El Chalten Part 1

After a solid 36 hours of bus-transit time, I arrived in El Chalten on Friday night.  The weather was (as predicted) completely miserable and I have spent most of the last week hunkered down in my tent and hostels, waiting for better weather so we can go climb and enjoy the Fitz Roy National Park.  It is possible to do the famous treks here in poor weather, but also a waste since many of the amazing formations are not visible in the low visibility conditions that bad weather in El Chalten is famous for providing.  The down time was a welcome addition to my traveling life, as I have been feeling pretty run down after the last few weeks in Frey.  Tomorrow we will make the 6 hour approach to base camp, where we will spend the night and hopefully make an ascent of Aguja Guillaumet via the Comensana Fonrouge route (5.9+A1 30' or 5.11a 30').  Based on our observation of the peak from town, it might be very snowy and icy, so we are approaching this attempt with an open mind.

Alex

Looking back at El Chalten from the local climbing area

First time I had ever seen the Fitz Roy Massif, nearly 4 days into my stay in El Chalten.

The jagged tilted rectangular peak is Aguila Guillamet, our climbing objective for the weather window this weekend.  

Local sport climbing, 5.12 w/ broken holds was too hard for us.