WILDS OF PATAGONIA TREKKING TOUR (VAT)
moderate trek
20 days from El Calafate

This challenging twenty-day trekking adventure in the southern Patagonian Andes of Chile and Argentina takes in three of the natural wonders of South America: The Los Glaciares (Fitzroy) National Park, the Torres Del Paine National Park, and the Perito Moreno Glacier.

From our starting point, the southern Argentine city of El Calafate, we cross the Patagonian plains and pass the huge turquoise Lakes Argentino and Viedma.

Approaching the awesome spires and towers of Fitzroy via pre-Andean heath, we enter the Los Glaciares National Park at El Chalten.

Altitude does not pose a problem, but the climate can be fickle; be prepared for the fierce winds which periodically blow up. Effort is amply rewarded by the spectacular scenery.

This unique trekking itinerary gives us the opportunity to get up close to the north wall of Fitzroy (3441 metres).

Given suitable weather conditions, we trek on the vast Torre Glacier below the magnificent Cerro Torre spire (which features a vertical 1500 metre high wall) and to the Paso del Viento (Windy Pass) for a view across the ice field.

We return to Calafate to visit the magnificent Perito Moreno Glacier. Six kilometres wide and sixty metres high, this vast blue tongue of ice is still growing! Hours can be spent in awe as icebergs calve ear-splittingly into the channel.

We travel south, then west before crossing into Chile to the Torres del Paine National Park. Condors, rheas and guanacos can be seen in the area. A wonder of natural sculpture, the two thousand metre high Cuernos (Horns) and Torres (Towers) must be seen to be believed.

The massif is encircled by a glacial hydrological system linking numerous opaque, silica-rich lakes of various hues of blue. Our seven days in the park take us up to the vertical Torres, into the spectacular French valley, and to the spectacular iceberg-filled Grey Lake.

We camp and have one night spent dorm-style in a refugio. Finally, we return across the steppe to Argentina and El Calafate.