Day 6 Fotos from the Hike to FitzRoy

The Río de las Vueltas fault valley was carved by glaciers and serves as the outwash plain for the glaciers coming off of the Cerro FitzRoy range. We followed it by road northward from El Chalten to start our hike.

At the Hostería El Pilar we got off of the Green Machine and started hiking up the trail toward FitzRoy. Most of the excellent trail travels through a lush ñire (beech) forest that is punctuated with views of the surrounding landscape.

Cerro FitzRoy, left, is one imposing peak. Standing at 3405 m elevation, it towers nearly 700 m above its closest rival, Cerro Mermoz to the right at 2732 m. The Piedras Blancas Glacier descends from the cirque at the base of the cliffs.

Lago Piedras Blancas is the terminus for the main branch of the eponymous glacier. It is situated between the ice and a recessional moraine. At some time in the past, the lake breached the moraine to form its outlet to the Río Blanco. This is the morning view.

Lago Cóndor is situated in the Río de las Vueltas valley to the north of the Hostería El Pilar. Still farther north is the much larger Lago del Desierto (not shown). The fault valley then crosses a divide and descends to the west side of Lago San Martín.

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This video-mosaic view of the FitzRoy range was taken near the Río Blanco Base Camp. Cerro FitzRoy is still 400 m higher than the next highest peak, Cerro Poincenot, at 3002 m.

The late afternoon image of Lago Piedras Blancas.