, fearless captain of the ship "Beagle", the same ship
that carried Charles Darwin around the Globe. Local Native Americans
called this peak Chalten.
Climbing Mount Fitz Roy is a
demanding job so it requires proper physical training and
appropriate gear. However you can make part of the way up the slope
and get to the Laguna de Los Tres that can be done by most tourists.
A hiking trail to the top of the peak stretches for 10 km. It begins
at the outskirts of the village of El Chalten. Here you need to get
a free permit for climbing. It is done to keep a track of all
tourists who are in the area of Mount Fitz Roy. You can get to the
village by taking a shuttle bus from El Calafate.
The hiking
trail to Mount Fitz Roy lies along a picturesque lagoon Capri and
then bends around the Rio Blanco river. Other side of the river is a
location of a tourist camping ground. Many tourists spend a night
here before making a sharp ascension up the slope. Keep in mind that
in Southern Hemisphere summer lasts between December and February.
These months is the best time to make the climb. Some adrenaline
seekers try to make it in the June, July and August months, but the
authorities of city of El Chaltern try to prevent this wreck less
behavior. While Mount Fitz Roy appears safe and beautiful, sudden
blizzards and strong winds can catch daredevils off guard.
History
The discovery of Fitz Roy by Europeans probably dates
back to 1782, when Antonio de Biedma y Narváez reached Lake Viedma,
located to the southeast.
On May 24, 2000, the province of
Santa Cruz declared Cerro Chaltén a natural monument through the
sanction of Law No. 2550.
sports difficulty
Despite having
an average height (not half that of the giants of the Andes) the
mountain has the reputation of being "extremely difficult": it has
enormous expanses of almost vertical, polished and slippery slabs on
which constantly strong winds, requiring maximum technical expertise
on the part of the climber.
The climate in the region is
exceptionally harsh and unstable. The surrounding area, although
difficult to access, has improved its access with the development of
the towns of El Chaltén and El Calafate in Argentina and Candelario
Mancilla and Villa O'Higgins in Chile, with the latter and El
Calafate both having international airports. The ascent of the
mountain, however, remains extremely difficult and is the exclusive
province of very experienced climbers, due to snowfall, winds and
sudden changes in weather conditions.
Notable promotions
In 1952 the French expedition made up of, among others, Lionel
Terray and Guido Magnone, ascended the southeast route. (1st ascent
on February 2, 1952)
In 1965 Carlos Comesaña and José Luis
Fonrouge (from Argentina) ascended via Supercanaleta in two and a
half days (2nd ascent)
In 1968 along the Californian route (3rd
ascent). Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones, Lito
Tejada-Flores, and Douglas Tompkins (all from the United States).
On February 21, 1980 at 10 a.m. m. Gino Casassa, a 21-year-old
Chilean, engineering student, monitor of the Chilean Mountaineering
Federation, and Walter Bertsch, a 19-year-old Austrian, a student
for Alpine Guide of the Austrian Alpine Club, via Col Americano,
reached the summit. Alejandro Izquierdo, a Chilean student, reached
2,800 m.
On March 10, 1984, the Franco Argentina Route (southeast
wall) was opened. Alberto Bendinger, Marcos Couch, Pedro Friedrich,
Eduardo Brenner climbed this route. It was later known as the
"normal" route.
July 26 and 28, 1986, first winter ascent
(Supercanaleta route), by Eduardo Brenner, Gabriel Ruiz and
Sebastián de la Cruz.
In 2002 Dean Potter, only Supercanaleta
In 2009 Colin Haley, only Supercanaleta
In 2009 Matthew McCarron,
Californian Route only
In 2012 Jorge Morales and Alejandro Heres
broke the ascent speed record.
In 2014, between February 12 and
16, Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold completed for the first time the
complete skyline of the Fitz Roy massif: "The Fitz traverse" of
about 5 km of distance and 4,000 meters of climbing to ascend to the
top of the seven peaks that make up its edge.
Place names
The name Chaltén comes from the aonikenk or Tehuelche
language and means "smoking mountain", due to the clouds that almost
constantly crown its top, which together with the ancestral name has
led to the mistaken belief that it was a volcano. The mountain is
considered sacred for the local indigenous people and is part of
their cosmogony. Dr. Francisco Pascasio Moreno baptized it as Fitz
Roy on March 2, 1877 in honor of the captain of the HMS Beagle,
Robert Fitz Roy, who traveled the Santa Cruz River in 1834. Fitz
Roy's family gave Moreno, to request of the latter, the maps of the
area made in the expeditions of the captain with the condition that
some geographical landmark be baptized with the surname of the
British explorer, a request that was fulfilled by Dr. Moreno when he
baptized the mountain. Although the official Argentine cartography
has preferred, in recent years, to recover the ancestral name and
call it Chaltén to the detriment of Fitz Roy (for his participation
in the British occupation of the Malvinas Islands during the Gaucho
Rivero Uprising), which was used during much of the 20th century,
while this last name continues to be the most used by official
Chilean cartography.
Associated symbology
The mountain is
the symbol of the Argentine province of Santa Cruz, being included
in its coat of arms and on its flag. In turn, the mountain appears
in the coat of arms of the Argentine town of El Chaltén. The
mountain is the most emblematic edge of the ice field and has had a
prominent place in Tehuelche mythology in relation to its cultural
hero: Elal. These circumstances have made El Chaltén possess a very
significant symbolic power collected and elaborated by some authors.
In this sense, Fabio Seleme, essayist and professor of philosophy at
the National University of Austral Patagonia and the National
Technological University, published a work in which he claims for El
Chaltén and the ice field the condition of symbolic center of
Patagonia. In the essay, entitled The White Center of Patagonia,
Seleme posits a continuity between the referential character it had
for the culture of the Tehuelche people and the seduction that the
place produces in culture. In addition, he reveals the mythical and
cultural geographical conditions that give him the centrality of the
region as an absent and empty attractor.