.: Near the sky

 

In the region of El Chaltén are mounts Fitz Roy ( Chalten for the aborigenes ) with a height of 3.405 metres, and Cerro Torre with a height of 3.128 metres above sea level, two of the most difficult mountains to climb in the world. They are situated...

To the south west of El Chaltén is Glaciar Torre around the massif that drains to the south in Laguna Torre. On the east, two other glaciers sit on the mountain: on the north east Glaciar Piedras Blancas and on the south east extends Glaciar de los Tres. These glaciers drain into the lagoons Piedras Blancas, de los Tres and Sucia.

It is composed by volcanic rocks as a result of enormous intrusion processes produced around 12 million years ago.These intrusive rocks covered at the beginning by softer rocks have been successively broken and eroded. In the proximities we can contemplate the peaks of mounts Torre Eger, Cerro Solo, Poincenot, Guillaumet, La Innominada, and others.

Mount Fitz Roy was first climbed in 1952 by the two French who reached the top on 2nd February, Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone. Cerro Torre was first climbed in 1959, considering that there were previous attempsts and exploring expeditions as far as the times of father Alberto María De Agostini, the attempt of the Italian expedition guided by Aldo Bonacosa in 1936 or that of Hans Zechner in 1947, Bertone and Gianolini in 1948 and Zechner, Dangi and Lanchsne in 1949...

In these mountains and forests you can observe unique creatures typical of this place, from the evasive pudú, the smallest deer in the world that lives in dense cane thickets, and the huemul that roams in the forests. You can also appreciate usual and unusual birds such as the magnific condor, the biggest terrestrial bird in the world. If you are interested in climbing, you can find descriptions of the different routes followed by the expeditions that reached the top.

The French expedition was very peculiar because it was not organized by experienced climbers accustomed to those ice walls, but by simple virtuous climbers of the French Club Andino called "bleausards", who trained on small rocks near Paris. The group was formed by Jacques Poincenot, Guido Magnone, M.A. Azena, R. Ferlet, Lliboutry, Depasse, Strouvé and the climber Lionel Terray, apart from the Argentine official Lieutenant Francisco Ibáñez. In a comentary written by Lionel Terray in 1956 in the magazine Groupe Haute Montagne, he recalled the deed with these words: "Of all the ascensions I have ever made, the ascension to the Fitz Roy is the one that has demanded more physical and psychical energy.

Technically speaking, it is probably slightly inferior to the ones I have recently been to on the granitic rocks of the Alpes, but a great ascension is more than just an addition oif ropes".