070213 - Waiting for perfect weather

El Chalten, ARG - Along the way from Esquel to El Chalten I met an Italian and a Spanish guy. We all where accommodated in different places after arrival but had decided to go for Cerro Torre in the morning.

El Chalten is the youngest town in all of Argentina. After some argumentation about the borderline between Argentina and Chile it was founded in 1985 as an exclamation mark to the Argentine standpoint. Just recently, over a 5-year span the village has literall exploded, from 48inhabitants in 1996 to around 1,500 in 2006. Still, they are mayorly outmanned by the tourists coming to town day after day after day. A stopp in the increasing numbers is not even close. And sustainable town development doesn't really seem to be an issue as houses pop-up like mushrooms all over the place. Still, the town holds its charme. And even I stayed longer than expected, doing on all the treks around as well as a bike tour to Lago Desierto.

What I enjoyed most? The landscape. And probably camping at Refugio Piedra del Fraile, even though I frooze my butt off in my supermarket tent. But there was so little people that I was more than glad that I had come. On all the other treks you are just never alone. Constantly, there's a flow of people. But at Piedra del Fraile, and on the trek to Glaciar Piedras Blancas I was all by myself. Beautiful.

Of course, the hikes to Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy are amazing. But you just feel like an ant in a big antz-moutain.