Suddenly the mountains took off their white cape and showed themselves in all of there beauty. The peaks are unbelievable, beyond anything I saw before. Fitz Roy was the first to appear, so we decided to go up to the viewpoint where we saw him behind a valley of forests and shiny blue glaciers. The mountain looks very close, but in fact it's actually much farther than it seems to the bottom of this almost 2000m wall rising into the sky. Anyone can walk up these trails, they are well prepared and used by many tourists from all over the world. At first we were a little annoyed by all these people walk in front of us in slow-motion, but if you're up there and have the perfect view of this amazing mountain, you forget everyone around you. We took the trail as a Sunday walk. When we got back to El Chalten we hoped the weather would improve for the following days so that we would be able to see Cerro Torre, which we had been waiting to see for more than a week. In the morning there was still an imposing white wall behind which Cerro Torre was hinding, still shy and not yet ready to show himself. But finally, the clouds parted the next day.
All these days of waiting in the hostel and walking around the small town, we made friends with two italian guys we shared our room with. Bruno is the older of the two and in El Chalten for the third time to climb Cerro Torre. He had to turn back halfway his previous attempts, because of the unpredictable weather. In all he has spent more than 70 days waiting for the weather to clear. His partner, Tiziano, is 22 and the youngest mountain guide in Italy--maybe in all of Europe. They are both from Trentino, in the north of Italy. It is also the home of the first man to stand on top of Cerro Torre (Cesare Maestri). Bruno runs a mountain hut in the heart of the Italian Alps in the summer, and in the winter he works as a mountain guide or travels to places like El Chalten to climb the mountains of his dreams. Tiziano is here for the first time and I can feel the fire burning inside of him. I can imagine how hard the waiting must be. Not knowing if the weather will change tomorrow, or the next day, or even next week. Bruno told me of people waiting more than 40 days without even seeing Cerro Torre. He takes it quite easy now that he's gotten used to waiting and hoping.
We decided to accompany them to the glacier when the weather cleared up. The weather forecast for the following day said that a high pressure front was coming up from the west, which meant climbing could be possible. In the evening we packed our bags and got prepared to head up the next morning. And we woke up at 6am to a beautiful day. We started walking after a small breakfast. These guys walk fucking fast and with their light packs, because they had left their equipment on the bottom of the mountain the previous week. So we basically ran up the trail to Agostini campsite next to Laguna Torre. We left our backpacks there and just took our cameras on the next trail. We thought it is just a small walk to the glacier and a little further up from there to the mountain. It is fucking far. We accompanied them half a kilometer on the glacier and decided to let them continue on their journey.
Once they were out of sight, we started realizing where we were. We stood on the glacier Fitz Roy surrounded by huge peaks and mountains covered by glaciers. Bruno and Tiziano would have to walk another 2 to 3 hours just to reach the bottom of Cerro Torre. Amazing place and wonderful time we spend there.
We spent two night at the campsite and then went down to the hostel in town. One hour after we arrived, Bruno and Tiziano showed up as well. They couldn't get to the top as there was too much ice and snow on the wall from the heavy weather of the previous days. They stay in El Chalten for three more weeks, and may try it again...