Glaciers & Paine Adventure (FGP)

We welcome you at Calafate airport and transfer to town to check in at your hostel. You get the rest of the day to enjoy the town and later you have your welcome dinner.

• Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom / Meals we provide: Dinner
• Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom / Meals we provide: Dinner

Alter breakfast we take our bus for the 220 km long drive to El Chaltén, a small and picturesque village at the foot of Fitz Roy & Cerro Torre massif. We make a stop half way to enjoy local pastries and hot coffee. Once in Chaltén, we’ll meet fellow travellers coming from up north (Route 40) and start our trek. We carry in our packs only the necessary items for this 3 nights and 4 days in which we’ll overnight in our Full Camps inside the National Park.
We hike up a gentle slope on Fitz Roy trail to gain height over the River de las Vueltas valley up to the first viewpoints over Fitz Roy massif. Our hike to Laguna Capri will take us no more than 2 hours and a half, in a clear and easy trail. Once on our Laguna Capri Full Camp, we leave our stuff in our tent and we enjoy an afternoon walk to the sightseeing points around the lagoon.
Full Camps are pitched up early in the season, so we find the camp ready upon arrival. It offers comfortable 3 people igloo type tents for each 2 passengers, with mattresses and sleeping bags. An inside cotton sheet is provided as inner clothing for the sleeping bag. The camp also features a spacious dinning tent, a kitchen tent, tables, benches or chairs and a full set of table service and kitchenware. The sanitary services are latrine-type.

• Lodging at Laguna Capri Full Camp in double or single tent (rural area) / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner

Early in the morning, before the first coffee, we can try to match up the morning Light getting pink in Fitz Roy granite walls. You only need this to feel the trip is worthwhile. But of course the day offers much more.
After breakfast, carrying only day personal items such as our parka, gloves, our camera, water bottle and box lunch, we hike along Fitz Roy trail up to Rio Blanco, climbers basecamp to the east side of the mountain. From here a steep 1 h trail leads us to one of the most spectaculars viewpoints of the National Park: Laguna de los Tres, with its zephyr blue colour, lays at the foot of the massif, offering full close up views of Fitz Roy massif spires and glaciers. Each wall rises something from 600 to 1500 mts above the surrounding glaciers. Fitz Roy, with its 3405 mts above sea level, is considered the “King of Patagonia” and also considered one of the three most beautiful mountains on Earth (together with Alpamayo in Perú and K2 in the Karakoram). We hike back to Laguna Capri in the late afternoon. Walking time is 5 to 6 hs.

• Lodging at Laguna Capri Full Camp in double or single tent (rural area) / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner

Today we make it around Laguna Capri to get to the Lagoons Madre and Hija Valley and down to Fitz Roy river valley, where we meet Cerro Torre trail and we get to Cerro Torre Full Camp. The trail runs along beech forest, bogs and shrubland. From the camp, a short hike takes us to Laguna Torre, enclosed by morraines and with the Glacier Grande calving in its west side. It is usual to see icebergs pushed by the wind in the coast of the lagoon. The thin and elegant 3128 mts of Cerro Torre group and the Adela range in the background complete this spectacular view. Walking time 3 to 4 hs.

• Lodging at Cerro Torre Full Camp in double or single tent (rural area) / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner

In the morning we visit Laguna Torre again to reach the old Maestri basecamp, located in a high site up along the north morraine of the lagoon. For keen hikers, we offer an optional excursion, the so called “Holiday on Ice”: early start, crampons and harnesses, a tyrolean (horizontal fixed rope attached to both sides of a river) to cross Fitz Roy river, and we visit Glacier Grande, where we will visit crevices, ice caves and we’ll practice ice climbing with the proper advice of experienced mountain guides.
Late in the afternoon we walk back to Chaltén along Fitz Roy river valley. Total estimated time of the standard day: 4 to 5 hs. If you go on the “Holiday on Ice”, it is 7 hs plus the trail back to Chalten which is 2 and a half hours more.
Optional excursion: Holiday On Ice

• Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch and dinner
• Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch and dinner

Morning at your own to visit the picturesque village or to make optional excursions such as Lago del Desierto (in spite of its name, its a beautiful, beech forest surrounded lake, with hanging glaciers in its west side), or to see very interesting information at the National Park Visitor Centre.
By 5 pm we take our bus to our next destination, El Calafate, gateway for the glaciers area of the Park. Arrival time is scheduled for 9 pm. Driving distance: 220 km

• Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast
• Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast

We dedicate this day to one of the World’s Natural Wonder: the Moreno glacier. This ice field- type glacier flows down from the Patagonian Icefield, a big sheet of ice that with its 22.000 square kilometres is the third largest glacier area in the world, after Antarctica (14 M sq km) and Greenland (1 M sq km). Because unusual favourable local conditions, this glacier is the only one in the world that shows a closure and rupture process. The road leads to the very front of the glacier, which will be only meters away from your eyes. A beautiful, short trail, will lead us from the shores of the lake to the upper viewpoints. The roar of the chunks of ice falling inside the glacier or from the glacier into the lake, the frequent collapse of the front seracs into the turquoise water, makes out of this day a very special and unique experience. We will drive 80 km (1 and a half hour) to get and come back from the glacier across the steppe, watching a wide variety of birds.

• Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast
• Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast

Early start for a 6 hs drive to our camp in Paine. We drive across the steppe, still following by parts the legendary route 40, to get around Sierra de los Baguales, an impressive range in between Calafate and Paine. We cross the Argentinean Chilean border at Cancha Carrera/ Cerro Castillo. After the border crossing, we start our final sprint to Paine National Park, World Heritage by the UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization). Approaching the Park, we start to see the different mountains that feature the area: Paine Grande, the Horns, Admiral Nieto and the Towers. We enter the Park by Porteria Sarmiento. A rich wildlife: guanacos, lesser rheas, condors and all types of wetland and buzzard birds, will be available for our eyes and cameras. We’ll stop in the Lake Nordenskjöld and in Salto Grande viewpoints for short walks. In the afternoon we continue to visit the westernmost side of the National Park, lake Grey area, where a short and easy hike along the south shore of the lake allow us to enjoy the blue icebergs that calving from the glacier in the northern side of the lake are pushed by the wind to this side.
Lake Pehoe Full Camp keeps the style of Laguna Capri and Cerro Torre Full Camps, but combined with the first class facilities provided by the campsite: good and clean bathrooms and hot water showers, water and electricity in each camping site.

• Lodging at Camping Pehoe Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services) / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner

We drive an tour to get to Estancia Cerro Paine, headtrail for the world famous Paine towers. We “warm up” hiking a steep one hour slope, to get inside the Ascensio river valley, a narrow “V” shape alpine valley coming from inside the Paine massif. A gentle downhill leads us to Refugio Chileno, a cozy and comfortable mountain lodge, which can be a good turnaround point for those not willing to make a full day hike. We then walk in a gentle slope along the river side and inside beech forest. A final climb on moraine take us to the Towers viewpoint: a glacier origin lagoon and the three towers rising vertically 1000 mts from the glacier. The lack of breath will be either because the climb and the sight!!!! We go back to our camp on the same way we came. Walking time: 7 to 8 hs.

• Lodging at Camping Pehoe Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services) / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner

Early in the morning a short drive takes us to Port Pudeto to board the catamarán that cross lake Pehoe twice a day. We carry only the necessary stuff to be 2 days and 1 night away from our Camping Pehoe Full Camp, where the rest of our luggage will stay. One in the far side of the lake, we leave unnecessary items in our tents and we set out to the French Valley trail. The trail skirts Paine Grande south slopes and lake Skottberg, to take us after 2 hs and a half of continuous ups and downs, to the hanging bridge upon the French River. This breathtaking location is at the foot of both the 2700 mts south east face of Paine Grande (to the west) and the Horns, with its characteristic black sedimentary topping, to the east. Keen hikers can go on and reach the upper viewpoints of the valley, from where you see the whole group of spires that feature the high valley: Hoja (Blade), Máscara (Mask), Espada (Sword), Catedral (Cathedral), Aleta de Tiburón (Shark Fin) and the magnificent Fortaleza (The Fortress).
Walking time for those who reach the upper viewpoints: 8 to 9 hs. For those reaching the lower viewpoints: 5 to 6.
We retrace our steps back to Refugio Pehoe Full Camp.

• Lodging at Refugio Pehoe Full Camp in double or single tent (area with sanitary services) / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch, dinner

Lake Grey trail leads from Pehoe Valley across ridges to reach Grey valley. This magnificent valley flows down somewhat of 60 km from the Patagonian Icefield, featuring the huge glacier calving down in the grey colour lake. Our trail skirts the lake, going up and down the westerns slopes of Paine Grande, offering some of the most impressive sights of the Park. From the high sections of the trail, many different viewpoints allow us to see the south end of the lake where the blue icebergs gather, the mountains rising far in the distance above glaciers Grey and Tyndall, and of course lake and glacier Grey. We reach the main viewpoint, a rocky point somewhat 2 hs away from Pehoe, with views over the Lake and Glacier Grey and the surrounding glaciers and mountains. We come back along the same trail, crossing bogs, shrublands and forest. By noon we take the boat to cross lake Pehoe back and then we go to our accommodation in Puerto Natales, a picturesque fishermen town located in the shores of the Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) fiord.

• Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch
• Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast, box lunch

We leave early in the morning Puerto Natales, as our fellow travellers are going south in a long drive today and we are getting back to the border to re-enter Argentina and drive back to El Calafate. Upon arrival to El Calafate you will be met by our local representative and transferred to you hostel. The rest of the day is at your own to visit town.

• Lodging in a Hostel room with shared bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast
• Alternative: Hosteria or Inn, double or single room with private bathroom / Meals we provide: Breakfast

Alter breakfast we transfer to El Calafate airport where our services ends.
Meals we provide: Breakfast.