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…