Most descriptions of Los Glaciares National Park provide as a “signature picture” the Perito Moreno Glacier on Lago Argentino. The glacier is undoubtedly impressive and must be one of the more easily accessible major “calving” glaciers in the world. The nearby town of Calafate is served by a good airport and airline service and exists almost entirely to serve tourism with plenty of hotels, restaurants and tour agencies. As a result the Glacier is very popular with tour groups passing through quickly – It is perfectly placed for a 1 day trip with a coach journey to the glacier, plenty of easy walkways overlooking it and the opportunity for a boat ride underneath on the lake right up to it and then an afternoon or early morning fight to the next destination on a package tour of Argentina or S America. This is by no means all that Calafate and the southern part of the park has to offer - there are opportunities to visit other glaciers which are not accessible by road on the series of lakes created by “arms” of Lago Argentino. And of course one can stay in the park and camp.

Los Glaciares park however covers an enormous area and we personally prefer the northern section based on the town of El Chalten - 220 kms away from Calafate on a dirt road. This town also lives by tourism but has a rather different atmosphere from Calafate – altogether “rougher” and more “frontier-like” with a high percentage of backpackers and climbers. The geography of this area meant that the rough and ready guideline for the Chile/Argentina frontier at the Pacific/Atlantic watershed was fraught with difficulties and El Chalten was created around 20 years ago to solidify Argentine claims to the area.

There is another lake nearby, Lago Viedma, and this too provides glacier viewing opportunities. But it is for the mountains that most people will come to El Chalten. It is overlooked by Mount Fitzroy (photo), whose summit rather strangely lies just outside the Park. This provides, in my opinion, one of the most magnificent mountain sights in the world (As available to non climbers that is. I am aware that such an assertion will cause dissent but it is informed by various visits to most of the world’s mountain ranges). A few miles away lies the almost as impressive Cerro Torre (whose climbing history is mired in controversy and merits a bit of research on the web!) – Both are accessible for viewing by relatively easy paths. The weather here is highly changeable and you should give it a few days to ensure a clear day but the sight of these mountains literally “glowing” in the sun is unforgettable. Even though we were lucky in this respect we got blocked in at El Chalten for a couple of days by road closures because of heavy rain and were in danger of missing our Antarctic-bound boat from Ushuaia!

Just a few further miles away the Torres del Paine range over the border in Chile (but only on Chile’s Tentative List) runs this area very close for grandeur – what a magnificent region this is for scenery!