Friday - El Chalten

El Chalten means the mountain of smoke. It doesn't refer to a volcano but to the cloud that constantly forms around the summit of Mt Fitzroy. This picture taken in a brief break in the cloud. At 3600m high it is one of the hardest climbs in the world requiring 40 hours of rock and ice climbing without a camp site.

The town was founded in the 1980's to reinforce Argentinian claims to the area which has been disputed with Chile. It has a feeling of a frontier town but is rapidly growing to cater for the backpacking and climbing trade. Rest day today before we head on north up the hardest part of Ruta 40. The last south-bound trip a few weeks ago got stuck in deep mud on this bit so here's hoping for dry weather.