MundoAndino Home : Andes Chile Guide at Mundo Andino
Cerro Chalten
Monte Fitz Roy is a mountain located near the El Chalten village, in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile. The mountain is also known as Cerro Chalten, Cerro Fitz Roy, or simply Mount Fitz Roy. Cerro is a Spanish word meaning mountain, while Chalten comes from a Tehuelche (Aonikenk) word meaning "smoking mountain", due to a cloud that usually forms around the mountain's peak. Fitz Roy, however, was only one of a number of peaks the Tehuelche called Chalten.
As he describes in his book, Viaje a la Patagonia Austral, Francisco Moreno first saw the mountain on 2 March 1877. Since the native inhabitants also called other mountains Chalten, he named it Fitz Roy, in honour of Robert FitzRoy, who, as captain of the HMS Beagle had travelled up the Santa Cruz River in 1834 and charted large parts of the Patagonian coast.
It has been agreed by Argentina and Chile that their international border detours eastwards to pass over the main summit, but a large part of the border to the south of the summit, as far as Cerro Murallon, remains undefined.
The mountain is the symbol of the Argentine Santa Cruz Province, which includes its representation on its coat of arms.
It was first climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone.
The mountain has a reputation of being "ultimate", despite its average height , because the sheer granite faces present long stretches of arduous technical climbing. In addition, the weather in the area is exceptionally inclement and treacherous. It also attracts many photographers thanks to its otherworldly shape. The area, while still fairly inaccessible, was even more isolated until the recent development of El Chalten village and El Calafate international airport. The mountain climb, however, remains extremely difficult and is the preserve of very experienced climbers. Today, when a hundred people may summit Mount Everest in a single day, Monte Fitz Roy may only be successfully ascended once a year.
Monte Fitz Roy is the basis for the Patagonia clothing logo following Yvon Chouinard's 3rd ascent and subsequent film in 1968.
Notable ascents
1952 Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone via Southeast Ridge (aka Franco-Argentine Ridge)
1965 Carlos Comesana and Jose Luis Fonrouge (from Argentina) via Supercanaleta in 2-1/2 days (Second Ascent)
1968 Southwest Ridge aka The Californian Route (3rd ascent of peak). FA by Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones, Lito Tejada-Flores and Douglas Tompkins (all USA).
2002 Dean Potter, solo Supercanaleta
2009 Colin Haley, solo Supercanaleta
Further reading
Kearney, Alan, 1993. Mountaineering in Patagonia. Seattle USA: Cloudcap.
External links
Information about El Chalten
Fitz Roy at Peakware
Monte Fitz Roy
Monte Fitz Roy in History
Some photographs of Monte Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre
Panoramic virtual tour of Monte Fitz Roy
News El Chalten
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Geography of Magallanes and Chilean Antartica Region or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Cerro Chalten
