ARGENTINA: Mount Fitz Roy, El Chalten, Patagonia 2020 & 2005
199 images Created 15 Jun 2012
View Tom Dempsey's images of Mount Fitz Roy, Argentina, in Patagonia, South America: See a golden sunrise spotlighting Mount Fitz Roy, which rises abruptly on the border between Argentina and Chile in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in the Andes mountains, near El Chaltén village, in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina, South America. In 1877, explorer Perito Moreno named "Cerro Fitz Roy" for Robert FitzRoy (no space before the capital R) who, as captain of the HMS Beagle, had travelled up the Santa Cruz River in 1834 and charted much of the Patagonian coast. First climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone, Mount Fitz Roy has very fickle weather and is one of the world’s most challenging technical ascents. It is also called Cerro Chaltén, Cerro Fitz Roy, and Monte Fitz Roy (all with a space before the R). Chaltén comes from a Tehuelche (Aonikenk) word meaning "smoking mountain" (explained by frequent orographic clouds). Cerro is a Spanish word meaning hill. El Chaltén village was built in 1985 by Argentina to help secure the disputed border with Chile. The nearest airport is 220 km south in the larger town of El Calafate. Mount Fitz Roy is the basis for the Patagonia company’s clothing logo, after Yvon Chouinard's ascent and subsequent film in 1968.