On the border between Argentina and Chile, Mount Fitz Roy rises into clouds 2500 meters (8200 feet) above Lago Sucia (left) in Los Glaciares National Park, in the southern Andes mountains, Patagonia, Argentina, South America. Hike to the glacial cirque of Laguna de los Tres (right) from El Chaltén village, which was built in 1985 by Argentina to help secure the disputed border with Chile. The frontier tourist town of El Chaltén is 220 km (3 hours drive) north of the larger town of El Calafate. In 1877, explorer Perito Moreno named ?Cerro Fitz Roy? for Robert FitzRoy (with 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 (3405 meters or 11,170 feet elevation) has fickle, windy 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 (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. The foot of South America is known as Patagonia, a name derived from coastal giants, Patagão or Patagoni, who were reported by Magellan's 1520s voyage circumnavigating the world and were actually Tehuelche native people who averaged 25 cm (or 10 inches) taller than the Spaniards. Mount Fitz Roy is the basis for the Patagonia company's clothing logo, after Yvon Chouinard's ascent and subsequent film in 1968.
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