3 Best Day Hikes in El Chaltén Argentina

Hiking in stunning scenery isn’t something new to us. Growing up in the Rocky Mountains we are used to snow-capped peaks, beautiful forests, wildlife and the contrast of high mountains to deep, lush valleys. Our backyard in Vail, Colorado, USA is a vacation destination in its’ own right.  El Chaltén was our first hiking stop in Patagonia and the Southern Andes, so we were very curious how impressive the scenery would be and if it would live up to the hype. 

After initially planning to stay a few days, we quickly decided to double our time due to the beauty of this area.  We can easily say the hikes in El Chaltén left us speechless & awestruck. The Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and Southern Patagonia Ice Field offers A LOT!

From huge glaciers to blue icebergs floating in turquoise glacial lakes to stunning mountain backdrops with steep and jagged peaks. We were beyond impressed.

Anyone who enjoys the natural beauty of this world, should go to El Chaltén.  Plan to spend anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks and you could still not see it all.  We liked some of the hikes so much, we want to do them again.

The community in this area is really awesome too. Everyone is there to enjoy exploring the outdoors.  The hikers and climbers gather at night in the many different bars and restaurants to share stories of their summits and climbs of the day, while also planing for their next adventure. We aren't climbers but heard about people discussing summiting Fitz Roy and other WILD adventures!

With so many possibilities of hiking around El Chaltén we spent a lot of time researching the best hikes and decided to do the 3 most popular hikes.

After hiking them all, we can see why they are so popular.  There are many options to choose from in this hiking and climbing Mecca in Argentina.   Just driving into the town is a STUNNING view that is worth going even if you don’t hike.  But spending a few hours walking up into the mountains is well worth the effort. 

A few tips to hike in El Chaltén:

1. Be prepared for some bad weather days.  If possible build in an extra day or two in your itinerary so you can do the hikes with the best weather. Most hikes are usually about what you can see during the hike or at the summit.  If things are cloudy, the views aren’t there and the hikes aren’t that special.  If you can fit it in your schedule, extra days for flexibility and recovery are awesome.
2. When you get to town, go to the ranger station and get their idea on the best itinerary for you based upon the weather forecast. They are full of awesome information, have the most knowledge about conditions and none of these hikes need a guide or pre-booking.
3. Hiking in El Chalten is free! Compared to places like Torres del Paine where you have to pay money to enter into the park.  Hiking in El Chaltén is totally free and you don’t need any guides!
4. Be prepared to have poor cell service... even the wifi sucks.  Unless you have Starlink, don’t plan to do very much important work.
5. You can walk to most trailheads from wherever you are staying in town (another reason it is such a great place).  There are also Remis/Taxis available to get you to some other trailheads that you can hike and loop back into town or get further out.

Let's get to it, here are our 3 favorite hikes in El Chaltén:

• • 19km/11.5 mi -option to extend a bit further
  • 1600 ft/ 500m Elevation gain
  • Low-Med difficulty
  • 5-8 Hours

Getting There: This hike starts on the West side of town @ Las Loicas 270 or Here on Google Maps and has a small amount of parking availability for people with their own cars.  As mentioned before, most hikes around this area are easily accessible from wherever you are staying so ask your hotel the easiest way to get there.

This is one of the signature hikes in El Chalten and you’ll see why.  We arrived late morning to El Chalten and saw nasty weather was due to come in a few days so we didn’t want to waste anytime.  Spoke with the rangers who said we could definitely do Laguna Torre that afternoon if we got moving quickly.  With clear enough skies most of the walk up is totally stunning. 

You’ll be following rivers, forests and beautiful scenes as the tower reveals itself at the first mirador and never goes away while you continue to climb on your approach. 

You’ll keep seeing bits and pieces of Fitz Roy poking out to your right as you ascend and the steep tower just next to it. As you crest the final climb the lake opens up in front of you with icebergs floating all over the place (depending on wind and time of year). There is an option to continue around the lake to get up close to the glacier which people have said is pretty nice, but starting later in the day and being our first of many hikes, we decided to hang out at the lake for a bit, watch the clouds move over the tower, have a snack and enjoy our first hike in El Chaltén.

1. 1. 13 mi/ 21Km
   2. 3600 ft/ 1100M Elevation Gain
   3. Medium Difficulty
   4. 7-8 Hours
   5. Getting There: This hike leaves from directly behind the visitor information center in town.  For overlanders who are staying across the street, this is very easily accessible for you.  If you’re staying on the farther side of town, you may want to drive/taxi or know you’ll be adding a bit of a walk to your hike.

Photo of what we hoped for 😂  Thanks, El Chaltén Website

We are both fans of huge sweeping vistas. This hike is known to have one of the most spectacular views in all of Patagonia. Unfortunately for us….we didn’t get lucky with the weather on our day, so that is one of many reasons we want to go back and hike in El Chaltén. But, the pictures we’ve seen and the amount of people we’ve talked to that say the view is 💯 on a clear day for this hike and is why it’s our #2.

Most of the hike is pretty plain during the first half.  You’ll cruise through some old forests, grasslands, pampas and may even run into a cow or two along the way. 

As you get up through the pampas, Lago Viedma (the huge lake you pass on your way into town) starts to open up off your left side and continues to grow into the distance as you climb. 

You’ll see peaks surrounding you left and right as you exit the last patch of trees before you get to the final climb.  We hid in the trees during some intense rain and wind before getting out into the totally exposed areas for the final portion of the hike. 

Not the view we hoped for but still great

We saw the weather wasn’t likely to clear so we got most of the way to the summit, found some rock walls to knock down the wind, ate our lunch and prayed for the clouds to clear.  Even from here, on a crummy weather day we had AWESOME views into Laguna Torre and is why if I could only do 2 hikes this would be higher on our list.  You still get to have an awesome view of Laguna Torre, but you also get to see the massive landscape of the Andes along with bits and pieces of the Patagonian Ice Field. If you like massive views that go on for days, this is the hike for you (with clear weather).

1. 1. 15.5 mi/ 25km
   2. 2300 ft/ 700m
   3. Medium Difficulty - STEEP last mile up and down
   4. 8-9 Hours
   5. Getting there:  This trail is typically accessed from the North end of Avenida San Martin,  the main road in town.

This is THE main reason everyone makes their way to El Chaltén.  To see the famous Mount Fitz Roy on the Laguna de Los Tres hike. Named after Robert Fitzroy, Captain of the HMS Beagle, who explored a lot of the Southern Cone, Tierra del Fuego and more with Charles Darwin.

This hike is POPULAR, it gets PACKED.  Thousands of people do this hike every day in the Spring/Summer.  If you can and the weather looks good, get started early! This way you only have lots of traffic on the way down, while everyone else is working their way up. 

This is the hike we recommend to get up well before sunrise to get your start.  If you’re really dedicated, try to get to the top of the hike for sunrise as it’s supposed to be spectacular. We didn’t get up there that early, but were still hiking with headlamps before sunrise. We had an early breakfast (while a group was ending their nighttime partying 😂) at Rancho Grande Hostel/Restaurante that is open for food/drinks 24 hours and is right near the trailhead so you can be filled up and ready to leave.

The first hour of the hike climbs up through a small forest where you might see some animals starting to stir and takes you to a beautiful viewpoint looking out over the Las Vueltas river and surrounding valley. Hike another 1-1.5 hours to get to the first stunning view of Mt. FitzRoy. 

Seeing this mountain the whole hike up from here is the reason we REALLY enjoyed this route.  Others may recommend taking a taxi out of town about 30 minutes and starting near Hosteria El Pilar, so the hike isn’t just out and back, which we normally prefer a circuit, but in this case we really recommend taking the out and back trail. 

FitzRoy is frequently covered in clouds, so maximizing the chances you have of seeing the main attraction is why we really enjoyed going out and back from town. 

As you continue along you will pass camp Poincenot, where you can camp ⛺️, cross the Blanco River before making the STEEP final ascent where it feels you are climbing straight up for almost an hour. Leaving early made going up very nice because we weren’t in the huge amounts of traffic we had to navigate coming down.  That steep section is not very wide so we had to wait quite a bit to let folks pass, who really didn’t care that we were trying to make our way down. Hiking poles were really helpful for the way up, but even more helpful on the way down. 

Once you crest the final hill at the top, the view opens up with a stunning glacier, lake and the tall granite towers. It is an incredibly rewarding view after a tough final ascent. 

While hung out at the top,  celebrated Jordan's birthday and took in the view, we saw many people walking further past the left side of the lake.  We found out there was another viewpoint that was easily accessible. with another 5-10 minutes of walking.  Do Not Miss this next viewpoint.  It was an awesome view of a second lagoon and well worth it! You'll see folks walking over there and if not, it's an easy walk just to the left of lagoon and up a small hill. 

From there you can turn around, start heading back down. The. steep part will most likely be very crowded.  Be prepared to stop and wait and pounce when you find a gap in the groups.  That section gets very congested so you'll most likely factor in a few additional minutes of wait time as you descend.  

Looking back at the mountains, watching the changing conditions the whole way down is beautiful, so remember to look back over your shoulder.

The hike finishes with a really nice view of the entire town of El Chaltén so you can pinpoint the bar you'll head to for a reward after a long day.

There are our 3 favorite day hikes in El Chaltén. Have you been? Which hikes were your favorite? We are hoping to go back in 2024 so we may have some new updates along the way.